The only reason to watch this film is to see the type of claptrap that 20th century audiences were being fed about post-Civil War Reconstruction. The film is set in a fictional Southern town in 1866 that is being run by a government appointed civil administrator supported by federal troops, and stars John Payne.
Anyone who paid even minimal attention during Social Studies class knows that federal troops were stationed in the South after the Civil War to see that former slaves were treated lawfully. And yet, slavery is never even mentioned or even hinted at in the film. (I forced myself to watch in order to be certain.) There are a number of Black actors, some with spoken lines, though none have screen credits which is not unusual for films of this era, and their characters all seem to be working at the same jobs (house servants, field hands, etc.) they had as slaves. Presumably these now ex-slaves were so happy with their "slave jobs" that they continued doing those jobs even after winning their freedom. Good grief.
What reason does the film offer for the presence of troops and federal officials in this Southern town? Apparently, the federal government is there only to enrich corrupt individual officials using unscrupulous tax schemes to screw over the poor Southern Whites who are portrayed as the real victims of the Civil War. Again, good grief.
If you're looking for a synopsis, there are plenty elsewhere, but I will offer this brief description that sets the tone for the entire film. In the opening scene, a Union soldier dismounts in front of a blacksmith's shop where the smith and a few customers are chatting, tacks up the announcement of a public hanging for the murder of a Union soldier, then wordlessly ladles a drink from the blacksmith's water barrel and scornfully tosses the remnants into the blacksmith's forge, dousing some of the flames before riding off. This cartoonish scene is meant to let the audience know immediately that the federal troops are the real "bad guys". Later, at the public hanging, the murderer is portrayed as the real "victim" who was only defending his homestead when he killed the dastardly federal soldier. Again, good grief.
The movie is an adaptation of an unpublished novel written by Karl Brown, a cinematographer and screenwriter whose first job as a seventeen year old was carrying and loading cameras on the set of the now infamous Birth of a Nation by D. W. Griffith. Apparently Mr. Brown learned early on what would sell in White America. So did the movie studios.
