|
Plot:
- by Zoë Shaw
Matt Howard, who is friends
with Thomas Jefferson, goes to work for Fleetwood Peyton. Matt falls in love
with Jane Peyton. Matt and Jane marry and return to the Howard's home
district. Then, encouraged by Jefferson, Matt enters politics. Then war
breaks out......
Review:
- by Zoë Shaw
Cary Grant plays Matt Howard, a friend of Thomas Jefferson,
who is a down-to-earth surveyor working for aristocrat Fleetwood Peyton. He falls in love
with Peyton's daughter, Jane (Martha Scott). They move back to Matt's home district and
start to raise their family. However, differences emerge when Matt's democratic beliefs
clash with Jane's conservative beliefs and upbringing. Matt joins the colonial forces in
the fight for freedom against England, and Jane and Matt are forced to choose between
their love for each other and their political beliefs.
This film takes us through a very important part of
American history. I have to admit that I do not know much about American history. But
somehow this film did not strike me as being a very good insight into colonial and
revolutionary America. Cary plays his part well, but the period costume and ponytail do
nothing for him. Don't get me wrong........ as a piece of entertainment, it passes 2 hours
very comfortably. However, one of the most redeeming features of this film is the Bathtub
scene. Look out for it near the beginning of the film - but don't blink or you might miss
it!!!
VARIETY
Film Review - September 4, 1940
- by "Flin"
- submitted by Barry Martin
As his contribution to the group of higher cost and potentially
higher grossing films for the new fall season, Frank Lloyd has
produced 'The Howards of Virginia,' a Colonial period melodrama
dealing with events leading up to and through the Revolutionary
War, starring the reliable Cary Grant and the newcomer, Martha
Scott. It is an elaborate, expensive picture, replete with
the production niceties and human-interest touches which
distinguish the Lloyd output.
Its principal concern, however, is
about British oppression of the early American colonies, and the
consequent uprising against tyranny. Coming to the public at
the moment when current world events are drawing England and
America into an international embrace of friendship and brotherly
love, based on closest mutual interests, it would be difficult to
find a theme more out of tune with present emotions.
A lobby display poster Patrick
Henry shouting for liberty or death in protest against British
foreign policy stupidities doesn't jibe with page-one news of
united military hemisphere protection against Hitler.
Somewhere in the philosophic background of the picture there may
be a parallel for patriotic contemplation, but it is never
visible. 'The Howards of Virginia' is propaganda in reverse
English, a piece of baffling showmanship and an exhibitors
boxoffice problem.
As a film entertainment it is well
above average in quality of production, acting and the mechanical
accoutrements. Much of the action takes place in Virginia's
early capital, Williamsburg, and Lloyd made many of the scenes in
the reconstructed Colonial city, with its interesting buildings,
walks and common. Important debates are pictured in the
House of Burgesses, and the fictional characters move easily in
the company of the historically great, such as Thomas Jefferson
and Patrick. The photography throughout is excellent, and
Richard Hageman's musical score shows careful research and expert
timing.
Plot is the familiar domestic
conflict between the youth of rugged backwoods upbringing and the
damsel of high city breeding who join to battle the frontier
dangers and subdue its opportunities. Story is based on 'The
Tree of Liberty,' by Elizabeth Page.
In the hero role, Grant gives a
robust, convincing performance and carries the action at a rapid
and absorbing pace through the first half of the film. So
long as the interest is centered on him and Miss Scott during
their frontier experiences, the film has freshness, charm and a
certain boisterous humor, both in situation and character.
The dull stretches are the historical passages, the re-hash of the
Stamp Act riots, and the Boston Tea Party. So intense is
Sidney Buchman, the scenarist, in recreating the causes of the
Revolution that the lives and loves of his characters are
smothered under marching redcoats, impassioned political debates
and privations of Valley Forge.
This is Miss Scott's second major
role in the past two months, and it's a striking contrast to the
heroine in 'Our Town.' She has youth, looks and a potent
sense of comedy in her favor. She gives a good performance
in a role that has many artificial handicaps.
Others in the cast have rather
static parts Sir Cedric Hardwicke is a deadpan
villain. Alan Marshal gives nothing to a ne'er-do-well, and
Richard Carlson makes Thomas Jefferson a supporting player in
events which he fashioned and directed. Lesser but
satisfying bits are played by Elizabeth Risdon, Paul Kelly and
Irving Bacon.
Exhibitors who have this one on
their list might do well to start their campaigns far in advance
of play dates.
NEW YORK TIMES
Film Review - September 27, 1940
- by Bosley Crowther
- submitted by Barry Martin
In these times, when a great
many people are talking loosely about American democracy, it is a
very good thing to hark back occasionally to first principles. And
this Frank Lloyd has done with remarkable clarity and penetration
in "The Howards of Virginia," which opened yesterday at
the Music Hall. Seldom do the films illuminate our fundamental
ideals with such simple and straightforward analysis as that
employed in the present instance; never, to our recollection, has
the screen pictured in more magnificent detail the period in
American history preceding and including the Revolution. As a
record of social progression, this film is a master work.
If, then, it may be fore some
deficient in dramatic action - if it flows in a narrative vein too
deep for surface excitement - let's not charge that seriously
against it. For the basic drama lies in the conflict of ideas - in
the clash of entrenched conservatism with the ferment of true
democracy, out of which the American ideal arose. And the result
is a steadily absorbing play of intangible forces, never breaking
out in visible physical conflict, but continuously exciting
because of their effect on minds and souls.
The story, which is taken from the
first part of Elizabeth Page's novel, "The Tree of
Liberty," is that of Matt Howard, a Virginia backwoodsman,
who marries Jane Peyton, the daughter of an aristocratic Tidewater
family, and of their life together during the years of this
nation's birth. Jane has been bred to the conviction of her own
superiority, to the selfish attitude that her own and her family's
security is the only important thing; Matt is of democratic
spirit, hot-blooded and passionate in his devotion to his
fellow-man.
The conflict, then, is between
their divergent natures, manifest through the years as the
struggle with England grows. "My fear is for us," says
Jane. But Matt's concern is for the rights of himself and his
neighbors. And when the war finally comes, when Matt insists on
joining the army of Washington, the family is divided, and the
breach between fundamental beliefs is made - until the end of the
conflict and the victory is Matt's ideal.
Incidental to this main theme of
the picture is the story of life in Colonial Virginia - in
Tidewater mansions and in the log houses of the frontier - and it
is told with rich and colorful elaboration. Many of the
backgrounds were actually filmed in restored Williamsburg, which
factor imparts a substantial, authentic quality. The mellowness
and urbanity of life in the colonial capital is vividly contrasted
with the raw and rugged nature of the frontier.
As the Tidewater aristocrat, Martha
Scott is excellent, aloof yet warm of heart, dignified yet
flexible. She should be the pet of every Colonial Dame in America.
Sir Cedric Hardwicke makes a superb Tory, adamant in his hatred of
change and of Thomas Jefferson. Richard Carlson plays the latter
with grace and credible zeal. The only disappointment - and it is
a major one - is Cary Grant as Matt. There is a familiar comic
archness about his style which is disquieting in his present
serious role, and he never quite overcomes a bumptiousness which
is distinctly annoying. However, we must say that he looks like
the genuine article in the buff-and-blue of a Continental officer.
But regardless of that and
regardless of the film's two-hour running time, we think it one of
the best historical pictures to date. As a stern and sobering
reminder of our liberal tradition, it is more contemporary than a
political speech.
Review:
- by Kathy Fox
THE HOWARDS OF VIRGINIA is based on the
novel THE TREE OF LIBERTY, written by Elizabeth Page. This is Cary Grant's
37th film and his third film released in 1940, the others being HIS GIRL
FRIDAY and MY FAVORITE WIFE. The picture had scenes which were filmed at
Williamsburg, Virginia, the newly restored tourist attraction. Columbia
Pictures did not put a whole lot of money into the film and some of the
brief scenes were recycled from the LAND OF LIBERTY, a compilation film
originally made to show at the 1939 World's Fair and later reconfigured for
theatre distribution. Grant plays Matt Howard who has grown up with Thomas
Jefferson played by Richard Carlson of I LED THREE LIVES television fame.
Howard meets and falls in love with Jane Peyton but they marry against her
brother's wishes and Matt carries Jane off to the wilderness. Three children
are born of this marriage, two sons, one of whom is crippled, and a
daughter. Matt enters politics on the encouragement of Mr. Jefferson. The
family breaks apart when Matt decides to join the Revolution, but the family
is reunited when the sons join the war. How accurate the film is remains to
be seen. It is clear that audiences in theatres across the country felt Cary
Grant out of place in an epic historical drama, and Grant is reported to
have said that he would never make another costume drama, but then he
obviously relented because he made THE PRIDE AND THE PASSION seventeen years
later, a much better film, which showcased him in English garb and where we
see a very attractive Cary Grant nine years before his retirement.
Review
Click here to read Jenny's Crackpot
Reviews at the Cary Grant Shrine.
<< Back to Reviews | Top of Page
|
