James Dunn
Lt. Kenneth Reynolds
Similar Movies
Drama
History
Best friends Kenneth Reynolds and Raymond Jordan are U.S. Navy officers, and Kenneth is engaged to Raymond's sister. But the eruption of the Civil War divides them, as Raymond stands by his native Virginia while Kenneth remains on duty as a Northern officer. Kenneth's uncle, John Ericsson, designs a new kind of ship, an ironclad he calls the Monitor. Eventually the war pits Kenneth, on board the Monitor, against his friend Raymond, serving aboard the South's own ironclad, the Merrimac (as it is called here). A naval battle ensues, one that will go down in history.
Top Billed Cast
| Release Date | 1936-05-26 |
|---|---|
| Runtime | 1h 12m |
| Director | Lew Ayres |
| Producer | |
| Writers | Olive Cooper, Bernard Schubert |
This is quite a fun tale of the first "Ironclad" naval battles of the American Civil War that pitched the "Merrimac" against the "Monitor". Despite the fact that much of it looks like it was filmed in a large swimming pool, the effects are actually quite good - lots of black smoke and painted ping-pong balls provide for some entertaining sea battle effects. There is a parallel melodrama of brothers forced to take sides, and young love plays in here somewhere too, but that's all just run-of-the mill "humanity" added into what is essentially a boys-own story of sea battles and clever inventions.
— CinemaSerf