Band of Angels

Based on a Robert Penn Warren novel of the same title, Band of Angels stars Yvonne De Carlo as Amantha Starr, the privileged daughter of a Kentucky plantation owner, who learns after her doting father’s death that her mother was enslaved , and that she is now legally property. Taken to New Orleans for auction, she is won by Hamish Bond (Clark Gable), a southern planter who treats his enslaved workers humanely to atone for a dark past—but is still resented by his right-hand man and overseer, Rau-Ru (Sidney Poitier), who escapes to join a Black Union army regiment when the Civil War breaks out. Fortunes turn and turn again in this flamboyant melodrama often compared to Gable’s more famous period performance, Gone with the Wind.

Series curator Steven W. Thrasher introduces the screening.