They're Off

A sprawling pastoral saga where the avarice of the nouveau riche clashes with the fading grandeur of Southern nobility. Rita Hackett, portrayed with luminous sincerity by Enid Bennett, navigates a labyrinth of familial betrayal after discovering her father’s predatory acquisition of the Manners estate. The narrative reaches its zenith when Rita, shedding her socialite veneer, adopts the persona of a jockey to reclaim Randolph Manners' stolen birthright in a thundering display of equestrian prowess and moral restitution. This 1917 silent masterpiece functions as both a gender-bending subversion of the Southern Belle trope and a high-stakes melodrama that interrogates the ethics of property and the volatility of the American class structure.