drystyx Make no mistake, Guy Madison invented the word "cool". Any dictionary dated before his birth that has the word "cool" in it, is a forgery.Knowing this helps to cast him in the correct role. He was meant to be the "cool" character who makes sense out of situations in which lesser characters lose their heads.Here, he is perfectly cast. He is the fourth character, actually, in the love triangle, which is where he does best.The southern belle's husband appears only briefly, and is afterwards only spoken of in his endeavors in this Civil War adventure.The other member of the triangle is an artillery officer for the South, who resembles Gable in looks, but in character is more like John Wayne.Guy Madison plays the Union artillery officer opposing him. He is also a friend of all three of the other characters.The story is a familiar one, one that has been made many times since, of Confederates on a mountain, trying to buy time for their army.What really makes this film special is that it could have been cliché, but it avoids all of the clichés. The characters are probably much too believable and three dimensional for the modern beavis or butthead, but easy for most people to relate to and feel some empathy for. This is not for the IMDb bubble boy.The soldiers are especially three dimensional. One Union soldier whom we expect to be the usual cliché jerk, actually becomes a very sympathetic character in this drama.The events seem to be written as they occur. Nothing looks contrived, so when we find the coincidence of the friends meeting in battle on opposite sides, it becomes the only coincidence, making it quite credible, as in a world where there are a million possible coincidences an hour, one is sure to happen.It is the natural flow and non judgmental occurrences, where the chips land wherever they may land, that make this special.Excellent war Western.

vitaleralphlouis What awful lies they told about the alleged Superior Quality of DVD's. Bunk! They cleaned up the master prints of a few classic films when DVD was brand new, in order to sell the public a bill-of-goods. Now we are stuck! The main thing about Drums in the Deep South is the lack of preservation regarding both picture and sound. Both were pretty bad in VHS, equally bad (of course) in DVD.The joy of watching this low budget Civil War era movie is seeing our brave men fighting against the invaders entering our Confederacy. Others might care who gets Barbara Peyton, but I simply care about whether cannons are in place to effectively blast General Sherman.Although the North was industrial and more populated compared to the South's agriculture, the more numerous and well equipped army of the North was ill-matched against the Southern sharpshooters. With slavery continuing in Northern states while supposedly fighting to end slavery in the South, Union forces were also ill-matched in righteous motivation. The result was that although the North ultimately prevailed, it was at the expense of their taking 67% of the casualties. The North lost 2 men in battle for every 1 man Southern man lost. This is the kind of spirit that keeps a pro-Southern movie on the market -- and remembered -- 57 years after it was made.

jsmelton-1 I usually don't hold out much hope when it comes to movies about Mr. Lincoln's War. Hollywood seldom gets it right on all things Southern and/or Confederate. I think the leading lady's contempt for the Yankees was accurate. And I believe that the movie generally portrayed the Yankee attitudes accurately. The most I had a problem with in this movie was the liberal propaganda garbage at the end about us becoming a unified and indivisible nation. The reconstruction and the general attitudes for the South following the war contradict that concept completely.I did notice a chronological error toward the beginning of the movie. When it is announced that war has been declared. Clay states that he is going to report to Richmond. At the beginning of the war a capital had not been established for the Confederacy, not to mention the first one was in Alabama. And even more importantly, Virginia had not yet seceded.As a whole the movie was okay and I would give it an overall recommendation.

gftbiloxi Although he designed and directed a number of notable films, today William Cameron Menzies is best recalled as the director of the "so bad it's good" 1953 INVADERS FROM MARS. His work with the 1951 DRUMS IN THE DEEP SOUTH might be considered a build up to that ham-fisted style, for it has the same flatness. Sad to say, it has none of the same fun.The story concerns a Confederate effort to thwart Sherman's advance on Atlanta. Strange to say, however, Georgia seems to have been transplanted to the wild west for purposes of the film, which comes complete with a mesa on which the Confederates desire to plant their cannon and fire upon the railroad below. Throw in a love triangle and some of the most uninspired acting you can obtain and you have DRUMS IN THE DEEP SOUTH.Today the film is best recalled for the presence of actress Barbara Payton (1927-1967), a performer who trembled on the brink of stardom in the late 1940s and early 1950s before she self-destructed in a hog-wallow of sex, booze, drugs, and front page scandal. It is easy to see what the fuss was about: she has a dead-pan sexuality, larger-than-life beauty, and memorable speaking voice. Unfortunately, none of these qualities have much to do with either film or role, and even her cult-status can't make up for what is basically a remarkably shallow, incredibly silly, and deadly dull film.Unless you are desperate to see what Payton looked like on the screen before she ended up as a five dollar hooker working the Sunset Strip, DRUMS ALONG THE DEEP SOUTH is a film to avoid at all costs. Treat it as you would the plague.Gary F. Taylor, aka GFT, Amazon Reviewer