You never know where majolica is going to show up, even if it technically shouldn't be there. The film Of Human Hearts is a 1938 movie from MGM starring Walter Huston, James Stewart and Beulah Bondi. It tells the story of a poor minister and his family set in Antebellum rural Ohio before and during the Civil War.
It follows a minister played by Walter Huston and concentrates on the ungrateful son he raises played first as a child by Gene Reynolds and in his later years by James Stewart. The story begins around 1850 and runs through the mid 1860s. The majolica appears in the home of the minister in the early part of the story–a majolica oak leaf tray sitting on the family sideboard.
The reason I say that the majolica shouldn't technically be there is because it wouldn't have been made until at least 10 years after the period in which the scene is set. Perhaps the set director was ignorant or just lazy in placing it there. Since it was an MGM movie, it is most likely one of the same oak trays that later appear in the studio’s 1943 technicolor movie "Lassie Come Home."
It's very common to see the same sets, costumes and props in numerous movies as they were repeatedly drawn from the same studio warehouses. I make a game of actually looking for these kinds of things in old movies. There is a majolica clock I pointed out in my post on the film Gigi that has appeared in more MGM movies than I can count. There are even Web sites devoted to these kinds of things, like Recycled Movie Costumes.
Nonetheless, Of Human Hearts is a historical movie with some Civil War action sequences and something of a message picture, a bit unusual, but one worth your time if that is your cup of tea.
For a clip from the movie go here.
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