SnoopyStyle Amantha Starr (Yvonne De Carlo) is the cultured daughter of a Kentucky slave owner. Abolitionist Seth is taken with her. Upon her father's death, she returns home to find Miss Idell had claimed the estate and Amantha was ruled to be born from a slave mother. The blue-eyed white girl is taken by the slave trader to pay off her father's debt. Hamish Bond (Clark Gable) takes pity on her and bids the vast sum of $5k to purchase her. He may be kind to his slaves but he is still a slave owner. Rau-Ru (Sidney Poitier) and Michele are two of his slaves. The Civil War begins.It's an odd concept to put a white woman into slavery of the old South. Based on a novel by Robert Penn Warren, maybe there is good intention in the material but it does not execute well. Hamish tries to be heroic but I can't accept it. At least, Beauty and the Beast has the Beast grow into loving Beauty. Clark Gable is playing Clark Gable. Hamish isn't the character who grows but it's up to Amantha to grow from her freed high-class privilege to submit to her romanticism. Her reversals are neck breaking. Why she would spend time with Charles is beyond me. It's also a little shocking to see Poitier play this role although he does give it depth. There are some bad classic slave characters. This has some really clunky turns and the pulpy romance does not help. I'm not saying that this somehow supports slavery but it does have an idyllic version in addition to the more evil realistic one. There are lots to question but I'm uncertain about the intention.

HotToastyRag While Band of Angels has a very captivating premise, it's so terrible you'll wonder why you didn't just watch Gone with the Wind for the thirtieth time instead of taking a chance on it. It's another Civil War drama that takes place on a large Southern plantation, starring Clark Gable without a Southern accent. The costumes, designed by Marjorie Best, are breathtakingly beautiful, however, and every bit as lovely and authentic looking as Walter Plunkett's costumes in Gone with the Wind. The clothes are really the only good part of the film, so if you're the type of person who watches movies only to look at the costumes, rent this one.Yvonne De Carlo is a Southern belle, but when her father dies, her mother's race is revealed. Not only is Yvonne the descendant of a slave, but she has lost her inheritance to her father's plantation and fortune, and she's carted off to the selling block and sold as a slave. Wealthy plantation owner Clark Gable buys her with intentions to make her his mistress. I know the plot sounds like something you'd want to watch—it sounded that way to me, too—but there are lots of reasons why the film was so torturous. Either director Raoul Walsh gave his actors atrocious advice on how to deliver their lines, or everyone was naturally atrocious without his help. Clark Gable rattles off his lines the way he always does, quickly, without feeling, and with a sense that he's not really listening to himself. Carolle Drake, Clark's former slave mistress, reads her lines with worse delivery than a cold audition. And, as if to make up for it, Tommie Moore, another of Clark's slaves, hams up every single line as if she belongs in a bad community theater production.If horrible acting doesn't bother you, Max Steiner's score will. Just as an example, when Rex Reason announces he's been recruited to make speeches for President Lincoln, Max's music plays "I've Been Working on the Railroad" as he triumphantly leaves for his assignment. It's classic Max Steiner, which means he'll use silly ditties and score a drama as if it's a cartoon.On a side note, Sidney Poitier plays Clark Gable's "head slave". In the story, he seethes and resents Clark's kindness, and in his major scenes, he plays more a villain than a hero. I can't imagine white audiences in the 1950s were pleased with his character; it's pretty amazing he had a career after this movie.

DKosty123 Raoul Walsh never hesitated to take on controversial projects and here he takes one on and does a great job bringing it to the screen. What amazes me here is how good and healthy Clark Gable looks in this film. Especially considering he would soon be ill and dead though he was so busy as he approached 60 that he made a few more films. While there are comparisons to Rhett Butler obvious in this role, there are stark differences as well. Regardless, he brings this off very well.Yvonne De Carlo (Amantha Starr) is 35 at the time of this role, and looks to old for the role. Still, she comes off quite well as the heiress who loses her dad and her freedom because it turns out her mother was not white. She becomes a white slave. Sidney Portier is excellent as Rau-Ru, a black man adopted by Hamish Bond (Gable) and treated as his son. Gable does not appear in the first part of this film. His first appearance is when he bids on Starr at the slave auction. Hamish will eventually seduce Starr and though they fall in love, he can not marry her because she is part black. These 3 actors get excellent support from a pretty well known supporting cast. One very interesting note here is that Marshall Bradford as Maj. Gen. Benjamin Butler gets no credit for his role, but he is shown as yes, the Union committed crimes in the war too. Butler's unit taking New Orleans is a major part of this. There were no angels on either side in the war.Warren, who also wrote All The Kings Men that brought a fictional account of Huey Long (Louisana Politician) to life as Willie Stark, stays in the state (after a brief 30 minutes in Kentucky) with this novel. I am not sure if it was Walsh who was the stickler here, or Warren who deserves the credit for one factual thing in this film which had not been done since silent films. When Butler's troops take the town, this film shows the real Confederate Flag (not the racist Stars & Bars) coming down and being replaced by the Union Flag.This film does have a rose colored glasses approach to slavery, but the attitude of Rau-Ru is actually right on. People being too nice is a trap that still exists today. The Democratic Party has tried to make it law that blacks be treated equal, and have tried to erase their history of discrimination. Hamish is actually a Southern White Democrat, Liberal enough in his views to have educated a Black Man to try and relieve his conscience for what he had done to blacks when he was younger. This reminds me of Bill Clinton visiting poor black churches when he was President to make up for his support as Gov of Arkansas of some prominent racists Democrats, and his mentor Robert Byrd, former KKK Grand Wizard, who in real life very much resembled Hamish. This film is very much worth watching if just to remember what slavery was, though the worst parts of it are only talked about. What hammers it home is the treatment of Yvonne De Carlo (Amantha Starr) after her fathers death. She loses her freedom and her rights. It is shocking that this type of thing ever happened.

Esmollin No one has mentioned that Band of Angels was a novel first, by Robert Penn Warren. The movie is fairly true to the book, except for the ending. Also, some details are condensed. In the book, Mantey is with Hamish longer, before they go to Point de Loupe and she decides to stay with him. That makes more sense. I feel that, for 1957, this was about as honest a film as they could get away with. yes, there are stereotyped characters, but they are from the novel. Clarke Gable was very good as Hamish Bond, there is some excellent acting here. And some reviewers mock the singing of the slaves. But do some research, they did sing. One reason, it was one of the few releases they were allowed. Sometimes they sang in codes. Read the book. Also, I suggest reading, "12 years a slave" before seeing that, which will open soon.