While Band of Angels has a very captivating premise, it's so terrible you'll wonder why you didn't just watch Gone with the Wind for the thirtieth time instead of taking a chance on it. It's another Civil War drama that takes place on a large Southern plantation, starring Clark Gable without a Southern accent. The costumes, designed by Marjorie Best, are breathtakingly beautiful, however, and every bit as lovely and authentic looking as Walter Plunkett's costumes in Gone with the Wind. The clothes are really the only good part of the film, so if you're the type of person who watches movies only to look at the costumes, rent this one.
Yvonne De Carlo is a Southern belle, but when her father dies, her mother's race is revealed. Not only is Yvonne the descendant of a slave, but she has lost her inheritance to her father's plantation and fortune, and she's carted off to the selling block and sold as a slave. Wealthy plantation owner Clark Gable buys her with intentions to make her his mistress. I know the plot sounds like something you'd want to watch—it sounded that way to me, too—but there are lots of reasons why the film was so torturous. Either director Raoul Walsh gave his actors atrocious advice on how to deliver their lines, or everyone was naturally atrocious without his help. Clark Gable rattles off his lines the way he always does, quickly, without feeling, and with a sense that he's not really listening to himself. Carolle Drake, Clark's former slave mistress, reads her lines with worse delivery than a cold audition. And, as if to make up for it, Tommie Moore, another of Clark's slaves, hams up every single line as if she belongs in a bad community theater production.
If horrible acting doesn't bother you, Max Steiner's score will. Just as an example, when Rex Reason announces he's been recruited to make speeches for President Lincoln, Max's music plays "I've Been Working on the Railroad" as he triumphantly leaves for his assignment. It's classic Max Steiner, which means he'll use silly ditties and score a drama as if it's a cartoon.
On a side note, Sidney Poitier plays Clark Gable's "head slave". In the story, he seethes and resents Clark's kindness, and in his major scenes, he plays more a villain than a hero. I can't imagine white audiences in the 1950s were pleased with his character; it's pretty amazing he had a career after this movie.
Yvonne De Carlo is a Southern belle, but when her father dies, her mother's race is revealed. Not only is Yvonne the descendant of a slave, but she has lost her inheritance to her father's plantation and fortune, and she's carted off to the selling block and sold as a slave. Wealthy plantation owner Clark Gable buys her with intentions to make her his mistress. I know the plot sounds like something you'd want to watch—it sounded that way to me, too—but there are lots of reasons why the film was so torturous. Either director Raoul Walsh gave his actors atrocious advice on how to deliver their lines, or everyone was naturally atrocious without his help. Clark Gable rattles off his lines the way he always does, quickly, without feeling, and with a sense that he's not really listening to himself. Carolle Drake, Clark's former slave mistress, reads her lines with worse delivery than a cold audition. And, as if to make up for it, Tommie Moore, another of Clark's slaves, hams up every single line as if she belongs in a bad community theater production.
If horrible acting doesn't bother you, Max Steiner's score will. Just as an example, when Rex Reason announces he's been recruited to make speeches for President Lincoln, Max's music plays "I've Been Working on the Railroad" as he triumphantly leaves for his assignment. It's classic Max Steiner, which means he'll use silly ditties and score a drama as if it's a cartoon.
On a side note, Sidney Poitier plays Clark Gable's "head slave". In the story, he seethes and resents Clark's kindness, and in his major scenes, he plays more a villain than a hero. I can't imagine white audiences in the 1950s were pleased with his character; it's pretty amazing he had a career after this movie.