Os Tambores Rufam ao Amanhecer

Make no mistake, Guy Madison invented the word "cool". Any dictionary dated before his birth that has the word "cool" in it, is a forgery.

Knowing this helps to cast him in the correct role. He was meant to be the "cool" character who makes sense out of situations in which lesser characters lose their heads.

Here, he is perfectly cast. He is the fourth character, actually, in the love triangle, which is where he does best.

The southern belle's husband appears only briefly, and is afterwards only spoken of in his endeavors in this Civil War adventure.

The other member of the triangle is an artillery officer for the South, who resembles Gable in looks, but in character is more like John Wayne.

Guy Madison plays the Union artillery officer opposing him. He is also a friend of all three of the other characters.

The story is a familiar one, one that has been made many times since, of Confederates on a mountain, trying to buy time for their army.

What really makes this film special is that it could have been cliché, but it avoids all of the clichés. The characters are probably much too believable and three dimensional for the modern beavis or butthead, but easy for most people to relate to and feel some empathy for. This is not for the IMDb bubble boy.

The soldiers are especially three dimensional. One Union soldier whom we expect to be the usual cliché jerk, actually becomes a very sympathetic character in this drama.

The events seem to be written as they occur. Nothing looks contrived, so when we find the coincidence of the friends meeting in battle on opposite sides, it becomes the only coincidence, making it quite credible, as in a world where there are a million possible coincidences an hour, one is sure to happen.

It is the natural flow and non judgmental occurrences, where the chips land wherever they may land, that make this special.

Excellent war Western.

The film deals with an old rivalry between two former West Point Academy roommates , under the present circumstances are on opposite sides in Georgia 1861 during the American Civil War (1861-1865) . War breaks outs , both of whom are Officers from Union (Guy Madison) and Confederation (James Craig) , besides they compete for the same woman (a gorgeous and blue-eyes Barbara Payton) and wind up in a military showdown . The film is a historical drama based on true facts which narrate the Sherman campaign over Georgia . The general established his reputation as a successful and relentless ruler , an advocate of total war he believed in bringing hostilities to a quick end inflicting the hell of war on the civil population , destroying goods , crops , public buildings and factories . On his 'March to the Sea' through Georgia , Sherman burned and destroyed on a sixty-mile-wide front . In the movie , Confederates put cannons in the Mountain of the Devil for attack supplies trains lead towards Atlanta and the Union soldiers use a big naval cannon .

This historic drama takes parts from ¨Gone with the wind¨ , it packs a loving triangle with action , shootouts and suspense . The film is starred by Guy Madison , an usual Western actor as American as Spaghetti Western . Principal protagonist is Barbara Payton (she formerly acted in important films as ¨Dallas¨, ¨Only the valiant¨) as one of the saddest stories from dark chronicle Hollywood . Attractive blonde sexpot and her life eventually disintegrated , mostly for her own doings . She was the subject of a spread in Confidential Magazine in the early 1950s when then fiancé Franchot Tone allegedly caught in bed with Guy Madison . Tone later married her , despite of the indiscretion , in addition she had a tempestuous relationship with Tom Neal . But happened the downfall , her once enticing countenance now blotchy and once sensational figure now bloated , Barbara sank deeper into the bottle and had several brushes with law , among them public boozy , bad checks and ultimate prostitution . The 39 years former star was found on the bathroom floor . The picture is rightly directed by William Cameron Menzies , rather known as production designer such as ¨The thief of Bagdad¨ and ¨Gone with the wind¨ , and realized two Sci-fi classics as ¨Invasors of Mars¨ and ¨Things to come¨ .

I am so ashamed to have nearly forgotten this William Cameron Menzies western. A weird - in the good way - western, as also was Gordon Douglas' RIO CONCHOS, about something that I won't reveal here, but an element that I should not have forgotten. It is amazing, exciting and offering a terrififc finale. A western that doesn't look like the others. I still don't understand why I have not reminded this western that deserved better. This kind of stuff is not usual, you won't find so many of this sort of material. This scheme also reminded me Stanley Kramer's PRIDE AND PASSION; and again I won't explain any further. I prefer you to watch this exceptional piece of work.

Other than moving quite slowly at times, especially in the beginning, this Civil War feature is not bad. The story is interesting, and eventually it has a fair amount of action and tension. The cast and characters are adequate, if nothing more, and while the settings and details sometimes stretch history and/or credibility, in a more general sense the situation rings true with the kinds of things that happened during the conflict.

The beginning sets up two potential conflicts, with a romantic rivalry intersecting with a friendship that will be tested by the fighting between north and south. It takes rather longer than necessary to establish things, but it moves at a better pace when the main story starts. The main plot, which concerns the desperation effort of a small band of Confederate soldiers to break up a crucial Union supply line, produces some interesting drama and is told with generally interesting details. It's a solid feature with enough to make it worth seeing.

William Cameron Menzies is perhaps the best production designer in American motion picture history (Gone With the Wind, et alia) and his work as director applies the design principles which he espoused, such as with this film, including a prime emphasis upon cinema as a graphic art, a visual rather than literal interpretation of a script, filling that metaphysical space between scenario and direction with an artist's point of view, while avoiding a potentially incorrect objective sensibility. The narrative tells of a pair of best friends and West Point classmates, Georgian Clay Clayburn (James Craig) and Yankee Will Denning (Guy Madison) who are wearing officers' coats of opposing artillery units during the War Between The States, and of the inevitable military engagement between them, featuring a most dramatic segment involving the difficult placement of Confederate cannons atop a mountain overlooking Union rail supply lines, shot with Menzies' intriguing pictorial effects and unique camera angles. An independent King Brothers production under the aegis of RKO, DRUMS IN THE DEEP SOUTH is not replete with good performances, although Craig is solid as is his custom, while Barbara Payton, as Clayburn's lover, tries hard and is at the pinnacle of her short-lived beauty, with Dimitri Tiomkin's lush score properly evocative for this generally prescriptive film.