7 Homens Enfurecidos

In 1940, Raymond Massey played John Brown in "Santa Fe Trail". In this very florid and cartoonish portrayal, Massey played Brown with a gusto that is interesting to watch but probably not at all realistic with his rolling eyes and insane antics. Now, a decade and a half later, Massey gets another chance to play Brown--and this time, the portrait is MUCH more even-handed and realistic. You can probably guess which of the two films I preferred!

The film begins in Kansas and Brown seems like a decent and reasonable guy. Sure, he's gung ho about abolishing slavery, but he's no hot-head. However, after pro-slavery vigilantes attack him and his family, Brown is radicalized. Now, he's at war with the slavers--and kills several in cold blood. In other words, you see Brown's progression which ultimately led to his ill-conceived attack on the US armory at Harper's Ferry.

Throughout the film, the Brown saga is often shown from the standpoint of one of Brown's sons (played by Jeffery Hunter). It's not a bad plot device and also helps because it provides a counter-point to Brown's eventual antics. Not a brilliant film but a film far, far better and more fair than the sort of ultra-pro Confederacy films that prevailed from the time of "Birth of a Nation" through the 1950s. Relatively fair, realistic and ahead of its time--and a MUCH better performance by Massey as a man, not just some silly lunatic.

"In 1856, five years before the beginning of the American Civil War, men fought and died in the Kansas Territory. Brave, violent men came from both sides of the Mason-Dixon Line and made 'Bleeding Kansas' a battleground. The prize was admission to the Union - as ether a free state or a slave state," reminds an opening scroll. Into the Kansas Territory rides bearded Raymond Massey (as John Brown) and his sons. A fierce abolitionist, Mr. Massey will go to any length to ensure Kansas obliterates slavery and enters the Union as a free state. Three years later, Massey may be at the end of his rope...

"Seven Angry Men" refers to Massey's "John Brown" and his sons. There are, eventually, seven adult sons introduced. Yes, that equals eight. However, it's possible only seven are "angry" at any given time. Character development never moves the sons too far beyond looking like attractive young men who've answered an agent's casting call and tried on fake sideburns in the make-up room. The main son is handsome Jeffrey Hunter (as Owen). He receives some characterization by being the only one (oddly) to attract a steady woman. She is pretty Debra Paget (as Elizabeth Clark) from Illinois...

Naturally, Ms. Paget is bothered by the family's frequently dangerous conflicts over slavery. It would have been interesting to see Paget arouse passion in some of the other sons. The next most featured son is handsome (okay, they're all handsome) Larry Pennell (as Oliver), impressive in his first screen appearance. Memorable last scenes momentarily bring Tom Irish (as Watson) and John Smith (as Frederick) to the forefront. Future TV favorites James Best (as Jason), Dennis Weaver (as John Jr.) and Guy Williams (as Salmon) are all fun to see, in early roles...

Massey is fine as the biographical lead, although this mechanical story doesn't take full advantage of his impersonation. The film score, by then newcomer Carl Brandt, is noteworthy. The shadowy staging of several scenes, by director Charles Marquis Warren and photographer Ellsworth Fredericks, shows exemplary film technique.

******* Seven Angry Men (3/27/55) Charles Marquis Warren ~ Raymond Massey, Jeffrey Hunter, Debra Paget, Larry Pennell

Religious abolitionist John Brown (Raymond Massey), his sons, and his followers head for Kansas to battle slavers and make the territory a Free State. His son Owen (Jeffrey Hunter) arrives on the train. As violence mounts with nemesis Martin White, there arises division in the group. Some leave. It culminates in John Brown's raid at Harper's Ferry, Virginia.

This is a fictionalized historic drama of this precursor to the American Civil War. John Brown should be a more forceful speaker. Lee does not look or feel like Lee. The battles are not the most exciting. I recently watched "The Good Lord Bird". I'm not saying that it's any more accurate but that TV miniseries is much more entertaining. I would think that John Brown would reference Jesus in his last talk to Owen. In the end, the film gives the cross in the hangman gallows.

Just as Raymond Massey set the Lincoln standard for essaying the role of our 16th president, he seems also to have set the standard for playing the fighting abolitionist John Brown. He did this first in Santa Fe Trail where Brown was a supporting character and again here in Seven Angry Men where Brown is the center of the story. While many of taken a run at Abe Lincoln very few have tried to do John Brown. The only other one coming to mind is Sterling Hayden.

Seven Angry Men refers to John Brown and his six sons, three of whom die during the course of Brown's crusade against slavery first in Kansas and then in his raid on the Harper's Ferry Arsenal. His six sons are Tom Irish, Guy Williams, Jeffrey Hunter, Dennis Weaver, and Larry Pennell all of whom had significant careers be it before or after this film. As a subplot there is a romance going between Jeffrey Hunter and Debra Paget whose Northern sympathizing father is killed toward the beginning of the film.

It will be a subject of debate among historians for years as to exactly what Brown's role was. He was a fanatic in a righteous cause, the abolition of slavery in the USA. The struggle over Kansas where Brown first appears was the opening gun of the Civil War. Four years earlier in 1850 the politicians in Washington, DC had thought they had put a damper on sectional feelings with the Compromise of 1850 which for the most part respected the line between slave and free states. But a guy named Stephen Douglas, Senator from Illinois had the brilliant idea of opening the question again to plebiscite. Our president at the time Franklin Pierce signed what was the Kansas-Nebraska Act which did just that. Settlers from the slave and free states poured in and a lot of shooting started. And that's where Brown, his sons, and his followers came in.

Massey as Brown is so dominant in this film that very few others are given much of a chance. Black actors James Edwards and Joel Fluellen have some interesting roles, Edwards as a follower of Brown and Fluellen who is a free black who works as the Harper's Ferry telegrapher.

The film was done by Allied Artists and it might have been better with a major studio. Major studios though weren't quite making films about such controversial subject matter in what was the beginning of the Civil Rights Era in America.

Seven Angry Men is as good a film about a controversial man and his era as you will get.

In 1940 Raymond Massey was at the peak of his film stardom. Born in Canada (the half-brother of Canadian Governor General Vincent Massey), he had established his stardom in England, and appeared in the film THINGS TO COME (1936). He appeared on Broadway in ETHAN FROME and ABE LINCOLN IN ILLINOIS, and the latter was made into a film in 1940 that garnered him an Oscar nomination. He also appeared in SANTA FE TRAIL as the abolitionist revolutionary John Brown. He brought a vividness and commitment to that part that made him (not Errol Flynn as Jeb Stuart) the center of attention. But the script, culminating in the attack on Harper's Ferry in October 1859, was wobbly - trying to placate southern audiences by suggesting the South would have solved the slavery issue without pressure from the North or the abolition movement. For most of the film Massey's Brown is a dangerous nut who is threatening the nation's peace - a fanatic that is striving to cause a slave revolt or war, and has killed several men. No attempt at balance is offered, or even any attempt at Brown's medical history (he had insanity in his family). Only in the last fifteen minutes is Massey's Brown redeemed when a worst type of villain (Van Heflin as a greedy instigator and traitor) betrays Brown's cause. We may not like violence, but Massey is supporting a view of life (anti-slave) that we approve of, whereas Heflin would betray anyone for money (he previously worked for Brown).

SEVEN ANGRY MEN (1955) is Massey's second Brown film. Though it still has flaws in retelling Brown's story, it does attempt to show that the forces he faced in Kansas were as violent in a pro-slavery way as he was. We do get a chance to see a cleaned up version of the Ossawattomie Creek massacre, where Brown killed five men (actually cutting them to bits with a sword). And more details are gone into about Brown's planning and financing of the Harper's Ferry attack. Finally, the relations between Brown and his sons, and the sullen dislike of the latter for their father's views, is brought out. Although this is not the definitive Brown film (that still remains to be made) it is a great improvement over the waffling of SANTA FE TRAIL, with Massey still giving the role the right mixture of fanaticism and normality the part requires.