Tap Roots (1948)

Too much of everything

Excellent but underrated film

everything you have heard about this movie is true.

If you like to be scared, if you like to laugh, and if you like to learn a thing or two at the movies, this absolutely cannot be missed.

Yeah,it bears more than a distant resemblance to "Gone with the wind" .And short weight at that,cause its running time does not exceed 110 min.Even the characters recall the classic: there's the black slave ,a poor man's Scarlett,her old man ,her suitor (Van Heflin ,sort of Rhett Butler) .Melanie is represented by a sister played by Julie London whose part is so underwritten she has almost nothing to do (unless a brief romance with Clay counts).I do like Susan Heyward and Van Heflin but directing is listless in the first part.The second part is much better and includes really worthwhile scenes: the battle in the swamp ,the old Hoab (Ward gave the best performance IMHO)shouting "this is my land" ,then aimlessly wandering among the fighters and finally cursing his unfortunate daughter.The ending looks like (one more time) the ending of the first part of GWTW when Scarlett finds her father senile from shock and a devastated property!So roll up your sleeves,the tap roots are still here.The last scene between Clay and Morna is also a good moment ,although their characters lack substance .And however ,the very subject of the movie was particularly interesting:people who want to stay neuter ,to live their life in peace (one must note ,however,that they did not disapprove of slavery).Like this?try these......Band of angels ,Raoul Walsh The Raintree County,Edward Dmytryk Friendly persuasion,William Wyler

I was able to tape this film years ago. It is not often seen on TV and a true classic film. Tap Roots takes place at the outbreak of the Civil War, Lebanon Valley tries to secede from the state of Mississippi and remain neutral. Hating slavery, its leader, Hoab Dabney(Ward Bond), and a faithful Indian friend of the family, Tishomingo(Boris Karloff), promise to protect the valley against the Confederate army. There is a great cast of actors namely: Susan Hayward, Van Heflin and Julie London(former wife of Jack Webb, Dragnet T.V) Tap Roots is rather long and drawn out. However, the plot has romance, excellent photography of the Civil War costumes, sex situations and the action is of great value. Karloff is excellent as an Indian guide of the family and his make-up makes him look just like a Native American. I noticed the Smoky Mountains located in North Carolina and Tennessee where this Mississippi story was filmed which is magnificent to view.

The other comment is quite good in that I can find little with which to disagree. True, there is a weak script, but then, there were a lot of them floating around Hollywood in the late 40s. Van Heflin was one of those actors who was hard to pigeonhole. He could play villains or heros. His role in Patterns was a classic. Here, as the illegitimate son of a "powerful" individual-- we're never told who, he tries to conjure up some of the dash of Gable from years before but winds up looking like a cross between Rhet and Billy Goat Gruff. Susan Hayward's performance is weak, compared to some of her later roles, as is blustering Ward Bond. Whitfield Conner is charming, as he was in the few roles he left us but largely immemorable. And, then there was Karloff: here, out of heavy make-up as a Native American (we called them Indians back then)but still wide-eyeing it and looking mysterious. (I remember as a kid when he gets shot, the audience sighing their disapproval; but the writers snuffed him anyway). All in all, the film is not GWTW, and, in my view nor should it be. It was a bit of late 40s costume fantasy and certainly worth the $.32 I paid to see it in '48. I loved it then and loved when I saw it on the late show, years later. It's entertaining and should not be taken beyond its face value. It does not pretend to be a classic and will not be taken as such. But, I found it entertaining both as a kid and as an adult (or big kid, as my wife insists).

Universal seem to have thrown a lot of cash at these sub 'Gone with the Wind' shenanigans but really should have paid more attention to the script. Although a potentially interesting idea - a small valley tries to stay neutral during the US Civil War - the movie concentrates almost exclusively on a vapid central romance lifted almost wholesale from that earlier Selznick classic.Van Hefflin tries hard to inject the kind of dangerous humour that Clark Gable brought to Rhett Butler but Susan Hayward is hopelessly miscast as the young, flighty Southern belle. An excellent actress in the right circumstances, here she looks far too sensible for the role and resorts to a permanent wide-eyed stare to convey youth and innocence. She merely looks like a startled rabbit.Elsewhere, what should have been the pivotal role of the valley's patriarch is simply not given enough screentime, thus reducing Ward Bond to the occasional ineffectual splutter and the climax to an empty, mechanical spectacle devoid of emotional resonance. Boris Karloff brings a touch of class to the role of the friendly native American retainer but Julie London is wasted in a thankless role.Overall, it's the kind of picture that the studio must have presumed would make itself and this lack of commitment results in a significant lack of quality.