Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #50874 in DVD
• Released on: 2004-02-10
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Formats: Black & White, Closed-captioned, DVD-Video, Full Screen, Subtitled, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: English, French, Japanese
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 116 minutes

From Amazon.com
With its straightforward retelling of events leading up to the American Revolution, The Howards of Virginia is a standard slice of patriotism from Hollywood's golden age. Adapted by noted screenwriter Sidney Buchman from Elizabeth Page's 1939 bestseller Tree of Liberty, this colonial melodrama is notorious for saddling Cary Grant with one of his most ill-fitting roles, and it's true that Grant's 20th-century style clashes with his portrayal of buckskinned rebel Matt Howard. Still, his performance is far from being "really bad" (as critic Pauline Kael harshly opined), and Martha Scott brings tenacious dignity to her role as Howard's pragmatic wife, who defies her aristocratic family to join her new husband in the wilderness of Ohio. The stirrings of rebellion clash with some thankfully outmoded Hollywood clichés (such as Howard's initial rejection of his mildly disabled son), but overall this remains a respectable and altogether engaging historical adventure, encompassing the early career of Thomas Jefferson and noteworthy for its meticulous attention to period detail. --Jeff Shannon