That was an excellent one.

Simply A Masterpiece

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

This historic battle of Hampton Roads in Virginia in 1862 forever changed naval warfare, and Lew Ayres' first and only film as a director "Hearts in Bondage" would be the only movie for fifty-five years about this landmark encounter. Altogether, despite some of its fictional aspects, primarily in the lead characters, this Republic Pictures' movie remains remarkably faithful to the events. You'll be hard pressed to find historical inaccuracies, and those that exist are minimal. Ayres and scenarists Bernard Schubert of "Mark of the Vampire" and Olive Cooper of "Streamline Express" appropriated "One in A Million" writer Karl Brown's adaptation of Wallace MacDonald's original story and show what prompted this American Civil War episode. On the eve of the warfare, the Union Army orders Lieutenant Kenneth Reynolds (James Dunn) to scuttle the USS Merrimac because the Confederacy is poised to take possession of the Gosport Navy Yard. Reynolds refuses to follow orders since he has received nothing in writing. His actions prompt a court-marshal and he is stripped of his rank. Eventually, he meets his uncle John Ericcson (Fritz Lieber) and they create an ironclad to fight the Merrimac that the Confederates has armor-plated. One of the others aboard the CSS Merrimac (actually it was christened the Virginia) is Raymond Jordan (David Manners of "Dracula") who was one of Reynolds' best friend. Furthermore, Reynolds was courting Jordan's sister Constance (Mae Clarke) when the war broke out. Jordan resigns his rank in the Union Army and goes to fight for Virginia. Eventually, after about 53 minutes of carefully laid exposition, the two ironclads clash with each other, but not before the Merrimac has inflicted destruction on three ships. Ultimately, the Hampton Roads battle was fought to a standstill. Reynolds kills his best friend with cannon fire when Jordan tries to lead a boarding party to capture the Monitor. The miniatures look terrific. Although Reynolds is a fictional protagonist, he paints himself into a dramatic corner for his defiance to carry out orders. Several actual historic figures, such as Abraham Lincoln--turn up in this nimble 72-minute epic. Civil War fanatics should enjoy this one.

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.

Without a doubt, this movie has among the worst dialog I have ever heard in a film--and I have reviewed well over 11,000 films! So much of what the people say actually sounds as if the script was written by a 12 year-old! It's filled with platitudes, schmaltz and clichés--all of which make NONE of the film seem the least bit real. It's a shame, really, as the idea of the film is great. After all, how many films have celebrated the most amazing naval battle of the Civil War--the fight between the CSS Virginia and the USS Merrimack. Unfortunately, while it is great that the film is about this battle, it also is jam-packed full of historical inaccuracies--not the least of which is that every time they talk about the Virginia, they call it the Merrimack--the name given to the ship originally when it was a Union ship. But, after having been burned and sunk, the hull was used to create the Virginia--and its crew certainly would NOT keep referring to her as the Merrimack! But this isn't all, so much of the story is pure hogwash--and about as much is right about the film as is wrong--including the whole silly back story about the court martial.The bottom line is that aside from the theme, it is a cringe-worthy film. Not only is the dialog dumb, but at the end of the film good 'ol Abe Lincoln himself stops by to have a nice little chat with the hero and his conflicted girlfriend. I HATE when films toss in Abe Lincoln as a cheap plot device--another reason I also hated "Of Human Hearts"--another dopey Civil War film hindered by schmaltzy dialog and a complete waste of good actors.By the way, this film was directed by Lew Ayers--the actor. Now we can see why he's know to us as an actor and not a director!

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.