"Don't lose your freedom. Rally to Lebanon!"
George Marshall's Tap Roots (1948) draws inspiration from the same incident informing The Free State of Jones. A high-toned historical melodrama, it pits rugged Mississippians against Southern secessionists.The Dabney family presides over Lebanon, Mississippi circa 1860. After Mississippi secedes, father Hoab (Ward Bond) organizes resistance to the Confederacy. He asks help from Keith Alexander (Van Heflin), a seditious journalist who's courting his daughter Morna (Susan Hayward). Morna suffers a crippling accident and resists the advances of Clay (Whitfield Connor), a soldier also eying her sister Aven (Julie London). When war comes, Hoab, Keith and their followers face the Confederate army.
Based on James H. Street's novel, Tap Roots presages Friendly Persuasion and Shenandoah, a pacifist family resisting the Civil War. Scenarist Alan Lemay plays heavily on Southern courtliness. Illegitimate by birth and opinions, Keith clashes with hotheaded "gentleman" Clay and the high-born Dabneys. The Dabneys value independence over class concerns, creating a makeshift army of farmers, roughnecks and antislavery idealists. Keith claims their resistance folly, but sides with the Dabneys for Morna's sake.
Marshall handles the melodrama capably; the love quadrangle isn't overly mawkish, even when Clay returns as a Confederate. When war begins, Morna tries playing on Clay's sympathy; Hoab misunderstands, then disowns her. The Confederates torch Lebanon, forcing the Dabneys into guerrilla warfare. Tap Roots culminates in an impressive battle, with militiamen battling cavalry in the swamps and Hoab wandering half-crazed through shellfire.
Van Heflin sheds his trademark sternness to play a high-minded rogue. Susan Hayward acts simpering and desperate - not her most appealing role. Julie London's simple but sweet character is more effective. Ward Bond gives a solid turn, degenerating from idealism into manic desperation. Russell Simpson plays the doomed patriarch, Arthur Shields a priest. Boris Karloff makes an improbable Indian healer, complete with brownface and English accent.
Tap Roots is an enjoyable little gem. Unique in an era where Hollywood considered the Confederacy a noble belle époque, it's an entertaining tale of rugged individualism.
