Hearts in Bondage (1936)

i must have seen a different film!!

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

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

The story synopsis of Republic's 1936 "Hearts in Bondage" certainly reads like a vintage noir: A career U.S. Navy man is forced to shoot down his best friend (and the brother of his fiancée) when the friend rather stupidly leads a no-chance-of-success assault against "The Monitor" during the Civil War. To add further appeal to this offering, it was actually directed by America's most famous anti-war protester, Lew Ayres. In point of fact, it is the first of only three films (the others were documentaries) the prolific actor directed. But what a disappointment the movie actually turns out to be. The direction is mostly static and perfunctory, the hearty "acting" of eager-beaver boy scout, James Dunn (who propels himself into almost every scene) is simply painful to watch and hear, and even the action climax is to some extent subordinated to a heap of cheap laughs while George Hayes does his infamous "Gabby" impersonation. The Alpha DVD is not a great transferand rates 7 out of ten at the most.

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.

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.

This movie was made in 1936 and so we have to cut early movies a break since they were setting the standards for later improvements. Hearts in Bondage had some obvious miniatures but the special effects of naval battle were really good for the time. James Dunn was always a good actor, but somehow the military man part didn't seem to fit quite right. He was always great as character parts where he was the nice guy and I remember him in several Shirley Temple movies and A Tree Grows In Brooklyn. I saw that George Hayes and Ben Alexander were going to be in this. I never did pick out Ben Alexander (played opposite Jack Webb's Joe Friday on Dragnet) but there was no mistaking the voice of Gabby Hayes when he came into the scene. He played a squirrelly kind of part playing off Dunn in jail and then on the crew. Even though the part was strange, it is always a pleasure to see Hayes work. Mae Clark, whom you will remember as the woman that Cagney pushed a grapefruit into her face, did a decent job as Dunn's girlfriend. But it was one of those parts where just about anyone could have done it. The man who played Abraham Lincoln, Frank McGlynn, looked so much like Lincoln you believed it was him. He only had a few lines here or there but made the most of them. Western bit part players could be seen in this. Smiley Burnett was just part of the crew but he later teamed up with Gene Autry and you will remember him with the froggy voice. Another bit part in this was Charles King who (killed many times as the villain in a long list of westerns). Many more good actors involved and, although not on the list of better movies, it is still worth watching.