Films on American History and Culture

Westward the Women is a 1951 American western film directed by William A. Wellman and starring Robert Taylor, Denise Darcel and John McIntire. Plot In 1851, Roy Whitman wants to keep the lonely men who live in Whitman's Valley from leaving, so he decides to bring respectable women from the East to California to marry them. Roy hires experienced though skeptical wagon master Buck Wyatt to lead a wagon train along the California Trail. In Chicago, Roy recruits 138 "good women", who are not daunted when Buck tells them that a third of them will not survive the journey. The women range from Patience, an older widow from New Bedford, to Rose Meyers, a pregnant, unmarried woman seeking a better future. The women choose prospective mates from daguerreotype pictures tacked to a display board. Two showgirls, Fifi Danon and Laurie Smith, hastily change their flashy clothing when others like them are rejected before presenting themselves to Roy and Buck. Whitman is not fooled, but is convinced they wish to reform. He accepts them, bringing the total count to 140 women. Whiteman and Wyatt take the women to St. Joseph, Missouri, where Conestoga wagons, horses, and mules await, along with 15 trail hands hired by Buck. Ito, a determined if diminutive Japanese man, persuades Buck to take him on as the cook. Before setting out, Buck warns the men and the women to stay away from each other, as he has seen wagon trains torn apart by romantic shenanigans. Four experienced women teach the others how to harness draft animals and drive the wagons. After a week's training, the train heads west. During the journey, Buck executes a man who raped Laurie. As a result, all but two trail hands desert during the night, with eight women going with them. This leaves only Buck, Roy, Ito, and Sid Cutler, who has fallen in love with Rose. Roy decides they must turn back, but as they are half-way to their destination, Buck believes the women can "do a man's job" and finish the difficult journey. He trains them how to shoot to defend themselves. Young Tony Moroni, the only boy on the train, is accidentally killed during firearms practice. When his distraught widowed mother (who speaks only Italian) refuses to leave her son's grave, Buck knocks her out, hogties her (lest she commit suicide), and puts her in Patience and Rose's wagon. The women persevere through hardships and dangers, including a stampede and a dangerous descent down a steep, rocky trail that kills one woman. An Indian attack claims the lives of Roy, Sid, and six women. When a rainstorm undercuts the river bank, Fifi and Laurie's wagon plunges into the water, drowning Laurie. Gradually, Fifi begins to thaw Buck's attitude towards women in general and her in particular. She and Buck fall in love. On the edge of the desert, Buck orders the wagons to be lightened, leaving furniture and fancy clothing behind. As they proceed across the sand, Rose goes into labor and delivers a boy. After crossing the desert, they reach a small lake on the border of Whitman's Valley. The women refuse to go any further until Buck brings them decent apparel so they will look presentable to their future husbands. Buck rides on ahead and tells the men to find any material they can from which the women can make new clothes. Wearing proper dresses, the ladies drive into town. Patience warns that the women will be doing the choosing as they pair off with the men whose pictures they picked. Mrs. Moroni meets an Italian citrus farmer, and one man willingly accepts Rose and her baby. As the men and women dance, some couples get into line to be married by a preacher. Ito coaxes Fifi into swallowing her pride and going to Buck, who pretends he is preparing to ride out. They join the line waiting for the minister. Cast Robert Taylor as Buck Wyatt Denise Darcel as Fifi Danon John McIntire as Roy E. Whitman Hope Emerson as Patience Hawley Julie Bishop as Laurie Smith Lenore Lonergan as Maggie O'Malley Henry Nakamura as Ito Yoshisuke Takeyoshi Gennosuke Kentaro Marilyn Erskine as Jean Johnson Beverly Dennis as Rose Meyers Renata Vanni as Mrs. Moroni Pat Conway as Sid Cutler (uncredited) Guido Martufi as Antonio Moroni (uncredited) Production Frank Capra, who receives story credit, originally intended to do this film himself; he'd always wanted to make a western, hopefully with Gary Cooper, but Paramount wasn't interested. He mentioned the idea to Wellman, who asked if he could take a stab at it. Capra gave him his blessing, and Wellman pitched it to Dore Schary at MGM, who gave him the go-ahead and liked the concept so much that he produced it himself. A documentary included in the film's DVD states that it was filmed at various locations in Kane County, Utah. Film locations also include Johnson Canyon, the Gap, Paria, and Surprise Valley in Utah. The documentary also mentions that the actresses all had to learn how to drive a four horse team pulling a wagon.

The story is a tribute to the American infantryman (G.I. Joe) during World War II, told through the eyes of Pulitzer Prize-winning war correspondent Ernie Pyle, with dialogue and narration derived from Pyle's columns. The film concentrates on one company (C Company, 18th Infantry) that Pyle accompanies into combat in Tunisia and Italy. It is one of more honest and realistic dramas produced during the war.

This is a political fantasy involving the Korean War and subversion in the highest level of our electoral process, in it, the son of a prominent U.S. political family is brainwashed into being an unwitting assassin for a Communist conspiracy. Major Bennett Marco, Sergeant Raymond Shaw, and the rest of their infantry platoon are captured by an elite Soviet commando unit during the Korean War in 1952. They are taken to Manchuria, and brainwashed into believing Shaw saved their lives in combat – for which Shaw is subsequently awarded the Medal of Honor. Years after the war, Marco, now back in the United States working as an intelligence officer, begins suffering a recurring nightmare in which the seated platoon members are surrounded by a group of sweet little old ladies who had been a part of their brainwashing. One of the ladies tells Sergeant Shaw to murder two of his platoon comrades. The backdrop with the old ladies changes back and forth between them and Chinese/Soviet intelligence officials. When Marco learns that another of the platoon's soldiers has been suffering the exact same nightmare, he starts looking into why this is happening. Major Marco looks up Sergeant Raymond Shaw and discovers that Shaw's new manservant is someone he recognizes from Korea. Marco and the manservant start fighting in Shaw's house and both are bloodied significantly. Marco is arrested, and when Shaw sees that it is his old major they rekindle their old friendship. Both find love interests: for Marco, it is Rose Cheyney, whom he meets on a train; and for Raymond, it is Jocelyn Jordan, the daughter of Senator Thomas Jordan, a neighbor of Shaw's. Senator Jordan and Shaw's mother do not like each other, but Raymond continues to see Jocelyn. It is revealed that the Communists have been using Shaw as a sleeper agent who, activated by a post-hypnotic trigger, immediately forgets the assignments he carries out and therefore can never betray the operation either purposely or inadvertently. In Shaw's case, the suggestion that he play solitaire is the trigger. Seeing the queen of diamonds playing card transforms him into an assassin who will kill anyone at whom he is directed. Shaw's KGB handler is his domineering mother, Eleanor (note her resemblance to Hilary Clinton). Married to McCarthy-esque Senator Johnny Iselin, Eleanor has convinced the Communist powers to help install her husband as president and allow them to control the American government through him. By observing Shaw, Marco discovers the trigger shortly before the national convention of Iselin's political party. He uses the queen of diamonds card to draw out Eleanor's plan: after she obtains the vice presidential nomination for Iselin, Shaw is to shoot the presidential candidate so that Iselin can succeed him. Blaming the killing on the Communists will enable Iselin to assume dictatorial powers. Marco reprograms Shaw, although it is unclear until the final pages whether this is successful. At the convention, Shaw instead shoots and kills his mother and Senator Iselin. Marco is the first person to reach Shaw's sniper nest, getting there just before Shaw turns the gun on himself and commits suicide.

This is remarkable film produced in New York some eight months after the war. It stars the survivors of the unit reenacting and portraying themselves. Compare ot to the 2001 film of the same name.

This film has as its main theme the first naval battle between ironclad warships during the Civil War, the CSS Virginia (Merrimac) and the USS Monitor. Set during the American Civil War, the film depicts the Union Navy's deliberate sinking of USS Merrimack, the Confederate States Navy's salvage and refitting of the ship as the ironclad CSS Virginia, the Union Navy's development of the ironclad USS Monitor to counter Virginia, and the subsequent engagement of the two vessels in the Battle of Hampton Roads. It also features many historical characters, including United States President Abraham Lincoln, Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles, and Confederate States President Jefferson Davis. The fictional plot, starring James Dunn, Mae Clarke, and David Manners, pits two friends and future brothers-in-law on opposite sides of the North–South conflict, dividing their families and threatening their survival. Hearts in Bondage is notable as a rare example of a Hollywood film to depict the naval battles of the American Civil War. Set during the American Civil War, the film depicts the Union Navy's deliberate sinking of USS Merrimack, the Confederate States Navy's salvage and refitting of the ship as the ironclad CSS Virginia, the Union Navy's development of the ironclad USS Monitor to counter Virginia, and the subsequent engagement of the two vessels in the Battle of Hampton Roads. It also features many historical characters, including United States President Abraham Lincoln, Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles, and Confederate States President Jefferson Davis. The fictional plot pits two friends and future brothers-in-law on opposite sides of the North–South conflict, dividing their families and threatening their survival. Hearts in Bondage is notable as a rare example of a Hollywood film to depict the naval battles of the American Civil War.

SANTA FE TRAIL traces the career of West Point cadets from their graduation to the raid on Harpers Ferry serving in Kansas. The film is critical of the abolitionist John Brown and his controversial campaign against slavery before the American Civil War. At West Point Military Academy in 1854, cadet Carl Rader, an agent of John Brown, is dishonorably discharged for instigating a brawl among the cadets after distributing anti-slavery pamphlets which his classmates disapprove of—due to the controversial nature of the pamphlets (some believed the issue of slavery to be one that would inevitably resolve itself) and the U.S. Army's position against the pursuit of ideological causes while serving. Following the brawl, Rader's classmates Jeb Stuart and George Custer become second lieutenants and are posted to Fort Leavenworth, Kansas Territory, the most dangerous duty in the Army—an assignment they relish. On the way to Kansas, Custer and Stuart meet Cyrus K. Holliday, in charge of building the railroad to Santa Fe, New Mexico, and his daughter Kit, with whom both officers fall in love. The Kansas Territory is bloodstained and war-torn, a victim of John Brown's relentless crusade against slavery. Meanwhile, Rader has enlisted as a mercenary in Brown's army, which has been terrorizing the countryside and freeing slaves. During Brown's attack on a freight wagon under the protection of the U.S. Army, Stuart and Custer capture Brown's injured son Jason and, before he dies, the troubled boy informs them about his father's hideout at Shubel Morgan's ranch in Palmyra. In disguise, Stuart rides into Palmyra, the center of the Underground Railroad, but Brown's men spot his horse's army brand. He is captured and taken to Brown at gunpoint. Attempting to escape, Stuart is trapped in a burning barn but is saved as Custer leads the cavalry to the rescue, driving Brown into seclusion. Three years later, in 1859, believing that Brown's force has been broken, Stuart and Custer are sent back to Washington, D.C., where Stuart proposes to Kit. However, Brown is planning to re-ignite war by raiding the arsenal at Harper's Ferry, Virginia. When Brown refuses to pay Rader for his services, Rader rides to Washington to alert Stuart of Brown's plans, and the troops arrive just in time to crush the rebellion. Brown is then tried for treason by the state of Virginia and hanged. The movie ends with the marriage of Stuart and Kit. Most of the officers will serve on different sides in the of the looming Civil War.

A story involving a returning Kentucky militia unit from combating the British and the Creek. It included John Breen, a Kentucky militiaman, who falls in love with a French exile, Fleurette de Marchand. He discovers a plot to steal the land that Fleurette's exiles plan to settle on. Breen is mistaken for a land surveyor and is presented with a surveyor's theodolite and sets out with Willie to look as if they are surveying (they do not actually know what to do).

A New York City detective, traveling by train between New York and Baltimore, tries to foil an on-board plot to assassinate President-elect Abraham Lincoln before he reaches Baltimore to give a major pre-Inauguration speech in 1861. A fictionalized account of the first assassination attempt on Lincoln. There are some anachronisms, for example, when the Volunteer New York Zouves (troops garbed in French/ North African uniforms) are marching to the tune of "Rally 'Round the Flag, Boys", which was not published until 1862. Nevertheless the song used as the Zouaves march from the train in the conclusion of the film, "Tom Brown's Body" ("Battle Hymn of the Republic"), was widely performed in 1861.

is a 1940 biographical-drama film that depicts the life of Abraham Lincoln from his departure from Kentucky until his election as president of the United States.

A fictionalized account ten years in the life of Abraham Lincoln, before he became known to his nation and the world. He moves from a Kentucky cabin to Springfield, Illinois, to begin his law practice. He defends two men accused of murder in a political brawl, suffers the death of his girlfriend Ann, courts his future wife Mary Todd, and agrees to go into politics.

The story of president Andrew Jackson from his early years, the film begins when he meets Rachel Donaldson Robards. The plot concentrates on the scandal concerning the legality of their marriage and how they overcame the difficulties.

This is a balanced docudrama on the life and career of President Andrew Jackson.

This is a historical drama loosely based on a romantic triangle between Dolley Madison before her days as first lady, and the rival beaus being the notorious Aaron Burr and her erudite future husband, James Madison.

Betsy Griscome, against the wishes of her Quaker parents, keeps a tryst with a British officer, Clarence Vernon, who promises to marry her upon his return. Clarissa, her sister, falls in love and marries Joseph Ashburn, a trader. Suspecting Vernon of duplicity, Joseph and Vernon fight a duel and Vernon is struck down. A year later Betsy marries John Ross, and upon his death she operates a little shop for a living. Here she shields her sister, who was driven from home when she could not produce her marriage certificate. Betsy is commissioned by General Washington to make the first American flag and later is accused of harboring a spy - in reality, her sister's husband. The film ends happily when all relations are explained.

Set in the period 1784–1789, the film portrays Jefferson when he was US minister to France at Versailles before the French Revolution. French liberals and intellectuals hope he will lead them away from the corruption of the court of King Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette and toward a more democratic form of government. Although deploring the poverty of the common people, he embraces the riches of French culture and civilization. It is his first time abroad, and he takes advantage of the opportunity to extend his knowledge of liberal arts and science while absorbing the refinements France has to offer. A lonely widower, Jefferson develops a close friendship with Maria Cosway, a beautiful (and married) Anglo-Italian painter and musician. Although she becomes increasingly devoted to him, he is attached to his memory of his late wife, to whom he promised that he would not remarry, and to his two younger daughters. His elder daughter is especially possessive, and Patsy becomes jealous of Maria's influence on her father. Maria becomes his confidant and correspondent, with their personal relationship becoming more affectionate as well. Later, Jefferson becomes attracted to Sally Hemings, his enslaved maid and companion of his younger daughter Polly. Three-quarters white in ancestry, she is his late wife's half-sister. Their father had taken Sally's slave mother as a concubine after he was widowed for the third time; Sally is the sixth of their children. Sally's enslaved brother James Hemings is also in Paris, learning to be a French chef for Jefferson at Monticello. When George Washington offers Jefferson the post of Secretary of State, he accepts and prepares to sail home with his family. But James, having enjoyed his freedom in Paris, is unwilling to return to the United States and urges Sally to remain with him. It is only when Jefferson promises, making an oath upon the Bible, that he will give James and Sally their freedom that they consent to return with him. Sally is also pregnant with Jefferson's child, and Jefferson extends his oath to promise freedom to all of Sally's children as well.

Ludington, the daughter of a colonel in the Colonial militia, Henry Ludington, is said to have made an all-night horseback ride 40 miles (64 km) to rally militia forces in neighboring towns after the burning of Danbury, Connecticut, by British forces. Historically known as the "female Paul Revere," her Ride is disputed Sybil's ride by some, is a example of courage and faith, standing courageously and boldly with her father. Nevertheless, it is example of fortitude and courage.

During the 1700s, in the Great Lakes region the British troops have driven the French out and with help from the mercenary Hessian troops the British plan to annihilate the native tribes of the Ottawas. The film covers the Conflict between Ottawas, led by Chief Pontiac, and the British during 1763.

During the 1700s, in the Great Lakes region the British troops have driven the French out and with help from the mercenary Hessian troops the British plan to annihilate the native tribes of the Ottawas. The film covers the Conflict between Ottawas, led by Chief Pontiac, and the British during 1763.

This is a film portrayal the Hawthorne novel dealing with life and morals among the Puritans of Massachusetts.

This episode of THE GREAT ADVENTURE, a TV series on American historical events and persons, covers the events leading to JOHN BROWN's disastrous raid on Harper's Ferry in 1859.

This episode of THE GREAT ADVENTURE, a TV series on American historical events and persons, recounts the story of Edwin Drake, the first man to drill for oil in the U.S. and to revolutionize oil production.

This episode of THE GREAT ADVENTURE, a TV series on American historical events and persons, narrates the rise and fall of BOSS TWEED and his Tammany Hall political machine in 1860s New York City. .

This episode of THE GREAT ADVENTURE, a TV series on American historical events and persons, tells the strike led by Armenian immigrant ISAAK BEDROSIAN and the efforts in 1894 by farmers from California's Central Valley to get their produce to market by wagon despite attempts by the Southern Pacific Railroad to foil their efforts and preserve their monopoly of transporting produce.