I saw this film around the age of 7 (1977), shown on late-night TV (my, those were the days when you could REALLY see the classics! TV is not quite as satisfying today....), and my fuzzy memory tells me that it features a quasi-sappy romance between the two main characters. I loved it at the time, and would very much love to see it again, to see just how good (or rotten) my taste-level was (is).
11 Reviews
A great story told about Virginians and filmed in Virginia
whaieyworksinc20 March 2005
I sought out this movie because it was filmed in Howardsville and Albemarle county here in Virginia. I heard about the film because my grandfather, Willis Floyd Martin of neighboring Nelson county, was hired by the film company. He and others were put to task beating the tree branches to keep that summer's swarming locusts at bay. Apparently, the song of the locusts was drowning out the director and actors. The locations are authentic. A highlight was to see the now defunct Nelson-Albemarle, or was it Albemarle-Nelson, railway. The script reveals a genius that I was startled to hear uttered in 1940, when this movie was filmed. While grandpa was busy scattering locusts on the set, grandma was birthing my mother. Would love to have a copy of this gem, all I have is a poorly recorded network TV airing. Another great local movie is a comedy filmed about life in Lynchburg, "The Vanishing Virginian."
southern flag-waving in technicolor
jimakros18 January 2012
this is one of very few color pictures made,up to that time,so its interesting if only for that.The cast is great looking,MacMurray and Madeleine Carroll made many movies together,here one also gets a very young Sterling Hayden.This was supposedly shot on location ,which was very uncommon in those days,and it shows in a beautiful horseriding sequence.The story is pure southern flag-waving,the south is represented by the MacMurray character,who is a poor,educated,honest farmer full of ideals about southern tradition.The yankees are a bunch of ignorant,too rich with too much time on their hands folk,who are only interested in a good time.Anyway,if one gets over the flag-waving ,its still a goodlooking picture with some attractive actors.
This is a great film - it doesn't matter that the theme
robpeters195123 December 2003
This is a great film - it doesn't matter that the theme somewhat reminds you of another Southern-based film - or that characters are loosely similar to that other film - what matters is that my grandparents were extras in the picture at the very beginning! Grandma & Grandpa Hurt lived in Howardsville, Virginia (and so did my Father's parents, Grandma & Grandpa Peters) and that station was chosen to be the mythical Fairville, Virginia (over another nearby town to that town's chagrin). My Father's grandparents (Peters) are standing behind Fred MacMurray on the station platform as the train arrives in the opening sequence. My grandfather Hurt was off camera behind the same scene! Okay, so my Mother & Father told me this story - over and over again! But because of that story, my interest in film-making was kindled. I've found a copy of the film (on DVD no less!) but I'm still looking for a "clean" copy of the film or a set of 'reels' from a theater. It's a great film for sitting in front of the fireplace with a warm cup of cocoa and watching. (I also have one copy of a photo from my aunt Eleanor that was taken during a break in shooting that has cast and crew in it.)
Historically ridiculous...and overlong.
planktonrules4 November 2018
While "Virginia" was filmed in Technicolor, you'd never believe it if you see the copy floating around on YouTube! It's completely washed out and all the colors look like sepia. I do hope there's a better copy available than this one.
Charlotte Dunterry (Madeliene Carrol) is returning to her ancestral home in Virginia. Why she has a British accent and grew up no where near the South seemed odd. But was even odder was what happened next. When she arrived at the old plantation, she finds that the black people NEVER left the place because they adored their white masters so much. In fact, with no Dunterrys there...they just waited....and waited. Apparently, these folks resented the abolition of slavery...and people watching it today will likely be annoyed or confused by bizarro view of slavery!! Add to that the words used to describe these folks and you have a recipe for a heart attack for the easily offended!
In addition to presenting a ridiculous view of the South, the movie has to do with Charlotte's love life. After all, she has two men who adore her...but since it's a movie, you know something is going to prevent her from getting the right one until the story ends! Will she end up with young Sterling Hayden or Fred MacMurray? This portion of the story is mildly interesting...too bad it's burdened with the crazy pro-slavery theme!
This film not only is a bad history lesson, but it is simply one cliche after another...and quite formulaic. Again and again, I predicted exactly what would happen next because of this. Overall, a poorly written and rather silly picture.
Charlotte Dunterry (Madeliene Carrol) is returning to her ancestral home in Virginia. Why she has a British accent and grew up no where near the South seemed odd. But was even odder was what happened next. When she arrived at the old plantation, she finds that the black people NEVER left the place because they adored their white masters so much. In fact, with no Dunterrys there...they just waited....and waited. Apparently, these folks resented the abolition of slavery...and people watching it today will likely be annoyed or confused by bizarro view of slavery!! Add to that the words used to describe these folks and you have a recipe for a heart attack for the easily offended!
In addition to presenting a ridiculous view of the South, the movie has to do with Charlotte's love life. After all, she has two men who adore her...but since it's a movie, you know something is going to prevent her from getting the right one until the story ends! Will she end up with young Sterling Hayden or Fred MacMurray? This portion of the story is mildly interesting...too bad it's burdened with the crazy pro-slavery theme!
This film not only is a bad history lesson, but it is simply one cliche after another...and quite formulaic. Again and again, I predicted exactly what would happen next because of this. Overall, a poorly written and rather silly picture.
Excellent cast -- Louise Beavers steals the acting honors -- in a beautifully written script
morrisonhimself1 April 2023
History as written by Hollywood is almost always wrong, to one extent or another. So it is exciting and gratifying to hear a movie character speak the accurate facts about the War Against Southern Independence.
That happens when the "Stoney" character, played by Fred MacMurray, explains to the returned neighbor, "Charlie," played by Madeleine Carroll, that the war was not about slavery. Amazing!
Schools and "news" media continue to parrot the lie to the contrary, never offering any documentation but continuing to spread the lie anyway.
The writers of this movie did a superlative job, not only getting the history right, but skillfully creating characters we viewers can care about, characters who might not be totally admirable but nearly all of whom are likable.
Those writers are Edward H. Griffith and Virginia Van Upp, Van Upp writing the screen play from their story. Griffith is also the director.
Two of my favorite character actors are here, Paul Hurst and Louise Beavers.
Yes, I am partial, but I believe Louise Beavers walks off with the acting honors. She simply steals every scene she is in.
Paul Hurst had a long career, starting in silent films, but this is one of his best roles. It and his character in the John Wayne "The Angel and the Badman" (about five years after this one) show him at his very capable best.
"Stirling" Hayden, as he is billed, is in one of his earliest roles and he is, simply, great. He looks good and is apparently comfortable in front of the camera. It doesn't hurt that his character is so well written.
Two of the other reviews here are by people who have, or had, a direct connection. Their commentary adds immensely to the enjoyment of this movie, which I discovered purely by accident: reading a post on a social medium.
"Virginia" is a charming movie, with story, acting, and general ambience all contributing to create a good motion picture. The only drawback is the terrible and too-old print at YouTube. I do hope there is a better one somewhere.
That happens when the "Stoney" character, played by Fred MacMurray, explains to the returned neighbor, "Charlie," played by Madeleine Carroll, that the war was not about slavery. Amazing!
Schools and "news" media continue to parrot the lie to the contrary, never offering any documentation but continuing to spread the lie anyway.
The writers of this movie did a superlative job, not only getting the history right, but skillfully creating characters we viewers can care about, characters who might not be totally admirable but nearly all of whom are likable.
Those writers are Edward H. Griffith and Virginia Van Upp, Van Upp writing the screen play from their story. Griffith is also the director.
Two of my favorite character actors are here, Paul Hurst and Louise Beavers.
Yes, I am partial, but I believe Louise Beavers walks off with the acting honors. She simply steals every scene she is in.
Paul Hurst had a long career, starting in silent films, but this is one of his best roles. It and his character in the John Wayne "The Angel and the Badman" (about five years after this one) show him at his very capable best.
"Stirling" Hayden, as he is billed, is in one of his earliest roles and he is, simply, great. He looks good and is apparently comfortable in front of the camera. It doesn't hurt that his character is so well written.
Two of the other reviews here are by people who have, or had, a direct connection. Their commentary adds immensely to the enjoyment of this movie, which I discovered purely by accident: reading a post on a social medium.
"Virginia" is a charming movie, with story, acting, and general ambience all contributing to create a good motion picture. The only drawback is the terrible and too-old print at YouTube. I do hope there is a better one somewhere.
An overabundance of clichés, stereotypes and pretentiousness in a pretty package.
mark.waltz8 May 2013
Warning: Spoilers
Modern clothing and attitudes take the post-civil war south a generation and a half after Lee's surrender, uppity northerners take over abandoned plantations and a daughter of Virginia returns home to battle a supposed family curse. Madeline Carroll is lovely as the heroine who loves impoverished Virginian Fred MacMurray whose family estate has ended up in the hands of New Yorker Sterling Hayden. Happy "darkies" (as everybody in the film, including the northerners, refers to them as) have refused to leave their impoverished former masters while crying foul every time a Yankee moves into their midst. MacMurray and Carroll are in love, but his wife (and mother of his cute daughter, Carolyn Lee) is too busy sinning in Europe to grant him a divorce, even though everybody proclaims her a saint. Yes, preposterous and even tacky, but filmed in gorgeous Technicolor, it actually ends up being a guilty pleasure with its "Song of the South" mentality that obviously never existed.
Made on the trail of "Gone With the Wind", this is only missing a dance number between Lee and one of the aging black men still living on Carroll's estate, one of whom ironically shows up after 30 years in prison on the very day Carroll returns home. Handsome blonde macho Sterling Hayden gives the best performance among the Caucasians, and try hard not to want to jump through your screen to hug Louise Beavers as the oh-so-sweet Aunt Ophelia, offering homespun advice to her beloved Carroll, and dedicated to the family whose ancestors enslaved hers. The fact that these characters are more devoted to the ancestors of those who enslaved them than to their own people is really hard to swallow, but then again, so is a lot of history presented through Hollywood's eyes.
Helen Broderick gets some nice moments as MacMurray's spinster distant cousin, continuously courted by a determined neighbor. The presence of ditsy Marie Wilson only over-proves the fact that this film is lost in a time warp, certain elements of it that don't seem true to the late 1800's/early 1900's setting.
Made on the trail of "Gone With the Wind", this is only missing a dance number between Lee and one of the aging black men still living on Carroll's estate, one of whom ironically shows up after 30 years in prison on the very day Carroll returns home. Handsome blonde macho Sterling Hayden gives the best performance among the Caucasians, and try hard not to want to jump through your screen to hug Louise Beavers as the oh-so-sweet Aunt Ophelia, offering homespun advice to her beloved Carroll, and dedicated to the family whose ancestors enslaved hers. The fact that these characters are more devoted to the ancestors of those who enslaved them than to their own people is really hard to swallow, but then again, so is a lot of history presented through Hollywood's eyes.
Helen Broderick gets some nice moments as MacMurray's spinster distant cousin, continuously courted by a determined neighbor. The presence of ditsy Marie Wilson only over-proves the fact that this film is lost in a time warp, certain elements of it that don't seem true to the late 1800's/early 1900's setting.
"No place on earth do I love more sincerely"
bkoganbing25 January 2021
Whether one likes Virginia or not I think all will agree the film is in bad need of
restoration. This was a big budget item for Paramount in 1941 and it marked
Sterling Hayden's debut.
At least this corner of the Old Dominion doesn't look like it changed much since the Civil War. Madeleine Carroll is the heir to a large estate down there and she's come down from New York to sell the old plantation.
Selling the old place would offend local sensibilities and be contrary to the way of life or so Madeleine is informed by Fred MacMurray who has the place next door. But a transplanted northerner played vby Sterling Hayden next foor on the other side wants to buy the old plantation.
So Carroll is caught both romantically and business wise between MacMrray and Hayden. Guess who she chooses.
In real life she chose Sterling Hayden and one must read an account of how he arrived at Paramount with no theatrical background and got this second lead in a bid budget picture. It's all in his memoir The Wanderer.
The reason this film just ain't seen too often is the unbelievable portrayal of the black people who act like slavery never was abolished. Louise Beaver and Leigh Whipper and the rest made me wince and can you imagine what a black person might feel watching Virginia.
This will never make a top five for either of the three leads.
At least this corner of the Old Dominion doesn't look like it changed much since the Civil War. Madeleine Carroll is the heir to a large estate down there and she's come down from New York to sell the old plantation.
Selling the old place would offend local sensibilities and be contrary to the way of life or so Madeleine is informed by Fred MacMurray who has the place next door. But a transplanted northerner played vby Sterling Hayden next foor on the other side wants to buy the old plantation.
So Carroll is caught both romantically and business wise between MacMrray and Hayden. Guess who she chooses.
In real life she chose Sterling Hayden and one must read an account of how he arrived at Paramount with no theatrical background and got this second lead in a bid budget picture. It's all in his memoir The Wanderer.
The reason this film just ain't seen too often is the unbelievable portrayal of the black people who act like slavery never was abolished. Louise Beaver and Leigh Whipper and the rest made me wince and can you imagine what a black person might feel watching Virginia.
This will never make a top five for either of the three leads.
Ah, The Good Old Days With Stephen Foster Music
boblipton8 July 2019
Madeleine Carroll is broke and alone, so she comes back to the Virginia plantation she was born on and now owns, where she meets neighbor Fred MacMurray. His family plantation was repossessed by the bank when he was ten, and now is owned by rich Yankee Sterling Hayden (in his first movie) as a vacation home. As the movie progresses, Miss Carroll learns about the proud tradition of the decayed gentry of Virginia, and she and MacMurray fall in love. He, however, has a wife who fled Virginia five years earlier, leaving him to care for their daughter. Everyone in Virginia and Europe, whither she fled, knows about her and her wild ways, made the worse for never being specified.
The copy I saw was a poor one, derived from what I guess is an old VHS tape, and the undoubtedly once handsome Technicolor colorwork by Bert Glennon and William Skall has faded to blocky wisps. What remains is a typical romantic romantic comedy.
I could not watch this without thinking of the recent controversy over the University of Bowling Green deciding that Lilian Gish's participation in D.W. Griffith THE BIRTH OF A NATION rendered her name unfit to be placed on the Film scholarship and building she endowed when alive and in her will -- although there's been no mention of returning the money; as Vespasian said of the urine tax, "pecunia non olet". This one made my teeth clench, with Louise Beavers saying that freedom meant being alone, while slavery meant people cared; and blind Leigh Whipper creeping back from the prison he had been in for three quarters of a century, for killing a Yankee who was trying to kill Miss Carroll's grandfather, so he could die at home. Even the Civil War gets a calm consideration; when asked about slavery, Mr. MacMurray insists that the Emancipation Proclamation was simply a shrewd move in international politics.
As far as I can tell, everyone involved in this movie is dead, even Carolyn Lee, who played Mr. MacMurray's daughter. Good thing, too, considering what's happened to Miss Gish's name. No one in the movie seems to disapprove of the social situations of Virginia in what is offered as a contemporary portrait in the neighborhood of Manassas, except for Marie Wilson, and she's present as the comic, vulgarly rich Yankee who bought herself an aristocratic southern husband who's drinking himself to death for the shame of it. I suppose that's what happens when your standards are higher than those of an emperor.
It's a highly competently made movie intended to tread in the profitable footsteps of GONE WITH THE WIND. There's little doubt in my mind that it played very well in the Whites-Only downtown movie palaces that Paramount owned throughout the South.
The copy I saw was a poor one, derived from what I guess is an old VHS tape, and the undoubtedly once handsome Technicolor colorwork by Bert Glennon and William Skall has faded to blocky wisps. What remains is a typical romantic romantic comedy.
I could not watch this without thinking of the recent controversy over the University of Bowling Green deciding that Lilian Gish's participation in D.W. Griffith THE BIRTH OF A NATION rendered her name unfit to be placed on the Film scholarship and building she endowed when alive and in her will -- although there's been no mention of returning the money; as Vespasian said of the urine tax, "pecunia non olet". This one made my teeth clench, with Louise Beavers saying that freedom meant being alone, while slavery meant people cared; and blind Leigh Whipper creeping back from the prison he had been in for three quarters of a century, for killing a Yankee who was trying to kill Miss Carroll's grandfather, so he could die at home. Even the Civil War gets a calm consideration; when asked about slavery, Mr. MacMurray insists that the Emancipation Proclamation was simply a shrewd move in international politics.
As far as I can tell, everyone involved in this movie is dead, even Carolyn Lee, who played Mr. MacMurray's daughter. Good thing, too, considering what's happened to Miss Gish's name. No one in the movie seems to disapprove of the social situations of Virginia in what is offered as a contemporary portrait in the neighborhood of Manassas, except for Marie Wilson, and she's present as the comic, vulgarly rich Yankee who bought herself an aristocratic southern husband who's drinking himself to death for the shame of it. I suppose that's what happens when your standards are higher than those of an emperor.
It's a highly competently made movie intended to tread in the profitable footsteps of GONE WITH THE WIND. There's little doubt in my mind that it played very well in the Whites-Only downtown movie palaces that Paramount owned throughout the South.
"The War Wasn't Fought over Slavery"
reginamia16 April 2023
There is a fascination in watching old films that have become documentaries of past eras themselves. When I first began to watch 'Virginia' I became spellbound by the blithe way stereotypes were presented and accepted without question. Then I began to judge it from my own perspective now in 2023. Finally I came to a realization that while we cannot help the environment in which we were raised there are certain universal injustices that must be acknowledged by any thinking person. It is possible to be a caring, white landowner who feels affection and some responsibility for non white employees. It is not possible to refuse to see the equality and superiority of any person who honestly makes a success of life. Equally it is not possible to ignore the impediments put in front of non white Americans to intentionally make it extremely difficult for them to achieve success: in education, business, land ownership, etc.
When Fred MacMurray's character says, "The War Wasn't Fought over Slavery", and then goes on to say that the Emancipation Proclamation, since it wasn't enacted until 1863, was a political afterthought, I had to stop the film and listen again. His explanation as to why he thinks the Civil War should not be considered as the direct result of slavery, false as it is, is fascinating. You still hear that same statement but I had never heard anyone try to prove it by using the Emancipation Proclamation.
So, I give this film 5 stars because it is an excellent view into how the minds of Civil War apologists work, in real time. II could not give it more because some of its conclusions are horrifying. Ts casual racism, in a few different forms, both southern and northern, is worth investigation as well. The fact that in 1941 anyone could use racially charged epithets without pause and assume a completely different way of speaking to someone, based solely upon their color of skin, should elicit concern from anyone who watches it.
When Fred MacMurray's character says, "The War Wasn't Fought over Slavery", and then goes on to say that the Emancipation Proclamation, since it wasn't enacted until 1863, was a political afterthought, I had to stop the film and listen again. His explanation as to why he thinks the Civil War should not be considered as the direct result of slavery, false as it is, is fascinating. You still hear that same statement but I had never heard anyone try to prove it by using the Emancipation Proclamation.
So, I give this film 5 stars because it is an excellent view into how the minds of Civil War apologists work, in real time. II could not give it more because some of its conclusions are horrifying. Ts casual racism, in a few different forms, both southern and northern, is worth investigation as well. The fact that in 1941 anyone could use racially charged epithets without pause and assume a completely different way of speaking to someone, based solely upon their color of skin, should elicit concern from anyone who watches it.
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