Drums in the Deep South
Encyclopedia
Drums in the Deep South is an American Civil War
war film
designed and directed by William Cameron Menzies
, produced by independent company King Brothers Productions
, filmed in SuperCineColor and released by RKO Pictures
in September 1951.
and visit their friend and fellow graduate Braxton 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 an Field Artillery
Major in the Confederacy is renown for accepting but surviving suicide missions. He is given another. To delay General Sherman's March to the Sea
, a local guide can 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 the railroad and the Union troop and supply trains that travel it, buying time for the Confederacy. Devil's Mountain is coincidentally near Braxton (who is now fighting elsewhere for the Confederacy) and Kathy's old plantation where Kathy remains with her uncle. Kathy agrees to monitor the activities of the Northern invaders and signal Clay's outpost from her window through a mirror by day and a lantern by night. Through her activites Clay's men are notified of the arrival two supply trains and destroy both of them.
Arriving at the plantation is Will who is now a Major in the Union Field Artillery. When the two men meet each other in combat, neither knows it as each is in an artillery position hundreds of yards from the other. However, the love of Clay's life, Kathy Summers, does know and tries desperately to save her two good friends from killing each other.
The Union Field Artillery can not 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 can not 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 giant Naval gun manned by sailors and mounted on a flat car that has the capability to wipe out the Confederates. Kathy is able to supply Clay's guns with wire from her piano that is used to reinforce the barrel of one of Clay's guns that with a double charge and 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 literally blow the top of the mountain. Kathy wishes to act as a mediator to get Clay and his men to surrender that the Union army is keen on as it will save time. However, Clay calculates that the explosion will send the cliff down over the railway line further blocking the Union.
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
war film
War film
War films are a film genre concerned with warfare, usually about naval, air or land battles, sometimes focusing instead on prisoners of war, covert operations, military training or other related subjects. At times war films focus on daily military or civilian life in wartime without depicting battles...
designed and directed by William Cameron Menzies
William Cameron Menzies
William Cameron Menzies was an Academy Award-winning American film production designer and art director who also worked as a director, producer, and screenwriter during a career spanning five decades...
, produced by independent company King Brothers Productions
King Brothers Productions
King Brothers Productions was a film production company active from 1941 to the late 1960s. It was formed by brothers Frank, Maurice and Herman King. The three got their start in the early 1940s manufacturing film projectors then quickly moved on to making films...
, filmed in SuperCineColor and released by RKO Pictures
RKO Pictures
RKO Pictures is an American film production and distribution company. As RKO Radio Pictures Inc., it was one of the Big Five studios of Hollywood's Golden Age. The business was formed after the Keith-Albee-Orpheum theater chains and Joseph P...
in September 1951.
Plot
Best friends Clay Clayburn and Will Denning graduate from West PointUnited States Military Academy
The United States Military Academy at West Point is a four-year coeducational federal service academy located at West Point, New York. The academy sits on scenic high ground overlooking the Hudson River, north of New York City...
and visit their friend and fellow graduate Braxton 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 an Field Artillery
Field artillery
Field artillery is a category of mobile artillery used to support armies in the field. These weapons are specialized for mobility, tactical proficiency, long range, short range and extremely long range target engagement....
Major in the Confederacy is renown for accepting but surviving suicide missions. He is given another. To delay General Sherman's March to the Sea
Sherman's March to the Sea
Sherman's March to the Sea is the name commonly given to the Savannah Campaign conducted around Georgia from November 15, 1864 to December 21, 1864 by Maj. Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman of the Union Army in the American Civil War...
, a local guide can lead a party of men and their disassembled cannon inside caves that lead to the top of Devil's Mountain where a battery
Artillery battery
In military organizations, an artillery battery is a unit of guns, mortars, rockets or missiles so grouped in order to facilitate better battlefield communication and command and control, as well as to provide dispersion for its constituent gunnery crews and their systems...
of guns can destroy the railroad and the Union troop and supply trains that travel it, buying time for the Confederacy. Devil's Mountain is coincidentally near Braxton (who is now fighting elsewhere for the Confederacy) and Kathy's old plantation where Kathy remains with her uncle. Kathy agrees to monitor the activities of the Northern invaders and signal Clay's outpost from her window through a mirror by day and a lantern by night. Through her activites Clay's men are notified of the arrival two supply trains and destroy both of them.
Arriving at the plantation is Will who is now a Major in the Union Field Artillery. When the two men meet each other in combat, neither knows it as each is in an artillery position hundreds of yards from the other. However, the love of Clay's life, Kathy Summers, does know and tries desperately to save her two good friends from killing each other.
The Union Field Artillery can not 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 can not 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 giant Naval gun manned by sailors and mounted on a flat car that has the capability to wipe out the Confederates. Kathy is able to supply Clay's guns with wire from her piano that is used to reinforce the barrel of one of Clay's guns that with a double charge and 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 literally blow the top of the mountain. Kathy wishes to act as a mediator to get Clay and his men to surrender that the Union army is keen on as it will save time. However, Clay calculates that the explosion will send the cliff down over the railway line further blocking the Union.
Cast
- James CraigJames Craig (actor)James Craig was an American actor.After graduating from the Rice Institute, Craig began appearing in films in 1937, most often in B-movies and serials...
as Maj. Clay Clayburn - Barbara PaytonBarbara PaytonBarbara Payton was an American film actress best known for her stormy social life and eventual battles with alcohol and drug addiction. Her life has been the subject of several books including Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye: The Barbara Payton Story , by John O'Dowd, and L.A...
as Kathy Summers - Guy MadisonGuy MadisonGuy Madison was an American film and television actor.-Early life:Born Robert Ozell Moseley in Pumpkin Center, California, Madison attended Bakersfield College, a junior college, for two years and then worked briefly as a telephone lineman before joining the United States Coast Guard in...
as Maj. Will Denning - Barton MacLaneBarton MacLaneBarton MacLane was an American actor, playwright, and screenwriter. Although he has appeared in many classic films from the 1930s through the 1960s, he was known for his role as Gen...
as Sgt. Mac McCardle - Robert Osterloh as Sgt. Harper
- Tom Fadden as Purdy
- Robert EastonRobert Easton (actor)Robert Easton is an American actor whose career in film and television spans more than 60 years. His mastery of English dialect has earned him the epithet "The Man of a Thousand Voices", For decades he has been a leading Hollywood dialogue or accent coach.Easton was born Robert Easton Burke in...
as Jerry - Louis Jean HeydtLouis Jean HeydtLouis Jean Heydt [April 17, 1905 - January 29, 1960] was an American Film, TV, and Theatre character actor from Montclair, New Jersey.-Early life:Heydt was born in Montclair New Jersey and Educated at Worcester Academy and Dartmouth College...
as Col. House - Craig StevensCraig Stevens (actor)Craig Stevens was an American motion picture and television actor.-Early and personal life:Born Gail Shikles, Jr., in Liberty, Missouri, his father was a high school teacher....
as Col. Braxton Summers - Taylor HolmesTaylor HolmesTaylor Holmes was an actor who appeared in over 100 Broadway plays in his five-decade career. However, he is probably best remembered for his film roles, which he began in silent movies in 1917. By the 1940s, he was working more on film than on stage...
as Albert Monroe - Lewis Martin as Gen. Johnston
- Peter BroccoPeter BroccoPeter Brocco was an American film and TV character actor for nearly 60 years.He appeared as a criminal type in several episodes of Adventures of Superman. He holds the distinction of having been killed off in two of them, a relative rarity for villains in the series...
as Union corporal - Dan WhiteDan White (actor)Dan White was an American actor, well known for appearing in several Western films.-Early life:Dan White was born to George and Orpha White in Falmouth, Florida, one of twelve siblings. The Whites moved to Lakeland during World War I. By age 14, White was in show business...
as Corp. Jennings
Unbilled players
- Robert ClarkeRobert ClarkeRobert Irby Clarke was an American actor best known for his cult classic science fiction films of the 1950s.-Early life:...
: Union officer - Kenne DuncanKenne DuncanKenne Duncan , born Kenneth Duncan MacLachlan, was a well-known B-movie character actor. Hyped professionally as "The Meanest Man in the Movies," the vast majority of his over 250 appearances on camera were Westerns, but he also did occasional forays into horror, crime drama, and science fiction...
: Union Officer - Roy Gordon: Lt. Col. Fitzgerald
- James GriffithJames GriffithJames Griffith was an American character actor, musician and screenwriter.-Career:Born in Los Angeles, Griffith aspired to be a musician rather than an actor. Instead, he managed to find work in little theatres around Los Angeles, where the budding musician eased into a dual career of acting...
: Union officer who reports to Maj. Denning - Myron HealeyMyron HealeyMyron Daniel Healey was an American actor. He began his Hollywood, California, career during the early 1940s in bit parts and minor supporting roles at various studios.-Early years:...
: Union lieutenant - Todd KarnsTodd KarnsTodd Karns was an American actor perhaps best remembered for playing Harry Bailey, the younger brother of George Bailey in the Christmas classic It's a Wonderful Life....
: Union captain - Norman Leavitt: Confederate soldier
- Frank Marlowe: Confederate soldier
- Tom Monroe: Confederate soldier
- Billy Nelson: Union sergeant
- Steve PendletonSteve PendletonSteve Pendleton was an American film actor. He appeared in over 150 films between 1923 and 1960. He died in Pasadena, California, aged 76.-Selected filmography:* Manslaughter * Seas Beneath...
: Capt. Travis - Denver PyleDenver PyleDenver Dell Pyle was an American film and television actor. He is best remembered for playing Uncle Jesse in The Dukes of Hazzard .-Early life:...
: Union soldier who breaks the window - Mickey SimpsonMickey SimpsonMickey Simpson was an American supporting actor of burly roles, probably most familiar as Sarge, the racist diner, who beats up Rock Hudson near the end of Giant.-Career:...
: Jim Burns, Confederate soldier - Ray Walker: Union officer
- Guy Wilkerson: Confederate sentry
Soundtrack
- "Dixie" (by Daniel Decatur Emmett)
- Battle Hymn of the Republic (by William SteffeWilliam SteffeWilliam Steffe collected and edited a camp-meeting song with the traditional "Glory Hallelujah" refrain, in about 1856. It opened with "Say, brothers, will you meet us / on Canaan's happy shore?" The tune became widely known....
) - Down by the RiversideDown by the Riverside"Down by the Riverside" is a traditional gospel song. It was first published in Carl Sandburg's The American Songbag and there are at least 14 black gospel recordings before World War II."Down by the Riverside" has a long history and was known in Civil War times. It was sung by blacks...
- The Old Gray MareThe Old Gray MareThe Old Gray Mare is an old folk song, more recently regarded as a children's song. Although nominally about horses, it can also be interpreted as referring to women who are well past their prime....