Christy Cabanne

Two families, abolitionist Northerners the Stonemans and Southern landowners the Camerons, intertwine. When Confederate colonel Ben Cameron is captured in battle, nurse Elsie Stoneman petitions for his pardon. In Reconstruction-era South Carolina, Cameron founds the Ku Klux Klan, battling Elsie's congressman father and his African-American protégé, Silas Lynch.

The story of a poor young woman, separated by prejudice from her husband and baby, is interwoven with tales of intolerance from throughout history.

When Martin Knox, a friend of Scattergood's who owns a horse-breeding farm, is killed in a harness race Scattergood tells Martin's son Dan that he will send him to college if he forgets about taking over his father's business, which was heavily mortgaged and has been put up for auction after Knox's death. The boy reluctantly agrees, but when he discovers that his favorite horse Starlight is sick, he decides to bring the animal back to health and then enter him in the Governor's Race, whose $5000 prize would enable Dan to pay off his father's mortgage and keep the business in the family.

Back Trail is one of the livelier entries in Monogram's Johnny Mack Brown western series. Brown rides into a small town where he becomes embroiled in a blackmail scheme. The town's banker (Ted Adams), a pillar of respectability, once served a jail term. Outlaw leader Pierce Lyden threatens to reveal Adams' secret if the banker doesn't let him know in advance when the gold shipments are going through. Adams tearfully tells Brown the whole story, whereupon Johnny rides shotgun on the next shipment himself. Back Trail was one of the last films directed by workhorse Christy Cabanne, whose career stretched all the way back to the D.W. Griffith days.

Naive country girl Jigs Blodgett makes friends with Gene Giles, the nephew of a wealthy judge. Shady John Harland is courting the judge's daughter Blanche because of her father's money and position. To amuse herself, Blanche invites Jigs to a party with her "sophiscated" friends, intending to humiliate and embarrass Jigs. Things don't quite go the way Blanche planned.

Bud Walton, the village blacksmith, is big and strong physically, but he has not the courage to put his strength to good purpose. All the boys take a slap at him whenever they choose, and Bud makes no attempt to retaliate. This causes his sweetheart, June, to despise him.

Erstwhile childhood friends, Judah Ben-Hur and Messala meet again as adults, this time with Roman officer Messala as conqueror and Judah as a wealthy, though conquered, Israelite. A slip of a brick during a Roman parade causes Judah to be sent off as a galley slave, his property confiscated and his mother and sister imprisoned. Years later, as a result of his determination to stay alive and his willingness to aid his Roman master, Judah returns to his homeland an exalted and wealthy Roman athlete. Unable to find his mother and sister, and believing them dead, he can think of nothing else than revenge against Messala.

A couple of young, out-of-work archaeologists in Egypt discover evidence of the burial place of the ancient Egyptian princess Ananka. After receiving funding from an eccentric magician and his beautiful daughter, they set out into the desert only to be terrorized by a sinister high priest and the living mummy Kharis who are the guardians of Ananka’s tomb.

Nine-year-old Nedda is a direct descendant of the Trevors, a family that can trace its roots back to the reign of King Charles I. Alas, the Trevors suffer severe financial reverses, and Nedda is yanked from the luxury of her ancestral home in Britain to be raised on New York's Lower East Side. Ten years later, the grown-up Nedda stands accused of the murder of her mother.

Janet Randall, a department store clerk who longs for a fling at high society, ignores the love of the poor but honest Dan Cassidy. When vacation time comes, Janet goes to a fashionable hotel and there meets her idol, society favorite Monte Moreville. Upon requesting the bill at the end of four days, Janet discovers that the tariff is more than she can afford, and Monte comes to her rescue by offering to bail her out. In exchange, Janet must pose as his wife to fend off a woman who is threatening a breach of promise suit.

A war hero returns home following a medical discharge and ends up entangled with a young woman speeding away from her wedding day in her fiance's car. Seeing the soldier, she gives him a ride and explains her predicament. Things get sticky when the cops capture them and accuse the soldier of desertion.

After a bleak childhood, Jane Eyre goes out into the world to become a governess. As she lives happily in her new position at Thornfield Hall, she meets the dark, cold, and abrupt master of the house, Edward Rochester. Jane and her employer grow close in friendship and she soon finds herself falling in love with him. Happiness seems to have found Jane at last, but could Rochester's terrible secret be about to destroy it forever?

Barry Brandon, a criminal lawyer, visits the night club of Denny Larkin, his primary client, with Betty Walker, a spoiled society girl. The police raid the club and Brandon pleads that the whole group is guilty, just to get even with Larkin for a rebuke. On the same night in court, Madge Carter is on trial for disorderly conduct, and Brandon volunteers to defend her, and proves the case against her if a frame-up. Finding that she is penniless, Brandon hires her as his secretary, and falls in love with her. Brandon is appointed district attorney and has ambitions of becoming the state governor. Having dinner at Betty's home, she maneuvers him, while he is drunk, into marrying her. Later, Madge is a witness when Larkin shoots down a fellow gangster. By threatening Brandon's life, he forces her to commit perjury at his trial, and say he fired in self-defense. Brandon, the prosecuting attorney (who has had his marriage to Betty annulled) knows she is lying but doesn't know why.

Mary Alden and her brothers Matthew and George have extremely different political views. Matthew is a committed pacifist, and is constantly giving speeches against war. George is notified that his draft number, 258, has been called and to report for induction, but he refuses. Mary, on the other hand, is intensely patriotic and comes up with a plan to shame him into reporting for induction. Meanwhile, Matthew is being set up for a patsy by a gang of German secret agents, led by Van Bierman, who are planning to blow up an airplane factory.

May and Annie work in a fashionable millinery store, where the buyer, struck by May's beauty, advances her to a position among the models. She gets a little money, but finds that she is obliged to wear better clothes, which she has a hard time getting.

A gang of tough street kids decide to go straight and get jobs in order to free draft-age men for the war effort. However, because of their past tangles with the law, they can't find anybody who'll hire them. Finally one of them gets a job at the department store where his sister works, but runs afoul of a store executive who is in league with a ring of hijackers.

Director Christy Cabanne's 1933 film dramatizes one year in the lives of four midshipmen at the U.S. Naval Academy.

Three girls from a small town win a trip to Monte Carlo. The trip was sponsored by their local newspaper, which sends along its ace reporter Bancroft as their "chaperone".

Margaret Holt and her brother Victor set out to smash a narcotics ring responsible for their father's death. Young reporter John Howell and eccentric mystery writer Winthrop Clavering help unravel the truth about the murder.

After being released from prison, con man Thurston Hall gathers his gang of cronies--along with innocent chump Guy Kibbee--to help him sell worthless stock in a New Mexico gold mine.