Diagonaldi
Very well executed
Listonixio
Fresh and Exciting
Odelecol
Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.
InformationRap
This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.
cazbet
I love this movie. It's got everything. I've watched it three times. I absolutely fell in love with Clark Gable's house - love the French-style courtyard with the house built around it, the terraces and the big wrought iron gates!! All style!!
vitaleralphlouis
19 years after "Gone with the Wind" Clark Gable returns as a very-much-like Rhett Butler role of Hamish Bond; no doubt for the pleasure of us moviegoers it's one of his best roles.A very rich ex-slaver takes an interest in a white girl suddenly being sold as a slave based upon the revelation that her mother was black. The story covers about six years and it is beautifully filmed; a picture worth seeing every few years.The Yankees do not look good in this movie; because the film was well researched and scores about 90% for historical accuracy. Union General Butler was much worse and more corrupt as portrayed here. It is also worth noting that MOST slave traders were in fact from New England, Massachusetts being the first slave state where slavery was used widely to do the Yankee's dirty work. America's #1 slave trader -- not a nice man like Clark Gable's portrayal, but one of the most rotten men in American history -- was Brown of Rhode Island, the founder of Brown University, built with slave-trade money. Mass-Conn-RI were loaded with slaves, about 40% of their population; very quiet about it these days.Today's empty-headed Hollywood is very confused about slavery. Devoted to "political correctness" but clueless to its meaning, most classic movies containing so much as one slave (or no slaves, as in Walt Disney's "Song of the South") are quietly not available except thru bootlegs. "Band of Angels" somehow escaped the PC Squad; readily available on DVD. 9 out of 10.
thinker1691
This film is called " Band of Angels " and with such a title and with Clark Gable as the star, one would expect it to be a motion picture about flying. Instead it's a great surprise to see it is set during the Civil War. Based on the novel by Robert Warren, it tells the story of Amantha Starr (Yvonne De Carlo) an attractive young white girl raised on a southern plantation in a well-to-do fashion. When her father dies, she discovers her wealthy father was in terrible debt and she is sold into slavery, and it is further discovered she is actually the daughter of a female Negro. Fearing the worse, she attempts suicide when she realizes she will be put up for sale at auction. Purchased by Hamish Bond (Clark Gable) a wealthy southern gentleman, introduces her to a fine house and unusual servants. Sidney Poitier is in great form as one sees the early caliber of his acting. Efrem Zimbalist Jr., Rex Reason and Torin Thatcher, make fine additions to this surprisingly good film. Recommended to any who seeks a good movie. ****
Nazi_Fighter_David
The world was full of all colors during the time leading up to the Civil War in the South
The cry for freedom was in the air like a rising wind
Slaves have already gone wild on many plantations but not yet on Pointe du Loup, Louisiana, where it was still serene
Hamish Bond maintains a plantation outside New Orleans
At the slave mart he buys a beautiful girl for $5,000
She is the daughter of a supposedly wealthy Kentucky planter
After her father's death she discovered he has left her nothing but debts
She also discovered her mother was a black slave and that, according to the custom of the time, she is classified of Negro blood and literally sold down the river to discharge her father's debts
Amantha Starr is horrified and degraded at the treatment shea well-bred white girlreceives when she becomes classified as a woman of mixed race
Hamish doesn't relegate the proud dark-haired woman to slave quarters but treats her as a lady in his household, where romance develops
Clark Gable plays the New Orleans wealthy gentleman who got a past he'd like to forget
He knows better than most men that money is no cure-all
He used to think it was
He used to think it would open the door to friendship and other essentials more important than power
He used to believe it was everything: a drug for loneliness, a painkiller for certain memories, the whole apothecary shop for every problem of life
He bought the attractive Amantha because she was on the slave block
Somebody else was bound to bid her on
That fellow with laced cuffs putting his hands on her and he hates lace cuffs
Yvonne de Carlo plays Amantha, the lady of quality with Negro heritage
She didn't go on her way north, nor she jumped the boat at Pointe du Loup
She has suffered, and she always will, with Hamish or without him
There always will be the fires, the memories because she loves him, and because he's the only man she ever loved, or ever will
The young Sidney Poitier plays the rebellious ambitious chief slave Rau-Ru who gets off the sidewalk for nobody
No constable or paddy roll ever stopped him
No steamboat captain ever asked to see his pass
Will he feels lucky enough to deliver his boss to the hangman one day?