The southern imaginary

Daws Anthony, a boy of 16, is cared for by three old men: Judge Morgan, Roger Appleby, and Caleb Talbot. One day, Northerner Ray Preston comes to their Southern town and proceeds to buy some of the judge's property. He also succeeds in breaking up the romance of village belle Carolyn Dillon and Wallace Turner. When traces of oil are discovered on the purchased property, Preston, at the suggestion of Major Dillon, consents to sell a half-interest in the land to the townsfolk for a large sum of money. Daws is suspicious, however, and undertakes an investigation, only to discover that Preston has oiled the land to swindle the town. Threatened with tarring and feathering, Preston returns the money and leaves town, thus removing all obstacles in the path of Carolyn and Turner's romance.

Mountaineer Pap Clayton has promised his daughter Sairy Ann (Dorothy Gish) to his cousin Jed Martin, but Sairy Ann loves Dr. Richard Cavanagh (Sam DeGrasse), the son of Judge Lee Cavanagh. In the midst of a feud between the Claytons and the Jacksons, a jealous Jed sets out to kill Richard. Jed shoots a deputy who gets in his way and is taken before Judge Cavanagh, whom the Claytons have threatened to kill if Jed is convicted. The Claytons are true to their word when Cavanagh finds him guilty, and Richard immediately vows to kill Jed, who has escaped. Sairy Ann, however, reminds Richard that he has railed against family feuding and has said that only the law can take a life. A sobered Richard captures Jed and hands him over to authorities; then, after he has forgiven the Claytons, he and Sairy Ann become engaged.

Judge Priest, a proud Confederate veteran, uses common sense and considerable humanity to dispense justice in a small town in the Post-Bellum Kentucky.

Jan Bokak, an ignorant mine laborer engaged to Mary Berwick, is accused of the murder of her brother, Anton, on the night of his betrothal and accepts the blame to save her other brother, Alex. He escapes and makes his way to the steel mills owned by Cinder Pitt, where he becomes a leader among the workers and wins the admiration of Pitt, who has long tried to become his friend. Labor agitators try to wreck the mill, and Jan is seriously injured as he saves the life of Clare, Pitt's daughter; Pitt takes Jan to his home to recuperate, and Jan and Clare become engaged. In the mining town, Mary's mother reveals on her deathbed that she is the runaway wife of Pitt, the mill owner. When Mary finds her way to the Pitt home and sees Jan with Clare, she accuses him of the murder; at the mill, in dramatic fashion, Jan proves his innocence and forces a confession from Masarick. On the day of the wedding, Mary is hurt in an automobile accident, and Jan decides to marry her instead, incurring the wrath of the workers. Pitt learns of Mary's parentage and quells the mob, assuring them that Jan will get half interest in the mill.

After being rejected by the Confederate military, not realizing it was due to his crucial civilian role, an engineer must single-handedly recapture his beloved locomotive after it is seized by Union spies and return it through enemy lines.

Tom Blackford is counting upon a promised promotion to enable him to marry Alice Rand, the daughter of a mine president; the appointment goes instead to Rand's nephew. Tom marries Alice anyway, much to the distress of her father, who discredits Tom in Alice's eyes by quoting to her Tom's incautious remark that the road to advancement seems to lie through relationship. Rand appoints Tom to be superintendent of his toughest mining camp, instructing his other executives that he wants Tom to fail at the job. Alice accompanies Tom to the camp, but she remains his wife in name only. Joe Lawler, the assistant foreman, working with the owner of a local saloon, foments trouble among the workers, and their joint efforts soon result in a strike. Tom destroys the saloon after a drunken engineer nearly kills some of the mine workers. Tom later discredits Lawler when he discloses that Lawler has been cheating the miners with crooked scales. Tom kills Lawler in a fight, and Tom and Alice are truly united at last.

During the American Civil War, A Union-Army officer is ordered by U. S. President Abraham Lincoln to bring in Belle Starr, the leader of a Missouri guerrilla band, dead or alive. However, he falls in love with her, does not bring her in, and is facing a court-martial.

In Acadia, now part of the Canadian province of Nova Scotia, young Evangeline is betrothed to Gabriel. But before their wedding can take place, the British imprison the men and send them into exile with their lands forfeit to the Crown. Evangeline follows the exiled men in hopes of finding her beloved, but even after he and the other Acadians are released in Louisiana, she cannot find him, always arriving at some locale just after he has departed. But she dedicates her life to searching the continent for the man she loves.

A mostly silent version of Edna Ferber's original novel, with some songs from the musical as a last-minute addition

Joseph, a wealthy young Southern aristocrat, graduates from a seminary; before he takes charge of his assigned parish, he decides to go out and see what "the real world" is all about. He winds up in New Orleans and becomes attracted to Bessie, a poor, unsophisticated orphan girl. One thing leads to another, and before long Bessie discovers that she is pregnant by Joseph.

The Stoneman family finds its friendship with the Camerons affected by the Civil War, both fighting in opposite armies. The development of the war in their lives plays through to Lincoln's assassination and the birth of the Ku Klux Klan.

William H. Langdon has been elected senator from Mississippi, and reaches the national capital with the experience in big politics that might be expected of a man who has lived his life on a plantation forty miles from a railroad. With him are his two fair daughters, Carolina and Hope. He has scarcely reached his hotel when he hires "Bud" Haines, a newspaper man, as his secretary. Charles Norton, representative from Mississippi, James Stevens, senior Senator, and Horatio Peabody, senator from Pennsylvania, are interested in a scheme to have a naval station located at Altacola, Miss., and they need the assistance of the new senator. They have purchased all the land in the neighborhood and plan to dispose of it to the government at their own price after the bill is put through. In order to insure his support Norton induces Langdon's son to invest $30,000 in Altacola and also puts in the fortune left the Senator's daughter by her mother. He is the girl's accepted suitor, by the way. Haines, in the meantime, has been a thorn in the side of the crooks, but by reporting to each that the other has played false and invested money in the land project, they bring about an estrangement between him and Langdon, which is set right by Hope Langdon telling Haines, with whom she is in love, of the plot. Langdon and Haines find they have been duped and the man from Mississippi decides to balk the thieves, even if it ruins his family. The story comes to a right ending by Langdon stepping into the Senate to make his maiden speech, denouncing the intended fraud, and declaring that he and the conspirators bought up the land to save the national treasury from being looted after having discovered a conspiracy in another quarter to commit the holdup. Before this important event he has compelled the two rascally senators to come to his way of thinking through fear of exposure. Congressman Norton is sent on his way in disgrace. Haines, again secretary, is engaged to wed Hope.

Lelia Crofton, although she knows there is some mystery concerning her mother, whom she has not seen for years, and about whom she has made many unsuccessful inquiries to her father, Major Crofton, and to her Aunt Doshey, determines that, inasmuch as her eighteenth birthday is now being celebrated on her father's vast plantation in Louisiana, that she shall insist upon her parent revealing the secret surrounding the disappearance of her mother. Although the Major is pressed hard to tell, he again refuses but in a vision he sees how, years ago, it is the year 1860 now, he lived happily with his wife and baby girl in Savannah, when their happiness is blighted by the elopement of his wife with a young man who had been importuning her to flee with him. Unnerved by the attendant humiliation and desiring to keep the mother's indiscretion from his daughter, the Major goes to Louisiana, where he lives on a big plantation. As the party is in progress Lelia's mother, who years ago had been deserted by her lover, arrives at the Crofton estate and is seen by Steve Daubeney, a suitor who has been rejected by Lelia in favor of Burleigh Mayor. She is brought to the cabin of Aunt Doshey, who recognizes her. Lelia gives a Hallowe'en party, and invites Steve, who has returned from Savannah. He, resolving to make Lelia his wife, tells her that while he was in Savannah he discovered that her mother is not dead and that he has learned all about her, but that if she will marry him he will keep the secret. Lelia agrees. Later, when everything is ready for the wedding Lelia declares that she will not marry Steve. Almost immediately after this utterance Lelia's mother, who has been looking in the window to see her daughter marry, rushes into the house and falls at the feet of Lelia, pleading for forgiveness. In answer to Lelia's request as to who the woman is, Major Crofton tells her that "she is your mother." The Major is greatly surprised at hearing his daughter remark that she is a white woman and asks her who told her that she wasn't. In answer to her father's request, Lelia declares that Steve informed her, promising to keep the secret if she would marry him. Before anyone can lay his hands on Steve he disappears, and Burleigh Mayor, whom Lelia really loves, comforts her. They later become engaged. Fort Sumter is fired upon. Steve is made a private while Burleigh is given an officer's position. Steve, who has an intense hatred for Burleigh, has a gang of toughs capture the officer with the intention of subjecting him to the tortures of being tarred and feathered. Anner Lizer has witnessed the abduction and informs Lelia, who, after searching the woods for her sweetheart, discovers him tied to a tree. While the attention of the gang is engaged in preparing the tar, she releases Burleigh, but before they have gone any distance Steve sees them. He orders the gang to go in pursuit and the lovers, being cornered in the middle of a bridge by a section of the gang at each end, jump over and swim ashore. The gang, frightened, retreat. Although Burleigh is Steve's superior officer, the former's good nature will not permit him to punish the culprit. Before the armies leave for the front, Lelia and Burleigh are married and just as the minister is ending the ceremony, which is taking place on the lawn in front of the Crofton home, Steve, who had determined that Burleigh shall not marry Lelia, raises his gun in his place of concealment to kill the officer when a bullet from the gun of a member of the squad, who had proclaimed Steve a deserter and had gone after him, kills the vindictive man. After the war the Major and his wife are seen seated on the veranda of his home with Lelia and Burleigh, who have just returned from their belated honeymoon.

The opening scene of our story shows a Union powder wagon making its way down the road convoyed by a company of mounted Union soldiers. The route of this wagon is reported to Confederate headquarters by one of its spies. Nan, a girl frequently employed by the department of the Confederate army, is called to headquarters and instructed to secure the destruction of the enemy's ammunition train just reported. Nan is fitted out with a Union uniform, mounted on a fast horse and sent on her journey, previously provided with a forged order supposedly signed by a Union general which authorizes her to pass through the lines. Nan succeeds in getting through the Union lines and quickly locates the ammunition train, taking up the march with them. When night arrives the convoy goes into camp, posts its sentinels for no especial fear of danger as they note they are well within the Union lines. Nan, however, watching her opportunity, slips up behind the lone sentry placed over the ammunition wagon and, having rendered him unconscious, drags him away from the wagon and takes his place. Watching her chance, Nan plants a dynamite cartridge under the wagon, lights a fuse and makes a quick run out of the danger zone. Suddenly there is a loud explosion and all there is left of the ammunition wagon is a heap of charred embers. Attention is drawn to Nan while she is attempting to escape owing to a crash in the underbrush caused by tripping her foot and falling. A pursuing party is sent after the daring spy who has had the hardihood to perform such a daring deed. Closely pursued by Union soldiers, Nan rushes through the underbrush on foot, finally reaching a nearby river where she plunges in, diving underwater and remains there until the Union soldiers retire from the scene. Coming up to the surface, she quickly swims ashore and makes her way rapidly to the Confederate army headquarters where she reports the successful ending of her mission, then on to her home to relieve her mother s anxiety.

A stirring episode of the Civil War. At the beginning of the Civil War, Kentucky attempted to hold a neutral position between the belligerents, and her sons decided for themselves which side's cause to take up; hence it was that many a Kentucky home was divided. The sentiment of the people seemed evenly balanced, and when old Mr. Wilkinson entered with the newspaper heralding the proclamation, "War Is Declared," George, his youngest son, took up the Union flag, declaring his intention to fight under its stripes, calling to his brother Robert to do likewise. But Bob's heart is with the Confederates, and he declines to listen to his brother's reasoning and so goes to enlist in the Southern army. The old Kentucky home is divided; it is brother against brother. Later, Robert is selected as the bearer of sealed orders, and as he will probably have to pass the Union lines, he is attired in Union uniform. Starting on his perilous journey, he is soon dangerously near the Union outposts, where George is seen posting sentries. Robert is discovered while climbing up the side of the mountain, and fired on by George, who is ignorant of his identity. Fleeing for safety, he is followed and apprehended by the Union forces, when, for the first time, Robert and George meet. But the soldier knows no kindred, and George secures Rob's papers and places him under guard to be shot. While fording a stream, Robert by strategy manages to bolt, and outdistancing his pursuers, rushes into his old home for shelter. Here he is treated by his father as a fugitive and would have been turned out, but a mother's love knows not the laws of war and shields him. Rushing him upstairs to her room, she bids him get into her bed, while she lies alongside, armed with a pistol. George enters, and searching the house, comes to his mother's room. He at once discerns where Robert is, and would have dragged him from his hiding, but his mother, with the pistol at her head, threatens to fire if he advances one step. In the face of this, George falters in his duty and leaves. Robert later escapes. Finally, the war over, George returns home 'neath triumphant banners, promoted in rank, and with the whole village assembled to greet him. The old home is the scene of great rejoicing. But what a contrast is seen on the outside. There we see Robert, ragged and homeless for the "Lost Cause," staggering up to the house. Reaching the portals, he gets a glimpse of the festive scene on the inside, and sorrowfully starts away, but old Uncle Jasper sees him and drags him in. Here is shown the most impressive scene ever depicted in moving pictures. The mother folds her lost boy to her heart, and George, with the Union flag thrown over his arm, stretches forth his hand to his brother, who, with the old, tattered colors of the Confederacy held affectionately to his breast, receives the warm grasp, typifying the motto of Kentucky, "United we stand, divided we fall."

When Kentucky plantation owner George Shelby is forced to sell several of his slaves, one of them, Eliza Harris, escapes across the icy Ohio River with her child. Kindly old Uncle Tom, however, is sold to a Southern slave trader and begins his voyage down the Mississippi River. During the trip, he rescues little Eva St. Clair from the river, and out of gratitude, the girl's father buys him. At the St. Clair home in New Orleans, Uncle Tom, Little Eva, and a mischievous little slave named Topsy become such close friends that Eva extracts a promise from her father to free the slave. The delicate Eva becomes ill and dies, and because her father is killed soon afterwards, St. Clair's promise goes unfulfilled, and Uncle Tom is sold to the brutal Simon Legree. Continually beaten, Uncle Tom finally dies just as George Shelby, Jr. arrives offering to repurchase the slave and take him home. Before his death, Uncle Tom sees a vision of Eva beckoning him to join her in heaven.

John Haynes, known as "Hardwood," is a boss lumberjack in the great Northwest woods. During a Saturday-night revel with his pals, he receives a letter informing him he has inherited a modest shop in New Orleans from his late uncle. He has no idea what that means, but he travels to New Orleans to take over his new business, and is dismayed to learns he is now the proprietor of a shop that sells petticoats.

A Louisiana con man enters his steamboat into a winner-take-all race with a rival while trying to find a witness to free his nephew, about to be hanged for murder.

A young boy finds out that the man he thought was his father actually killed his real father, then adopted him.

A World War I veteran and aspiring engineer tries to re-enter civilian life. After being unwillingly caught up in a robbery, he suffers the intolerable conditions of a Southern chain gang, struggling to clear his name and prove his worth.

A wealthy but neurotic Southern belle finds herself trapped in the hideout of a gang of vicious bootleggers. The gang's leader lusts after her, and is determined not to let anything stand in the way of his having her.

Horse trainer Steve Tapley is caught between the feuding Martingale and Shattuck families. He sides with young Nancy Martingale and her grandfather Ezra, and the feud is to be resolved by a horse race between the favorites of each family. Unfortunately, the Martingale's horse, Greyboy, only runs well in mud. And it hasn't rained in a long time.

"So Red the Rose" is King Vidor's quietly-affecting Civil War romance starring Margaret Sullavan as a Southern aristocrat, the mistress of a Southern plantation, whose sheltered life is torn apart by the War between the States. During the war's darkest days she is sustained by her love for a distant cousin, a Confederate officer played by Randolph Scott.

In the post-Civil war south, a darling little girl attempts to restore the peace between her parents and her plantation owner grandfather.

Shirley Temple's father, a rebel officer, sneaks back to his rundown plantation to see his family and is arrested. A Yankee takes pity and sets up an escape. Everyone is captured and the officers are to be executed. Shirley and "Bojangles" Robinson beg President Lincoln to intercede.