Are We Civilized?

After being wounded defending the Fatherland in the Great War, Paul Franklin travels to America where he rises to international prominence as owner of The World News Association. He returns to his native country to give a speech but is deeply disturbed by the Fascist dictatorship headed by Felix Bockner that now rules with an iron fist. When he delivers an oration denouncing the book burnings and censorship of the press that he has witnessed, he is forcibly removed from the podium. At his hotel he is confronted by Bockner and his brutal henchmen, who demand that the stubborn publisher must publicly apologize for his statements or face death.

Veteran silent director Edwin Carewe brought to life the many historical sequences in Are We Civilized? by employing stock footage from the epic silent productions of Thomas Ince, Cecil B. DeMille and D.W. Griffith. William Farnum achieved fame on the stage playing Ben-Hur in 1900. Between 1915 and 1925, he became a huge motion picture star, earning an astronomical $10,000 a week in pictures such as Drag Harlan (1920) and If I Were King (1921). He is honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk Of Fame.

• drama