Drums in the Deep South (1951)

"Drums in the Deep South" is a very boring Civil War film that does absolutely nothing to explain the war and features a romance that is about as sizzling as one between siblings! As a result of being so dull and indifferently made, I can thoroughly understand why RKO let this one fall into the public domain. Why, oh why, would they bother renewing the copyright on something this unappealing and slow?The film begins with a little prologue where you are introduced to some old friends and their love interest. Only a few minutes later, the Civil War is on and the film now jumps ahead to only months before the end of the war. One old friend is on a mission from the Confederacy to slow down or stop the progress of Sherman and his men on their way to burn Atlanta and the other to make sure Sherman gets through. As a matter of record, anyone familiar with the war KNOWS that Sherman did indeed make it past Atlanta and burned it on the way to the ocean. The love story is boring. The ending is a foregone conclusion. The dialog is occasionally dumb and the actors are, for the most part, bland. Sounds like a great way to spend about 90 minutes of your life? Don't bet on it!

Many films which show battles tend not to be very specific about it and what we end up seeing are the highlights while the rest is told by the actors or narrated. What is remarkable about this film is that it shows us in detail how some southern soldiers climb trough an inside cavern a gigantic rock taking some cannons and from there manage to hit the northern trains and everything that happens in the ensuing battle. No director could have done a better job than Cameron Menzies, who was a great art director and production designer. He also directed uncredited, significant parts of Duel in the Sun. Guy Madison was at the beginning of a successful career, he would star in "The Command" a few years later, which was a great box office hit. Unfortunately it would be the opposite for co star Barbara Payton. It is amazing that this is a forgotten film, barely mentioned in books.

I usually don't hold out much hope when it comes to movies about Mr. Lincoln's War. Hollywood seldom gets it right on all things Southern and/or Confederate. I think the leading lady's contempt for the Yankees was accurate. And I believe that the movie generally portrayed the Yankee attitudes accurately. The most I had a problem with in this movie was the liberal propaganda garbage at the end about us becoming a unified and indivisible nation. The reconstruction and the general attitudes for the South following the war contradict that concept completely.I did notice a chronological error toward the beginning of the movie. When it is announced that war has been declared. Clay states that he is going to report to Richmond. At the beginning of the war a capital had not been established for the Confederacy, not to mention the first one was in Alabama. And even more importantly, Virginia had not yet seceded.As a whole the movie was okay and I would give it an overall recommendation.

Director William Cameron Menzies served up one of the worst movies about the Civil War aka The War Between the States aka The War of Northern Aggression ever made. In "Drums in the Deep South" the story begins in Georgia on the eve of the firing upon Fort Sumter at a plantation mansion that looks like a prefab golf clubhouse. West Point grad Braxton Summers (Craig Stevens) returns from a business trip with a gift for his seemingly adoring spouse, Kathy (Barbara Payton). He mentions that he's invited two academy classmates, Clay Clayburn (James Craig) and Will Denning (Guy Madison) for dinner. At the mention of Clay's name, Kathy freezes with the intense emotion of a failed Method actress, signaling that she and Clay have a shared past.An awkward dinner follows ended by the bellicose announcement that war has begun. Will is off to serve the Union, Clay and Braxton will fight for the South.Fast forward - literally - to 1864 and Kathy lives alone at the mansion with her uncle and an occupying Union outfit looking for her husband while also protecting a threatened rail line needed by GEN Sherman for his advance through the Peach State. The federal soldiers are shown as crude, even cruel, but Kathy knows how to deal with them.Then Clay arrives with orders to destroy Union rolling stock at a critical point called "Snake Gap." Interestingly, Union forces did take a Georgia pass named Snake Gap during Sherman's offensive but the story that follows has nothing to do with the Civil War reality.Clay, a major, has to get cannon to the top of a prominence from which he can blow up the Yankee trains. And who should be in command of the Union detachment tasked to destroy the Confederate unit? Why Will, of course (Guy Madison was a stock "B" film staple.)Clay also finds time to renew his acquaintance with Kathy who'll do anything for her beloved Confederacy. This being a 1951 flick and she being a fine Southern lady, they don't make love but her anguished concern for the absent Braxton's safety evaporates as she and Clay plan to head for bliss anywhere but in a war zone. And away from Braxton who might take umbrage at his wife's desertion with his classmate.The rest of the story is silly and the military action is unbelievable, indeed impossible. The film is a rushed muddle of stereotyped roles and predictable outcomes.And, on top of that, the DVD transfer is very poor with washed out color, blurred dialog and text that doesn't fit the TV screen.Dimitri Tiomkin's score is good but nowhere near his best.Skip this one-"The Horse Soldiers" with John Wayne and William Holden is infinitely better, a fine example of this genre.4/10.