Of Human Hearts
6.4 /10 1 Votes
59% Rotten Tomatoes Genre Drama, Western Duration Language English | 6.9/10 Country United States | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Release date February 11, 1938 (1938-02-11) Cast (Ethan Wilkins), (Jason Wilkins), (Mary Wilkins), (Jason Wilkins as a Child), (George Ames), (Dr. Charles Shingle) Similar movies Self/less , Sex Tape , No Escape , The Expendables 3 , Captain America: Civil War , The Peanuts Movie Tagline Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's Great $5,000 Title Contest Picture |
Of Human Hearts is a 1938 American drama film directed by Clarence Brown and starring Walter Huston, James Stewart and Beulah Bondi. Stewart plays a proud and ungrateful son who rebels against his preacher father and (after his father's death) neglects his poverty-stricken mother. Bondi was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.
Contents

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Plot

Young Jason Wilkins (Gene Reynolds) has a stern but loving preacher father, Rev. Ethan Wilkins (Walter Huston), and a doting mother, Mary Wilkins (Beulah Bondi). Jason is highly intelligent and outgoing, but also proud and stubborn. His father must often beat him with a leather strap for his impertinence, pride, and rudeness. As a young man (James Stewart), Jason falls in love with beautiful Annie (Ann Rutherford). When Jason's father takes him circuit riding, Jason rebels at the bad food and awful living conditions, and has a fistfight with his father. This ruptures their relationship.

Jason goes to medical school, and becomes a doctor. He is increasingly neglectful of his parents, and when his father dies he arrives too late to speak with him one last time. Despite his mother's poverty, Jason repeatedly asks her for money, forcing her to sell her silver spoons, and eventually her wedding band, for food. The American Civil War breaks out, and she must sell Jason's beloved horse Pilgrim to pay for his fancy $70.00 officer's uniform. When Jason fails to write to her for 2 years, Mrs. Wilkins assumes that he is dead and writes a letter to President Abraham Lincoln (John Carradine) asking for information in locating his grave. Lincoln issues an order requiring the young captain to appear before him without delay. Jason arrogantly assumes that he is about to be commended for his actions as a battlefield surgeon. Instead, with the two of them alone in his office, the President accuses him of possessing the worst human quality of all, ingratitude.
Cast

References
Of Human Hearts WikipediaOf Human Hearts IMDbOf Human Hearts Rotten TomatoesOf Human Hearts themoviedb.org