The Cecil B. DeMille Classics Collection

A pack of gypsy smugglers are agitated when their attempts to bring contraband into the city are curbed by Don José, an incorruptible officer in the Civil Guard. In order to help her kinsmen, the sultry Carmen seduces him, persuading him to abandon his post and turn a blind eye. When his infatuation leads him to kill a fellow guardsman, Don José becomes a wanted fugitive.

Disgusted by the slovenly appearance of his wife, Sophy, Charles Murdock goes on a hunting trip, seeking respite. He meets Juliet, becomes infatuated with her, and, while confessing his love, reveals that he's a married man. Upon his return, Sophy slides into a fit of jealousy. In order to clear his head, Charles goes out with his business partner, who's later the victim of a woman scorned.

Captain Wynngate leaves England, accepting the blame for embezzling charity funds even though his cousin Sir Henry is the true culprit. Out west, he and a native princess named Nat-U-Rich save each other from the evil cattle rustler Cash Hawkins, marrying soon after. When Sir Henry dies, Wynngate is torn between staying with his wife in America or returning to Europe.

Richard Hardy, a hardworking stockbroker, labors overtime to keep up with the ruinous bills incurred by his beautiful but irresponsible wife Edith, a venal, spoiled socialite who is impervious to his pleas for fiscal restraint. Acting upon what she believes to be insider information, she impulsively embezzles $10,000 from the Red Cross charity that she chairs.

John Tremble has embezzled a substantial sum, and he obtains another identity by having a mutilated body buried at his place. He is later arrested for murdering himself. During the trial, his mother, before dying from shock, asks him to continue hiding his identity, since his wife is now married to the governor and they're expecting a child.

Lydia Thorne, a wealthy thrill-seeker, is incapable of empathy when Evans, her maid, is jailed for stealing her jewels. District Attorney Daniel O'Bannon sends Lydia to jail for manslaughter when her careless driving causes the death of a motorcycle policeman. While Lydia repents and reforms, O'Bannon slips into addiction and disarray.

Malena's apparent frigidity toward her husband Kenneth is a result of an injustice committed in an earlier incarnation, when he was a knight and she was a gypsy headed for execution at the stake. Their unconscious minds travel back from a train wreck in the American plains to Elizabethan England, making their generationally transcendent relationship increasingly evident.

In Tsarist Russia, the Volga boatmen trudge along the water's edge as they pull heavy cargoes up and down the river. One day, as Prince Dimitri and his betrothed stop to have their fortunes told at a Tartar camp along the river, they encounter a group of boatmen who are taking a short respite from their arduous work. One of the boatmen instigates a hostile confrontation with the two aristocrats.