A House Divided Reviews

Huston plays a hard-drinking fisherman, who, as the film opens, has just buried his wife. Left alone with his son, Montgomery, whom he considers a good-for-nothing weakling, Huston becomes lonely and signs up with a marriage agency to send him a new wife. Enter the young and pretty Chandler. It is soon obvious that Montgomery has fallen for her, and she for him. This leads to a climactic fight between father and son that leaves Huston crippled for life and filled with hate. Chandler and Montgomery prepare to leave the house, but a severe storm blows their way. Chandler is trapped on a boat drifting out to sea until father and son swallow their pride and pull together to save her life. Though based on the story "Heart and Hand," this material is obviously inspired by Eugene O'Neill's "Desire Under the Elms," a debt that remains clear despite the last-minute dialog changes by then-screenwriter John Huston (son of Walter Huston).