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6.9/10
Senior Film Conservator
A definitive 6.9/10 rating for a film that redefined the boundaries of cult cinema. Song of the Eagle remains a cornerstone of transgressive art.
If you have seventy minutes to spare tonight and want to see how crazy pre-code movies could get, Song of the Eagle is absolutely worth a watch.
Anyone who likes family dramas mixed with sudden gangster shootouts will find this fascinating. But if you prefer slow, logical stories that don't skip through decades like a rock skipping on water, you'll probably get a headache.
It starts in 1916 with Otto Hoffman, a very proud German-American who brews the best beer in town. Jean Hersholt plays Otto with so much warmth you can practically smell the yeast and hops on him. 🍻
Then the Great War starts, and everything goes downhill incredibly fast. His son goes off to fight for America and doesn't come back, which is sad enough, but then Prohibition hits.
This is where the movie gets really interesting and a little bit messy. Otto closes his brewery because he refuses to break the law, which seems noble but leaves the door wide open for some very bad guys.
Enter Charles Bickford as a gangster who wants to use the empty brewery for his bootlegging operation. Bickford is great at playing guys you just want to punch in the face immediately.
There is this one scene where a bunch of gangsters show up at the house, and the tension is so thick you forget this is a movie from ninety years ago. It has that same desperate, gritty energy you find in Gold Diggers of 1933, where everyone is just trying to survive the depression.
But while that movie had big musical numbers, this one has people getting thrown off trucks. The violence comes out of nowhere and it is surprisingly brutal for 1933.
I did notice the editing is super choppy in the middle section. One minute we are mourning a character, and the next minute there is a wacky comedy scene with Andy Devine. 🤷♂️
It feels like the directors were worried the audience would get too sad, so they just threw everything at the wall. Some of the dialogue is incredibly clunky, too, like the writers were typing with one hand while eating a sandwich.
But honestly, that is why I liked it. It feels alive and desperate, like a newspaper headline that was printed while the ink was still wet.
The ending is a bit too neat, especially when the beer starts flowing again. Still, the journey there is wild enough to justify the quick resolution.
Give it a chance if you want to see a weird slice of history. Just don't expect a perfect masterpiece.
IMDb —
1919
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