Post by topbilled on Oct 18, 2024 13:53:13 GMT
This neglected film is from 1947.
When he wore the sheet
This independent production was released thru Robert Lippert’s company. It details the adjustments a former solder (Hank Daniels) makes returning to his hometown community in the southern U.S., a place where prejudice exists. Most elements of racism are muted due to a request from the production code office; the focus is more on a group of powerful white men who don’t want outsiders to have any say in their community affairs. If an outsider gains a toehold, he is immediately branded a communist and dealt with severely. As for blacks in the area, they are dissuaded from voting and exercising basic human rights.
Some of what plays out is heavy handed if not well-meaning. Daniels is adequate in the lead role, his only lead (and his last motion picture) after a trial period at MGM where he’d done a series of minor parts in prestigious ‘A’ films. This is his chance to shine as Johnny, the returning vet, a white man who is caught up in the xenophobia and intolerance of his surroundings.
At first Johnny is happily reunited with his folks (Betty Rodman and Raymond Bond). He looks for a regular job and catches up with an ex-girlfriend named Doris (Virginia Patton). She has moved on with one of his pals that did not serve in the war. Johnny is resentful of his friend Tony (John Fostini) for horning in on his territory. Meanwhile, Tony has run afoul of the white men in town, because he is an Italian, which to them means he’s an undesirable foreigner.
Johnny’s anger about Tony hooking up with Doris, as well as his frustration over not finding a decent paying job, makes him vulnerable to the suspicious fraternity of white men. He is recruited to join these men and is soon initiated in a Ku Klux Klan ceremony out in the woods. This is a well-staged sequence reminiscent of scenes in Warner Brothers’ STORM WARNING (1951).
Johnny is still angry and content to become a marauder, basically, with these other men. But after the guys tar and feather Tony— yes, this scene is a bit graphic— one of the leaders shoots and kills Tony. As this happens, Johnny’s regained his conscience and tries to stop the killing by grabbing at the gun. But he fails to save Tony’s life. Now his fingerprints are on the weapon, which will be used against him. There is seemingly no way out of his membership with the Klan.
Woven into this is the melodrama of Doris mourning Tony and agreeing to help an investigator by rebuilding Johnny’s confidence in her to wrangle a confession. Of course, she starts to fall in love with him all over again. At the same time, Johnny’s parents have their own worries about their son’s involvement in the recent crime wave which includes not only Tony’s death, but the beating of a friendly black man (Joel Fluellen).
A lot happens on screen, some of it a bit over-the-top, but the filmmakers still get their thesis across. The main idea is that America wasn’t intended to be one group thriving at the expense of another group; or a majority group abusing power to silence the minority.
When he wore the sheet
This independent production was released thru Robert Lippert’s company. It details the adjustments a former solder (Hank Daniels) makes returning to his hometown community in the southern U.S., a place where prejudice exists. Most elements of racism are muted due to a request from the production code office; the focus is more on a group of powerful white men who don’t want outsiders to have any say in their community affairs. If an outsider gains a toehold, he is immediately branded a communist and dealt with severely. As for blacks in the area, they are dissuaded from voting and exercising basic human rights.
Some of what plays out is heavy handed if not well-meaning. Daniels is adequate in the lead role, his only lead (and his last motion picture) after a trial period at MGM where he’d done a series of minor parts in prestigious ‘A’ films. This is his chance to shine as Johnny, the returning vet, a white man who is caught up in the xenophobia and intolerance of his surroundings.
At first Johnny is happily reunited with his folks (Betty Rodman and Raymond Bond). He looks for a regular job and catches up with an ex-girlfriend named Doris (Virginia Patton). She has moved on with one of his pals that did not serve in the war. Johnny is resentful of his friend Tony (John Fostini) for horning in on his territory. Meanwhile, Tony has run afoul of the white men in town, because he is an Italian, which to them means he’s an undesirable foreigner.
Johnny’s anger about Tony hooking up with Doris, as well as his frustration over not finding a decent paying job, makes him vulnerable to the suspicious fraternity of white men. He is recruited to join these men and is soon initiated in a Ku Klux Klan ceremony out in the woods. This is a well-staged sequence reminiscent of scenes in Warner Brothers’ STORM WARNING (1951).
Johnny is still angry and content to become a marauder, basically, with these other men. But after the guys tar and feather Tony— yes, this scene is a bit graphic— one of the leaders shoots and kills Tony. As this happens, Johnny’s regained his conscience and tries to stop the killing by grabbing at the gun. But he fails to save Tony’s life. Now his fingerprints are on the weapon, which will be used against him. There is seemingly no way out of his membership with the Klan.
Woven into this is the melodrama of Doris mourning Tony and agreeing to help an investigator by rebuilding Johnny’s confidence in her to wrangle a confession. Of course, she starts to fall in love with him all over again. At the same time, Johnny’s parents have their own worries about their son’s involvement in the recent crime wave which includes not only Tony’s death, but the beating of a friendly black man (Joel Fluellen).
A lot happens on screen, some of it a bit over-the-top, but the filmmakers still get their thesis across. The main idea is that America wasn’t intended to be one group thriving at the expense of another group; or a majority group abusing power to silence the minority.