Of Human Hearts

I tuned into this movie at the point where James Stewart's character was summoned from the battlefield to meet with President Abraham Lincoln. I didn't know what had transpired previously in the movie and was waiting to see why the president would take time to speak to him.

I won't divulge all the details of the conversation but I kept thinking during the scene that this is one of the best portrayals of Lincoln I've ever seen. Physically the actor was very convincing and his demeanor was of the type I would except him to have. I finally recognized the voice of John Carradine.

I actually think that Abraham Lincoln could have had a conversation like the one in the movie with a regular soldier. He met with many rank and file people during the war. It was a great scene, well written and produced in my opinion.

This was directed by Clarence Brown and stars Walter Huston and Jimmy Stewart. The movie starts out with Huston arriving in a small Ohio town before The Civil War with his wife and son. The people agreed to pay Huston $400 dollars a year but Guy Kibbee talks them down to $250 but Huston doesn't seem to mind and his son does. Kibbee tries to take advantage of Huston but he knows how to take care of himself and he is pretty tough with his son. His son becomes friends with Charles Coburn who is the town doctor but is a drunk and his father doesn't like it. The son then grows up to become James Stewart and he is interested in becoming a doctor but his family is poor and can't afford to send him. Stewart eventually becomes a doctor during the Civil War and John Carradine has a cameo as Abraham Lincoln, even though you can't recognize him.

Though both Walter Huston and James Stewart were billed above her, Of Human Hearts is really about Beulah Bondi and what she does for her small family. It's probably her best performance on screen.

The setting is ante-bellum Ohio and the Wilkins family has just arrived. Walter Huston is to be the new minister for the town. It's a poor place he's been sent and the family lives on hand me downs, castaways, and the charity of the community.

In the pious tradition of his profession Walter Huston accepts this as part of the price for his calling to the ministry. Son Gene Reynolds who grows up to be James Stewart cannot accept this. He's a bright kid and gravitates towards Charles Coburn, the town doctor. His mind turns towards medicine and he makes up his mind to become a doctor.

That puts him in conflict with Huston and poor Beulah is caught in the middle between them.

Walter Huston played three preachers on screen, the uptight Reverend Davidson in Rain, the satirical Sin Killer Jubal Crabby in Duel in the Sun and Reverend Ethan Wilkins here. Of the three of them, Ethan Wilkins is the best man and the best performance.

The conflict is generational and what gets the audience involved is that they can absolutely see both points of view. Huston is not some bible thumping clown, he feels his call very deeply and he's not stupid. One of my favorite scenes is Huston outsmarting Guy Kibbee and Charley Grapewin when try to sell him a defective horse.

James Stewart gives voice and interpretation to every young man who wants to go out in the world see something more and accomplish more than he would in staying in a backwater town. Very similar to his performance in It's A Wonderful Life. Come to think of it, Beulah Bondi was his mother there too.

Beulah is the star. In How Green Was My Valley the adult Hugh Morgan says that while Dad was the head of the house, Mother was it's heart. It could be applied here even better. After Huston dies, Bondi sacrifices everything and lives as a pauper for her son to go to medical school and become a doctor. Stewart graduates, but the Civil War begins and he enlists.

Bondi doesn't hear from him for almost three years and she writes to President Lincoln to find out about him. For what happens and how Lincoln deals with the situation you'll have to see the film. But her performance will tug at you if you are made of stone.

John Carradine plays a very good Lincoln. He certainly has the lean,tall body, angular features, and deep voice to be a convincing one. I'm surprised he was never again cast as Lincoln.

The other performance of note I would single out is Guy Kibbee. He's the town Babbitt, a part he was certainly familiar with. It's a pleasure to see how Huston deals with him.

A really fine and poignant tale that I can't recommend too highly.

Antebellum, or pre-Civil War America, is seldom dealt with in movies. In the studio age it was largely ignored. Of Human Hearts is an exception. Set in frontier Ohio it concerns the rebellious son of a decent but inflexible minister who seeks to be a doctor and learn about the world. He get more than he bargained for after the guns fire on Fort Sumter, and the film traces his life from uneasy boyhood to uncomfortable manhood. James Stewart excels in an early lead role; and as his father Walter Huston is suitably starchy and forbidding. The backlot recreation of early small town America is wonderfully realized by director Clarence Brown and Company. There are some splendid supporting performances by, among other, Beulah Bondi, Charlie Grapewin, and especially Charles Coburn, as the village doctor who likes to drink and who becomes Stewart's mentor. As an historical footnote it's worth mentioning that the film was produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in the late thirties, and is an atypical product for them, as they were poaching, as it were, on movie territory that one associates with the more folsky Fox studios of the time, and did a rather good job at it, too.

This is a story about family relationships, set in the time before and during the American Civil War. Ethan Wilkins is a poor and honest man who ministers to the human soul, while his son Jason yearns to be a doctor, helping people in the earthly realm. It is a compelling story about striving for excellence, the reality and tension fathers and sons can experience when a son comes of age, and the love of a mother that can never die.

While both inspiring and at times reminding us of our own failures, it provides a message of hope as well. There is a richness here that is timeless. This film develops its characters at the beginning, not rushing to get to the point. You get to know them. The Civil War elements are very much in the background and clearly secondary to the main theme. This is not a war movie. It is a story about real people.

The surprise at the end of this drama is both forceful and full of genuine emotion. A absolute must see for John Huston and Jimmy Stewart fans, and deserves to be a classic in its own right. Easily one of Stewart's best.