CheerupSilver Very Cool!!!

Evengyny Thanks for the memories!

AboveDeepBuggy Some things I liked some I did not.

FirstWitch A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

DigitalRevenantX7 The year is 1861, on the eve of the American Civil War. In Georgia, Atlanta, cotton plantation owner Braxton Summers invites two of his former West Point classmates, Clay Clayburn & Will Denning, to dinner with him & his new wife Kathy (who was formerly in love with Clay). But before they can eat, war is declared. Fast forward to 1864 & Will & Clay are fighting on opposite sides of the war. Clay, now a major with the Confederates, is picked to infiltrate the same area & find a way to sabotage a Union railway & cut off supplies to the Yankees. Placing three cannons on a mountaintop, Clay & his team of volunteers manage to blow up the tracks & a couple of Union trains passing through. They are so good at keeping the area locked down that Will, now an officer in the Union army, is sent in to prevent any further damage. Kathy, who is still living in the old mansion (Braxton has been captured by the Yankees), tries her best to help her former lover fight the enemy. But Will & Clay, who are still best friends, each don't realise that the other is in the area.William Cameron Menzies is legendary in the field of production design for Hollywood's early era. Having won awards for his work on such films as 1924's The Thief of Bagdad & of course his magnum opus, Gone with the Wind, Menzies was so good at his job that when the chance came to finally direct a film himself, he jumped at the chance.With Menzies at the helm, what was essentially a B-grade film made on a limited budget instead looks like a big budget production. It doesn't have the same resources as something like Gone with the Wind but Menzies makes it feel about as large with his resourcefulness.The story is a passably moving tale of a woman caught between two best friends fighting on opposite sides in a war that will end with one side losing badly. James Craig & Barbara Payton both make a good couple & Payton's willingness to spy on her captors in order to help her old flame sabotage the enemy's supply train is both brave & ultimately reckless. The film has one flaw & that is the lack of funds to make the battles look anything but cramped, but Menzies does his best with the limited budget. He even manages to throw in a couple of reasonably exciting moments, with Payton trying to signal Craig while a Union soldier searches for her & Craig's first attack on the enemy train. The cast make the most out of their roles & the film's unusually high production values elevate what is essentially a low budget Civil War drama into a modest war classic.

drystyx Make no mistake, Guy Madison invented the word "cool". Any dictionary dated before his birth that has the word "cool" in it, is a forgery.Knowing this helps to cast him in the correct role. He was meant to be the "cool" character who makes sense out of situations in which lesser characters lose their heads.Here, he is perfectly cast. He is the fourth character, actually, in the love triangle, which is where he does best.The southern belle's husband appears only briefly, and is afterwards only spoken of in his endeavors in this Civil War adventure.The other member of the triangle is an artillery officer for the South, who resembles Gable in looks, but in character is more like John Wayne.Guy Madison plays the Union artillery officer opposing him. He is also a friend of all three of the other characters.The story is a familiar one, one that has been made many times since, of Confederates on a mountain, trying to buy time for their army.What really makes this film special is that it could have been cliché, but it avoids all of the clichés. The characters are probably much too believable and three dimensional for the modern beavis or butthead, but easy for most people to relate to and feel some empathy for. This is not for the IMDb bubble boy.The soldiers are especially three dimensional. One Union soldier whom we expect to be the usual cliché jerk, actually becomes a very sympathetic character in this drama.The events seem to be written as they occur. Nothing looks contrived, so when we find the coincidence of the friends meeting in battle on opposite sides, it becomes the only coincidence, making it quite credible, as in a world where there are a million possible coincidences an hour, one is sure to happen.It is the natural flow and non judgmental occurrences, where the chips land wherever they may land, that make this special.Excellent war Western.

wes-connors During the US Civil War, Confederate Major James Craig (as Clay Clayburn) finds himself fighting Union Major Guy Madison (as Will Denning). As is the case in most Civil War stories, the opposing soldiers once had a close relationship; in this case, they were West Point buddies. Mr. Craig is also in love with a beautiful woman, Barbara Payton (as Kathy Summers). This is a fairly predictable Civil War story. The dramatics are enhanced by Ms. Payton in the feminine lead. Payton is the most interesting player in the middling "Drums in the Deep South"; with a better part, and direction, Payton might have been a much bigger star. Her biography is sad, and typical. **** Drums in the Deep South (9/51) William Cameron Menzies ~ James Craig, Barbara Payton, Guy Madison

skoyles Was Menzies making "Gone With the Wind" light? Or the tragic counterpoint thereto? "Drums" is a surprise: nary an anachronistic weapon to be seen. I am so accustomed to seeing 1873 revolvers in movies about the War Between the States that this came as a shock. To see uniforms of some exactitude, especially for the artillery of all things, was refreshing indeed. I was also surprised by a very non-1950s ending. Really a far better "Civil War" motion picture than I had expected although I must say I found both the Confederate major and his lost love a bit cardboard. Madison chewed the scenery a trifle to make up for it. There were indeed plot twists and character touches although I missed any resolution for the Confederate colonel. Not at all a bad way to spend a couple of hours.