"Of Human Hearts" is a schmaltzy historical melodrama that starts out okay, but gradually becomes ridiculous.
It begins in the 1840's, when the Reverend Ethan Wilkins (Walter Huston), arrives at a small town on the Ohio River, with his wife Mary (Beulah Bondi) and young son Jason (Gene Reynolds). The townspeople are a parsimonious group, led by George Ames (Guy Kibbee), the skinflint owner of the general store. At a meeting to welcome the new minister to their church, they trick the minister into accepting less salary than was agreed upon. But Rev. Wilkins accepts this, even though he knows he is being cheated.
Also, the town is not exactly big on education. After the schoolhouse burned down, the townspeople decided not to rebuild it, figuring "it wasn't good to bother the kids with too much book larnin'."
The Rev. Wilkins is very strict and forbids his son Jason to read magazines, even after Jason's mother buys her son a subscription to the news magazine "Harper's Weekly." (It's never stated exactly why the Reverend hates magazines.) But Jason befriends the town's drunken doctor (Charles Coburn), and develops an interest in medicine.
When Jason grows up (now played by James Stewart), he rebels against his father (with the usual father-son fistfight), and leaves home to attend medical school. Rev. Wilkins dies, and Mary Wilkins must occasionally sell items (i.e. silverware, furniture) inherited from her family. She sends the money to Jason, to keep him in medical school.
When the Civil War comes, Jason distinguishes himself as a Union Army surgeon, treating wounded soldiers on the battlefield. But he neglects to write his mother for three years, and she fears him dead.
Then comes the movie's most ridiculous scene. President Lincoln (John Carradine) receives a letter from Mary Wilkins asking him to find her son. He summons Jason Wilkins to the Oval Office -- calling him right out of a major battle where Wilkins is tending the wounded -- and demands to know why Wilkins hasn't written to his mother!
"You ungrateful young man!" Lincoln rails. "How could you forget to write to your own mother?"
"But...but Mr. President, I've been fighting the war for the past few years!" Wilkins stammers. "I've been saving wounded soldiers on the battlefield!"
"Sit down at my desk there and write your mother immediately!" says the President. "And if you don't write her once a week from now on, I'll have you court-martialed!"
(Unfortunately, I'm not making that last line up. Seems to me that Abe didn't have to call Jason in off the battlefield. He could've just sent a presidential order, "Write your mother, or else!")
Anyway, the movie is a silly historical melodrama and is probably best forgotten. Beulah Bondi does give a good performance, but it's not enough to save this picture for posterity.
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