Song of the Eagle
Cast & Crew
Ralph Murphy
Charles Bickford
Richard Arlen
Mary Brian
Jean Hersholt
Louise Dresser
Film Details
Technical Specs
Synopsis
In 1916, Otto Hoffman takes his sons, Bill and August, into his successful beer brewing business. Unfortunately, World War I robs the Hoffmans of their son August, but Bill returns with three good buddies, Charlie, Mud and Gus, whose lives he saved. At the close of the war, Prohibition closes the brewery, and there is little work for the returning soldiers. Gus is hired by bootlegger Joe Anderson, who used to be one of the Hoffman's favorite truck drivers. Otto and Bill start producing "near beer" to maintain some kind of profit for the brewery. Now a gangster, Joe tries to intimidate Otto into selling the brewery to him, but Otto refuses to cooperate. Bill marries Elsa, daughter of family friend Emil Kranzmeyer, after the 1929 stockmarket crash, and the Hoffmans are forced to sell their home, while Joe shows off his car with bulletproof glass. After the election of Franklin Delano Roosevelt to the presidency, Prohibition is finally repealed, and the Hoffmans gleefully send out their first truckload of beer, while Joe, now also known as "Nails," plans his protection racket. Joe and his thugs intimidate bar and store owners into selling his beer instead of the Hoffmans' by intimidation and violence. Many of the Hoffman employees quit out of fear, and after Elsa's father is killed by Joe's thugs for refusing to quit his job, Bill hires a group of unemployed ex-soldiers who are ready for good pay and a good cause. On Armistice Day, Bill celebrates with the soldiers at his brewery when Gus comes to warn him that he is on Joe's hit list. Unknown to Bill, Gus was sent to kill him and has sacrificed his life to save Bill, who once saved his life on the battlefield. Otto is killed the same night that he is to be made president of the United Brewmasters Association, and Bill is forced to break the news to his mother, Emma. Later, Bill gets the approval of the police chief in his fight against the gangsters, who deputizes Bill's workers. After Elsa tells Emma that Joe is the gangster who killed Otto, Emma goes to Joe's office, which is in her former home, and kills him. At the same time, Bill and his men are about to be shot by Joe's thugs when the rest of Bill's employees come out of hiding to fight. The workers win and throw the thugs into trucks headed for the police station. Although the police find Emma's German bible at the scene of Joe's death, they think it had been left over from when she lived there and dismiss the case as having been an inside job. Although Emma prays for her sins, peace is restored to the Hoffman home as they welcome Bill and Elsa's new baby boy into the world.
Director
Ralph Murphy
Cast
Charles Bickford
Richard Arlen
Mary Brian
Jean Hersholt
Louise Dresser
Andy Devine
George E. Stone
Gene Morgan
Bert Sprotte
George Meeker
Julie Haydon
Harry Walker
James Bradbury Jr.
Crew
Lloyd Ahern
Tommy Atkins
Graham Baker
Elwood Bredell
Harry Joe Brown
William Carr
John Eckhardt
David Garber
Bernie Grossman
Lynn Harrison
Al Holton
Joseph Kane
Harold Lewis
John Link
Willard Mack
Fred Mayer
Irving Newmeyer
G. B. Rayburn
Casey Robinson
Charles R. Rogers
Henry Sharp
Gene Towne
V. E. Vernon
Phil G. Wisdom
Film Details
Technical Specs
Quotes
Trivia
Notes
Variety mentions that the screenplay erred in one scene in which the Jess Willard-Jack Dempsey fight in Toledo is discussed, as prohibition did not occur until after the fight. New York Times notes the film opened with a dedicatory note to President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, which was not in the print viewed.
