mark.waltz
Sometimes a barking mutt can prove to be a thoroughbred, and in the case of this Civil War era tale of brothers in spirit split because of a conflict beyond their control, that thoroughbred wins the race. James Dunn and David Manners end up on opposite sides of the split and face various conflicts as they fight for a cause they don't always understand. The storyline is a bit thin but so well presented that the short-comings are easy to overlook. Dunn, a versatile actor best known for comedy and equally adept at drama, is the focus of the majority of the story, involved with the lovely Mae Clarke who just happens to the Manner's sister. Charlotte Henry is the girl whom Manners loves. There is a lot of glowering of the old South with its gracious manners overshadowing the evils of slavery and even a brief appearance by Abraham Lincoln himself. Sea battles are intense and well done, so if this lacks in exploration of the war's issues, it makes up for that with great detail in other ways.
bkoganbing
Lew Ayres directed Hearts In Bondage and with a title like that you would think it was some tender romantic story. Romance there is in this film about a pair of naval officers, best friends who go their separate ways when the Civil War starts. It was like that in many families at the time. But all this is set against the backdrop of a fairly accurate retelling of the Monitor and Merrimac engagement in Chesapeake Bay, the great battle of the ironclads.James Dunn and David Manners are the two officers in question. Dunn in fact is engaged to Mae Clarke who is the sister of Manners. And Manners is pledged to Charlotte Henry who is the daughter of Henry B. Walthall who resigns his naval commission when Virginia secedes and goes with the Confederacy.Dunn is also the nephew of the real John Ericson who designed the Monitor. Navy Secretary Gideon Welles is played by Irving Pichel and Frank McGlyn does his obligatory Abraham Lincoln portrayal.The romance is touching and doesn't get in the way of the action. For 1936 and for the fact that the studio was a B one, Republic Pictures did not do a bad job with the action scenes with miniatures.Ayres gets fine performances out of his ensemble cast which includes as Monitor crew members Ed Gargan, Gabby Hayes, and J.M.Kerrigan.This film was a real find.
dbborroughs
Pot boiling melodrama that is nominally about the Civil War clash of Ironclads but is really about the struggle for redemption by a naval officer with a crush on his best friends sister.James Dunn plays a a naval officer who refuses to burn the ship Merrimac when the war between the north and South breaks out. Dishonorably discharged he tries to make his way back into the fight while wooing the sister of his best friend who's gone to fight for the South. A chance for redemption comes when he and his uncle come upon the idea for the design of the Monitor.I don't know what to make of this film. Much of the film is talky romance or stiff historical discussion about the war and the film flounders around like a beached whale. The film doesn't really come to life until the ironclads finally show up some fifty odd minutes into the film. While the battle sequences are great and almost make up for the rest of the film, they still aren't enough to save the rest of the film. You'll remember the ships but little else
Spuzzlightyear
Although I'm not really too sure how much of this is true or not, this Civil War drama tells of how of course, the war Tour Friendships Apart and the building of the Monitor, a huge bulking ship. Although the document about how the Montor came about and the building and the actual deployment is quite interesting, the whole love story and the dilemma one lady has when two women she has, her brother, and her boyfriend are on two sides and going to war against each other is a bit silly. Again, I'm sure some of it is fictionalized, as Abe Lincoln is in there talking to the main characters about lives lost etc. But all in all, this is a competent, if somewhat dragging effort from Lew Ayres, who should know something about war films, what after being blown to smithereens in All Quiet on the Western Front.
AD
