THEY DIED WITH THEIR BOOTS ON Movie Review
1941 Raoul Walsh
Raoul Walsh's sprawling and hugely inaccurate biopic is also contradictory. On one hand, star Errol Flynn makes Gen. George Armstrong Custer a dashing, attractive hero. But behind the glamour, the character is a vainglorious, publicity-hungry idiot whose success comes from dumb luck and a wife whose family is well connected politically. In short, this Custer is a 19th century media whore. Though there appears to be at least a grain of truth to that interpretation of the man, other historical facts fare poorly here. Director Walsh and writers Wally Kline and Aeneas MacKenzie play fast and loose in their creation of villains and in the Civil War scenes, which are pure Hollywood eyewash.
The story begins with Custer's arrival at West Point in 1857, where nasty upperclassman Ned Sharp (Arthur Kennedy) takes advantage of the dim-witted newcomer. Even without Sharp's interference, Custer manages to accumulate such an impressive number of demerits that his military career is saved only by the South's secession. Most of the staff officers in Washington realize how incompetent he is, but Custer ingratiates himself with Gen. Winfield Scott (Sydney Greenstreet), is given an assignment, and steals a horse to get to the Manassas battlefield. A clerical error results in his promotion to Brigadier General and he's off to Gettysburg, where he disobeys orders and defeats Jeb Stuart's cavalry. That sequence sets the tone for the rest of the film.
To the accompaniment of Max Steiner's rousing score, Custer leads his men in repeated cavalry charges. The cannons thunder, the music rises up, Errol brandishes his saber, hundreds of horsemen gallop from left to right across your screen and into a cloud of dust. Seconds later, a few of them return. Reinforcements are brought up and Errol valiantly leads them in another charge. Cue cannon, cue music, cue smoke. Not one single Confederate is even seen, much less engaged in combat. But Custer has saved the Union single-handedly, so he can go back to Michigan and marry the lovely Elizabeth Bacon (Olivia de Havilland).
Presently, they're off to the West, where they meet Crazy Horse (Anthony Quinn) and Custer promises him that the Great White Father will honor all of his promises, etc., etc. The film's portrayal of black and Indian characters is casually, paternalistically racist, though the pidgin-spouting Indians are treated with a degree of sympathy. In fact, the final reels resort to lawyer- and government-bashing to set up the Battle of Little Big Horn. Sharp reappears as a villain who sells whiskey to the cavalry and repeating rifles to the Indians, and by the time they meet again, Custer and Crazy Horse are almost on the same side.
The battle itself is handled well by second-unit director “Breezy” Eason, who performed an identical job on Charge of the Light Brigade. The tactics and the landscape may not have anything to do with reality, but the scene is a fine piece of energetic filmmaking. And throughout, Flynn and Olivia de Havilland radiate enough pure star power to make the proceedings thoroughly entertaining. They're abetted by some superb characters, including Hattie McDaniel. Kennedy is at his nasty best, and Greenstreet's garrulous General brings to mind his work in The Maltese Falcon. They make the film first-rate escapism, and an important part of Hollywood's mythologization of the West.
Cast: Errol Flynn (George Armstrong Custer), Sydney Greenstreet (Gen. Winfield Scott), Anthony Quinn (Crazy Horse), Hattie McDaniel (Callie), Arthur Kennedy (Ned Sharp), Gene Lockhart (Samuel Bacon), Regis Toomey (Fitzhugh Lee), Olivia de Havilland (Elizabeth Bacon Custer), Charley Grapewin (California Joe), G.P. Huntley Jr. (Lt. Butler), Frank Wilcox (Capt. Webb), Joseph Sawyer (Sgt. Doolittle), Eddie Acuff (Cpl. Smith), Minor Watson (Sen. Smith), Tod Andrews (Cadet Brown), Stanley Ridges (Maj. Romulus Taipe), John Litel (Gen. Philip Sheridan), Walter Hampden (William Sharp), Joseph Crehan (President Grant), Selmer Jackson (Capt. McCook), Gig Young (Lt. Roberts), Dick Wessel (Staff Sgt. Brown); Written by: Wally Kline, Aeneas MacKenzie; Cinematography by: Bert Glennon; Music by: Max Steiner; Technical Advisor: Lt. Col. J.G. Taylor. Producer: Robert Fellows, Hal B. Wallis, Warner Bros. Running Time: 141 minutes. Format: VHS, Beta.