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Drums in the Deep South
Drums in the Deep South
	Original film poster
Directed by	William Cameron Menzies
Written by	Philip Yordan; Sidney Harmon;
Based on	Woman With a Sword; by Hollister Noble
Produced by	Frank King (producer); Maurice King (producer);
Starring	James Craig; Barbara Payton; Guy Madison; Barton MacLane;
Cinematography	Lionel Lindon
Edited by	Richard V. Heermance
Music by	Dimitri Tiomkin
Production; company	King Brothers Productions
Distributed by	RKO Radio Pictures
Release date	October 16, 1951 (US);
Running time	87 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$300,000

Drums in the Deep South is an American Civil War war western film directed by William Cameron Menzies who was production designer of David O. Selznick's Gone With the Wind (1939) and also designed the cave sequences in Selznick's The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1938). Based on a story by Civil War author Hollister Noble, the film was produced by an independent company King Brothers Productions, filmed in SuperCineColor and released by RKO Pictures in September 1951. B. Reeves Eason directed the second unit.

Plot

Best friends Clay Clayburn and Will Denning graduate from West Point and visit their friend and fellow graduate Braxton Summers at his Georgia plantation in 1861. Clay had once loved Braxton's wife Kathy and still does. When war is declared they soon find themselves fighting on opposite sides of the Civil War.

By 1864, Clay, now a field artillery major in the Confederate States Army, is renowned for accepting and surviving suicide missions. He is given another task: in order to delay General Sherman's March to the Sea, he is ordered to lead a party of men and their disassembled cannon inside caves that lead to the top of Devil's Mountain, where a battery of guns can destroy a railroad (running through nearby Snake Gap) and the Union troop and supply trains that travel it, buying time for the Confederacy. Devil's Mountain is coincidentally near Braxton's (who is now fighting elsewhere for the Confederacy) and Kathy's old plantation where Kathy remains with her uncle Albert. Kathy agrees to monitor the activities of the Northern invaders and to signal Clay's men from her window through a mirror by day and a lantern by night. At one point, having been caught signaling to Clay by one of the Union soldiers, Albert mortally wounds him before being shot dead himself. Through her activities, Clay's men are notified of the arrival of two supply trains and destroy both of them.

Will, now a major himself, arrives on the field, but the Union artillery cannot achieve the elevation or range with their cannon to clear the Confederate guns at the top of the mountain. Inside the mountain, the Union infantry cannot find the path to the top and are delayed by Confederate snipers. As the railroad line has been blocked by two destroyed trains, Union headquarters send a Dahlgren gun manned by sailors and mounted on a flat car to wipe out the Confederates. Kathy supplies Clay with wire from her piano to reinforce the barrel of one of Clay's guns that, with a double charge and the maximum elevation, is able to destroy the naval gun and further block the railroad line.

Will has Union Army engineers mine the inside of the mountain with explosives that will blow up the mountain. However, Clay calculates that the explosion will send the cliff down over the railway line further blocking the Union's supplies. Kathy begs Will that she be allowed to act as a mediator to convince Clay and his men to surrender, and Will agrees. As she traverses the caverns on the way to the top, Kathy is mistaken for a Union soldier and shot by one of Clay's soldiers. Bringing her to Clay, she repeats the Union offer of surrender as Clay nurses her wound. Ordering his men to escape Devil's Mountain, Clay picks up Kathy and begins making his way down. However, the powder is lit and Devil's Mountain explodes, seemingly killing Clay and Kathy.

Cast

James Craig as Maj. Clay Clayburn
Barbara Payton as Kathy Summers
Guy Madison as Maj. Will Denning
Barton MacLane as Sgt. Mac McCardle
Robert Osterloh as Sgt. Harper
Tom Fadden as Purdy
Robert Easton as Jerry
Louis Jean Heydt as Col. House
Craig Stevens as Col. Braxton Summers
Taylor Holmes as Albert Monroe
Lewis Martin as Gen. Johnston
Peter Brocco as Union corporal
Dan White as Corp. Jennings

Unbilled

Robert Clarke: Union officer
Kenne Duncan: Union Officer
Roy Gordon: Lt. Col. Fitzgerald
James Griffith: Union officer who reports to Maj. Denning
Myron Healey: Union lieutenant
Todd Karns: Union captain
Norman Leavitt: Confederate soldier
Frank Marlowe: Confederate soldier
Tom Monroe: Confederate soldier
Billy Nelson: Union sergeant
Steve Pendleton: Capt. Travis
Denver Pyle: Union soldier who breaks the window
Mickey Simpson: Jim Burns, Confederate soldier
Ray Walker: Union officer
Guy Wilkerson: Confederate sentry

Production

Drums in the Deep South was the first from a new production set up by the King Brothers which involved them raising finance by selling shares. 300,000 shares worth $300,000 were issued to over 700 investors for Drums.^[3]^[4] The film was shot at Sam Goldwyn Studios and on location in Sonora, California.^[5] The railroad scenes were filmed on the Sierra Railroad in Tuolumne County, California.^[6]

Soundtrack

"Dixie" (by Daniel Decatur Emmett)
"Battle Hymn of the Republic" (by William Steffe)
"Barbara Allen" (traditional)
"Down by the Riverside"
"The Old Gray Mare"

Reception

The King Brothers sold Drums in the Deep South to RKO, who distributed the film. Drums in the Deep South was profitable and King Brothers announced plans to reunite Craig, Madison, and Payton in a follow-up film called Murder March about the March to the Sea but it never went into production.^[7] Reviewer Jim Craddock in a later review, noted the plot in Drums in the Deep South was "... hampered by a familiar premise".^[8]

The King Brothers later sued RKO for mismanaging the distribution and sale of the film, claiming $10,000 in damages.^[9]

References

Notes

^ Goble 1999, p. 346
^ "Detail View: 'Drums in the Deep South'." American Film Institute. Retrieved: May 19, 2014.
^ ^a ^b Brady, Thomas. "Hollywood agenda: Capra and Stevens will leave Paramount In production policy change; Addenda poor starts turning point stock dealings more color." The New York Times, April 8, 1951, p. 101.
^ Scheuer, Philip K. "Tim Holt leatherneck; Directors pick Huston; King Bros. celebrating." Los Angeles Times, September 5, 1950.
^ Schallert, Edwin. "McCarey's 'Born in Trunk' activated; Nancy Davis likely as Tracy's wife." Los Angeles Times, September 20, 1950, p. B11.
^ Jensen, Larry (2018). Hollywood's Railroads: Sierra Railroad. Vol. Two. Sequim, Washington: Cochetopa Press. p. 25. ISBN 9780692064726.
^ "Movieland briefs." Los Angeles Times, October 23, 1951, p. B7.
^ Craddock 2000, p. 300.
^ Pryor, Thomas M. "Film group files suit of $6,030,000: King Brothers alleges trust violations in 3 releases." The New York Times, November 5, 1958, p. 43.

Bibliography

Craddock, Jim, ed. Video Hounds Golden Movie Retriever 2001. New York: Gale Group, 2000. ISBN 978-1-5785-9120-6.
Goble, Alan, ed. The Complete Index to Literary Sources in Film. Walter de Gryter, 1999 (reprint ed.). ISBN 978-3-1109-5194-3