Let Freedom Ring

Let Freedom Ring is a pleasant way to kick back and relax for part of an afternoon. It isn't without its corniness and the story is thin and jumbled, even with these there isn't really anything that is terribly wrong about Let Freedom Ring. It is beautifully shot with an evocatively rendered setting, there's definitely a western aura about it. The music is catchy with clever lyrics, When Irish Eyes are Smiling comes off best, while the dialogue is mostly witty, heartfelt and thoughtful with the odd corny moment. The western and patriotic parts are rousing and don't preach at all, and the more romantic parts are full of charm. The message is a good one and it is one that still resonates. The direction is efficient and done with professionalism. The performances are great, Lionel Barrymore, Edward Arnold(on menacing villain duty) and especially Victor McLaglen fare the best in support, while Virginia Bruce is a smart and alluring female lead, also exuding a great deal of charm. Nelson Eddy is in glorious voice, not a surprise as his voice is a contender for the most beautiful baritone voice on film(between him and Howard Keel), and it is here where he gives one of his better acting performances, he can be wooden but here he looks very comfortable and his performance is very solid. In conclusion, a really nice film. 8/10 Bethany Cox

Scenarist Ben Hecht's tract to ethnic toleration does not lack the production values and quality of acting necessary for its artistic success. Within the format of a Hollywood-style Western, it is an easy task for Hecht to insert his typical hyperbole in the form of some truly crimson prose directed against big business represented by expanding railroad interests. Edward Arnold gives a solid performance as Jim Knox, a railway plutocrat who is determined to manipulate and exploit a polyglot force of European immigrant workers, led by their rough and ready Irish foreman, played to the hilt by Victor MacLaglen in this post-War Between the States musical melodrama. How to oppose Knox' land grabbing is the plight of a small coterie of settlers led by Tom Logan and his recently Harvard-graduated son Steve, portrayed by Lionel Barrymore and baritone Nelson Eddy. Reliable Jack Conway directs with proletarian emphasis, featuring closeups of seamed and craggy-faced railroad laborers, whose basic needs are apparently implemented whenever the sturdy Eddy bursts into song. Eddy employs the method of a clandestine newspaper to undermine the plans of the villainous capitalist Knox, working hand-in-hand with a sidekick, acted very nicely by the extraordinary ad lib performer, Charles Butterworth, whose nonpareil timing is a delight in his every scene. This is the first appearance of the seasoned Eddy without an equal singing partner, and he proves more than capable of carrying the show, although he is joined briefly during one number by his romantic interest, the talented and beautiful Virginia Bruce. Without question a disputation against capitalist profiteering, LET FREEDOM RING is even more a rousing entertainment, knitted with wonderful music, a top-flight cast, and neatly crafted direction.

LET FREEDOM RING is a well intentioned musical comedy about the post-Civil War age of the robber barons. So, who should play a smiling, unscrupulous business tycoon but that most realistic one Edward Arnold - in the year that he also played Boss Jim Taylor in MR. SMITH GOES TO WASHINGTON (and shortly before his fascist minded tycoon in Capra's MEET JOHN DOE). Only his attempt to dominate a small western town that is in the way of his planned railroad somehow comes to the attention of the U.S. Government, who send Nelson Eddy as a special agent to unite the townspeople to confront and defeat the nefarious Arnold. This should tip one off as to this being a Hollywood fantasy. The government in Washington in the 1870s would not only have not bothered sending any agent out to do this, but it would have sent word to Arnold (with palm outstretched) that it was there to assist him in his land grabbing activities. If you doubt me, read Allan Nevins' biography of Stuyvesant Fish, President Grant's Secretary of State - the most honest man in his government. Nevins chronicles the series of scandals that tarnished Grant's two terms, several dealing with railroads.

It is a disparate group that Eddy has to bring together. Besides his love interest (Virginia Bruce) there is the Mayor (Guy Kibbee), the local newspaper editor (Raymond Walburn), the railroad's leading bully boy (a misguided one, as it turns out) Victor MacLaghlan, and such strong, firm citizens as Charles Butterworth. Yet, at the end of this cute little film Eddy manages to get the townspeople united against Arnold and his moneyed army. They sing their defiance in Edward's face. Watch the conclusions of this bizaare movie closely. Arnold is not defeated at the end...he justs realizes he has miscalculated in that he picked a route that goes through a town full of lunatics. He shakes his head in bewilderment, picks himself up (probably realizing that the route through some more promising town is better), and leaves. Knowing how smart Edward was, he probably did build his railroad through a better route after all!

He may have written this script in the hopes that it would have been given a more serious treatment by MGM. Instead his rail against internal industrial fascism on the eve of America's entry into WW2 to fight external fascists was turned into a starring vehicle for Nelson Eddy of all people. Hecht must have gone on an extended bender when he heard his story was going to be punctuated by several of Eddy's baritone interludes.

Does it all gel? No. It's a bit of shizophrenic curiosity piece to say the least. But Hecht's message resonates now as it did then, and the picture does provide many pleasing moments and is actually quite entertaining to sit through.

Eddy is likable and is even believable as a two fisted hero. His scenes with Victor McLaglen, actually beating the hell out of McLaglen in the last act, are a hoot. McLaglen is always a fun ham to watch and here he's playing his usual larger than life Irishman, though more like his turn in the Quiet Man than his lovable appearances as the Sergeant in John Ford's Cavalry trilogy. McLaglen was branded (no doubt unfairly) with the reputation of being a crypto-fascist around the time this came out. This role probably had a lot to do with it.

As far as villains go, Edward Arnold played the most menacing corporate/political wolves captured on film in that era. Here he's at it again, playing Dick Cheney to good effect a couple of years before Dick Cheney was even hatched. He also appeared in a very similar role in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington the very same year as this release.

This film is uneven, at times unbelievable, and very corny. It lands short of being good but it's still fun, thought provoking (what with the current political climate), and worth seeing.

"Let Freedom Ring" is a very odd film from MGM. After all, it stars Nelson Eddy without Jeanette MacDonald and he plays a singing action hero!! And, the film has one of the schmaltziest endings I've ever see in a movie!!

The railroad is heading west and naturally folks want the railroad. But the problem is that a gangster-type named Jim Knox (Edward Arnold) is obtaining land and selling it to the railroads....and he's not about to pay decent money to the ranchers who own the land. Instead, his thugs chase people away and threaten them....and the judge and sheriff are in Knox's employ! So, Steve Logan (Nelson Eddy) cannot directly attack Knox but instead pretends to be working with him....biding his time until a final showdown.

Sadly, the final showdown was so patriotically schmaltzy that it almost had me ready to go join the communist party!! It pretty much ruined the film. Before the ending...I might have given it a 7. But the ending is just embarrassingly bad.