Hearts in Bondage (1936)

★★★★ · The Monitor and the Merrimac, and "Captain Blood" · djuma · 2011-05-29

I agree with most of what has already been posted about this film. It is part soap opera, part historical drama- but does contain an excellent re-creation of the famous battle between the first two ironclads in the Civil War (not "The War of Northern Aggression," as another poster said). Considering that this was made by a minor studio- Republic- the special effects in the battle scenes are very well done. They are as good as things done at the major studios of the time. As one poster said, this was a half century before any kind of CGI, and viewers shouldn't approach the film from a modern…

★★★★ · Battle of the Iron Clads · four hooves · 2009-12-03

I'm very glad that this movie has survived, regardless of its condition, and that archive.org has saved it. The title is somewhat misleading and the producers would have done far better to title it as the Monitor and the Merimac as this is a dramatization that leads up to and concludes with the famous battle between those two iron clad war ships at the beginning of the War Against Northern Agression (aka U.S. Civil War). The story includes a couple of romances as part of its central theme, but it also goes to great lengths to remind the viewer of the hard choices that men had to make…

★★★ · A Pacifist War Story? · bobsluckycat · 2004-11-29

Directed by Lew Ayres, this civil war naval drama about the battle between the Monitor and the Merrimac, has a lot of historical background and a lot of pacifist sentiment, the battles at sea not withstanding. I saw this on TV in the 50's. I don't remember what I saw then except that Smiley Burnette and Gabby Hayes were in the cast. In fact on second viewing anybody and everybody on the Mascot/Republic lot at the time does a bit. That makes it fun in itself. This was Nat Levine's second "A" feature at Republic and his last as well. It has everything in it that would be Republic "A" picture…

★★★ · Civil War brouhaha · Spuzz · 2006-01-09

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…