Michael_Elliott Of Human Hearts (1938)** 1/2 (out of 4) This MGM film starts off as melodrama then moves to soap opera before eventually crashing as something completely cornball. Thankfully we have a terrific cast delivering fine performances or else this thing wouldn't work at all. It tells the story of a preacher (Walter Huston) who is constantly battling his son (James Stewart as adult, Gene Reynolds as child) who eventually wants to go in a different direction and become a doctor. The son goes off to medical school and constantly has to write home asking his poor mother (Beulah Bondi) for money and never really giving her the time or credit she deserves for her sacrifice. OF HUMAN HEARTS offers up a terrific cast but the story turns so incredibly cornball during the final fifteen-minutes that you can't help but throw your hands up in the air and wonder what the studio, writer and director were thinking. This is certainly far from a bad movie but this is due to the terrific cast including Huston who turns in another strong performance. He plays the part in the typical Huston fashion, which means integrity and stern. Stewart is also very good in his part as he manages to really make you believe how naive and rather stupid his character is when it comes to what his mother is doing for him. Reynolds plays the part as a child and he too is wonderful and works extremely well with Huston as the two are constantly going against one another. Bondi deserved her Oscar-nomination as her role doesn't feature too many lines but we get to know everything we should by her simple body movements and some extremely strong work with her eyes, which tells so much. The supporting cast includes good bits by Guy Kibbee as a cheap store owner, Gene Lockhart as a janitor, Ann Rutherford as Stewart's girlfriend and Charles Coburn as the town doctor/drunk. One of the best performances in the film comes from John Carradine who is only here for about four-minutes as he plays President Lincoln. The performance by Carradine is very striking because of how he plays the part. The actor comes off incredibly strong and you can't help but feel as if you're watching a real president. I was really shocked at how close Carradine looked like Lincoln so you have to give the make-up department a lot of credit. However, this scene is extremely bad as Lincoln calls Stewart in from the Civil War to jump on him for not writing to his mother!! This scene is so incredibly bad and it leads to an even worse conclusion that you can't help but wish Carradine had gotten a separate movie where he could have played this part. It also doesn't help that the screenplay doesn't make the preacher or the son characters you really care about because both of them seem way too self-centered. With that said, if you're a fan of any of the cast members then you might want to check this out but sadly it's yet another MGM that contains way too much sugar for its own good.

Rob-120 "Of Human Hearts" is a schmaltzy historical melodrama that starts out okay, but gradually becomes ridiculous.It begins in the 1840's, when the Reverend Ethan Wilkins (Walter Huston), arrives at a small town on the Ohio River, with his wife Mary (Beulah Bondi) and young son Jason (Gene Reynolds). The townspeople are a parsimonious group, led by George Ames (Guy Kibbee), the skinflint owner of the general store. At a meeting to welcome the new minister to their church, they trick the minister into accepting less salary than was agreed upon. But Rev. Wilkins accepts this, even though he knows he is being cheated.Also, the town is not exactly big on education. After the schoolhouse burned down, the townspeople decided not to rebuild it, figuring "it wasn't good to bother the kids with too much book larnin'." The Rev. Wilkins is very strict and forbids his son Jason to read magazines, even after Jason's mother buys her son a subscription to the news magazine "Harper's Weekly." (It's never stated exactly why the Reverend hates magazines.) But Jason befriends the town's drunken doctor (Charles Coburn), and develops an interest in medicine.When Jason grows up (now played by James Stewart), he rebels against his father (with the usual father-son fistfight), and leaves home to attend medical school. Rev. Wilkins dies, and Mary Wilkins must occasionally sell items (i.e. silverware, furniture) inherited from her family. She sends the money to Jason, to keep him in medical school.When the Civil War comes, Jason distinguishes himself as a Union Army surgeon, treating wounded soldiers on the battlefield. But he neglects to write his mother for three years, and she fears him dead.Then comes the movie's most ridiculous scene. President Lincoln (John Carradine) receives a letter from Mary Wilkins asking him to find her son. He summons Jason Wilkins to the Oval Office -- calling him right out of a major battle where Wilkins is tending the wounded -- and demands to know why Wilkins hasn't written to his mother! "You ungrateful young man!" Lincoln rails. "How could you forget to write to your own mother?" "But...but Mr. President, I've been fighting the war for the past few years!" Wilkins stammers. "I've been saving wounded soldiers on the battlefield!" "Sit down at my desk there and write your mother immediately!" says the President. "And if you don't write her once a week from now on, I'll have you court-martialed!"(Unfortunately, I'm not making that last line up. Seems to me that Abe didn't have to call Jason in off the battlefield. He could've just sent a presidential order, "Write your mother, or else!")Anyway, the movie is a silly historical melodrama and is probably best forgotten. Beulah Bondi does give a good performance, but it's not enough to save this picture for posterity.

arun_singh300-1 i had read a lot about the film and recently got the chance to see it on TCM .BELULAH BONDI is really good and essays the role of a mother to perfection.the father's role is strange and scenes of corporal punishment avoidable.the old custom of giving the beating on the ass seems homosexual and incestuous today.he seems too strict and less practical.the father and son fight is quite interesting.the son on his part is insensitive and self centered and doesn't care for his mother's feelings which is evident from the scene where he throws away harper's magazines which his mother had subscribed for by selling two silver spoons.while his mother lives in poverty he squanders money on uniforms.the film is quite good.

Patrick R. Pearsey I tuned into this movie at the point where James Stewart's character was summoned from the battlefield to meet with President Abraham Lincoln. I didn't know what had transpired previously in the movie and was waiting to see why the president would take time to speak to him.I won't divulge all the details of the conversation but I kept thinking during the scene that this is one of the best portrayals of Lincoln I've ever seen. Physically the actor was very convincing and his demeanor was of the type I would except him to have. I finally recognized the voice of John Carradine.I actually think that Abraham Lincoln could have had a conversation like the one in the movie with a regular soldier. He met with many rank and file people during the war. It was a great scene, well written and produced in my opinion.