Backbone on AllMovie

Respected stage star Alfred Lunt occasionally appeared in motion pictures; this curious and not terribly inspired mystery from Goldwyn was his inauspicious film debut. When Yvonne de Chausson (Edith Roberts) comes home from a trip to France, she is told that her grandfather, lumber magnate Andre de Mersay (Emile La Croix), has been stricken with an undisclosed illness. He is sequestered in a room and his secretary refuses to allow Yvonne to see him. Her attempts to get to him are constantly thwarted and the plot thickens with the appearance of John Thorne (Lunt), who purchases part of the family's land holdings without Yvonne's consent. A flashback to the France of the days of Louis XV early on in the film gives a few clues to the finish. Yvonne eventually discovers that her grandfather is dead, and a fight between Thorne and the old man's doctor (Frank Evans) proves that Thorne is really on Yvonne's side. Romance and resolution follow.