Movie Review For

They Died With Their Boots On which was directed by Raoul Walsh.

Errol Flynn as General George Armstrong Custer.
Olivia de Havilland as Libby Custer.
Sydney Greenstreet as General Winfield Scott.
Charley Grapewin as California Joe.
Anthony Quinn as the Sioux Indian Chief "Crazy Horse"
Arthur Kennedy as "Sharpe"

This was a movie that was well made and was easy to hold my interest throught the entire film. This film is definately one that took liberties with the actual events and is only to be taken with a grain of salt historically. That aside, as awork of Fiction-it was a great movie from beginning to ending.

The cast was a well chosen cast and IMO all fit perfectly together. Sydney Greenstreet was perfect for the robust General Winfield Scott and was a very likable character in the film. Arthur Kennedy was perfect as one of "Custer's" main antagonists throught the movie. Olivia de Havilland was IMO, at her most beautiful, in this movie.

Errol Flynn as usual was in one of his finest roles. Anthony Quinn was an excellent choice for portraying the Indian who defeated Custer at The Little Big Horn.

If we had a rating system I would give this a Nr 10 rating for a great entertaining movie.

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Originally posted by ethanedwards@Oct 31 2005, 08:59 PM
Hi Carl,
I have this film in my collection,
and class it as a must have, western,
It's a great film, but as we said before,
the magic was Errol,

Keith

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Hi Keith, I fully agree with you on Flynn being the one who carried this film.

I watched The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex last night. I think Flynn was the one who carried this film as well. this one was made just after he made The Adventures of Robin Hood. I felt that Flynn alone made this movie watchable and interesting though, I did like the performances of all the others especially Donald Crisp, Olivia de Havilland and Alan Hale. I'm not a fan of Bette Davis but she was likable in this film. I thought that the lady who played Queen Elizabeth in Sea Hawk, made a much better and likable Queen.

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Originally posted by William T Brooks@Nov 1 2005, 06:26 PM
Do any of you know where to get "They Died With their Boot on" and the "Flynn's Robin Hood" on D.V.D. ?

Chilibill

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Hello bill, i'd be glad to see if i can get someone to make you copies of mine if I can find a place to do it.

Oh and next review is: The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex, followed by Sea Hawk and then Captain Blood.

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Originally posted by Senta@Nov 3 2005, 01:08 AM
After this film I became very interested in Custor story and about his last stand. It was a suisida action. Why he did it this way. Is he somehow related with the hero of Fort Apache?
Regards,
Senta

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I don't think anyone knows Custer's real reason for attacking the Sioux camp by himself. It's all merely people's opinions why he did it.

One of the first things Custer did was to leave his wagon trains behind as well as his cannons and Gatlin guns. Custer was of the mind that he needed to be able to move very fast and not to have things to slow him down. Also, IMO, I think Custer wanted more glory for himself whinch in turn caused him not to make very good decisions and also causing him to lose all the troopers under his direct command. At this point of course, he had split his command into three colums.

Col 1 under his command.
Col 2 under the command of Major Reno.
Col 3 under the command of Captain Benteen.

Major Reno and Captain Benteens comands quickly came under attack by enough Indian Warriors to give them a brutal beating and almost a total defeat. Custer was the Indians main "prize." Custer soon came under attack and was surrounded. It took approximately 30 to 45 minutes for Custer's command to be wiped out to the last man. Reno & Beenteen each lost about half their commands but managed to breakout and escape.

If I had been Custer, I never would have left my wagon trains behind as well as I would have had my artillery and Gatlin guns with me. The indians hated cannon as well as the gatlin guns. Chances are, if Custer had had even just the gatlin guns with him, the Indians would have lost many more men than they would have been willing to lose and they most likely would have withdrawn.

Also, I would not have split up my command and I would not have put myself in the situation of being too far from General Terry's columns.

The film got it wrong about Terry's infantry being slaughtered as they were not very close to the Little Big Horn. Custer was close to the main Indian village and wanted to be the first to attack and IMO that was why he did not wait for General Terry to arrive. Also, I don't think Custer wanted to have someone in overall command of these combined Infantry and Cavalry forces.

By all means, Custer was not a coward but, I think his pride overloaded his braines when his braines were needed the most.

Hope this helps you Senta.

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Originally posted by Emmanuel@Nov 3 2005, 09:22 AM
Hi all

Although I like watching Errol Flynn movies
I don't have any of them in my collection.

Best regards

Emmanuel.

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Hi Emmanuel, I highly suggest as soon as you can get it, the Errol Flynn Signature Collection. As a bonus part of the collection, you get the Flynn documentary disk. Also, as a matter of fact, as I type this I am watching Sea Hawk on my portable DvD player. I can't get enough of that great movie.

Also, just yesterday I bought a copy of: The Grapes of Wrath which stars Henry Fonda, John Carradine, Charley grapewin & Ward Bond (who is not credited) This movie is also directed by John Ford and the book was written by John Steinbeck.

This movie tells the story of the Joad family and of their trek to find some work by migrating from oklahoma to California. They are full of hope only to have all hopes dashed. If you have not seen it, I highly recommend watching this movie.

Best regards--Carl.

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Originally posted by arthurarnell@Nov 3 2005, 02:35 PM
Hi

Errol Flynn was a vastly underated actor born in Tasmania he appeared as Fletcher Christian in an early version of The Mutiny on the Bounty. Moving to England he learned acting working in repertory in Northampton.

In the Charge of the Light Brigade he was sitting astride his horse in front of the line when an extra decided to be playful with his lance and prodded Flynns horse in the posterior with it, the Horse bucked throwing Flynn off. Whereupon both star and extra engaged in a mighty fist fight.

It was also that film that gave the name to David Niven's book when director Michael Curtiz ordering the unmounted horse to be brought up said Bring on the Empty Horses.

In the Private lives of Elizabeth and Essex Flynn was reputed to have had an ear infection which apparantly if he received a blow on it could have severely injured or killed him. Apparantly co star Bette davis was required to slapp him and in rehearsals really hammered into him to the point that he eventually threatened to belt her if she didn't ease up.

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Hi Arthur, thank you for your excellent posts. I learned more about Flynn from them than I had earlier known.

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Originally posted by Patrick@Nov 3 2005, 05:26 PM
I've always loved this movie because it's just a lot of fun to watch. Whenever I hear the Gary Owen song, I always find myself humming or singing along.

Even when I was younger, I always found it funny how Custer "sacrifices" the 7th Cavalry to prove a point. I know this movie does take more than a few historical liberties, but this has to be the biggest. George Armstrong Custer wanted glory, but he by no means wanted to commit his regiment to a suicide mission.

With that said, They Died With Their Boots On is a great movie and I can always look past the historical liberties the director took. And I've always liked how the battle of the Little Bighorn is portrayed. Do you think they used crane shots to get those big epic shots of the 7th charging after Crazy Horse and his warriors.

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Hi Patrick, even if hollywood did take the liberties they did on TDWTBO, I love this film as well. I remember the 1st time I saw it. It was payed on a Saturday evening on TBS. It was part of a 3 day Flynn movie marathon that they did back about 1986 or so. This was the first one I saw, then they played Sea Hawk & Adventures of Robin Hood. The next night they played Objective Burma, Captain Blood and Edge of Darkness. The last night they played Dawn Patrol, Charge of the Light Brigade & something else. The reason why I remember this is because I taped all three nights of his movies. I remember this was also about a month before Thanksgiving.

The next marathon I remember they did was a James Bond marathon. I taped several of those as well. Then starting sometime before Christmas, they had a 10 day John Wayne marathon -- which lasted the morning of Jan 1. I taped every John Wayne movie played. Luckily we had two VCRs at that time and on two different TVs in seperate rooms. At that time, WGN (Chicago station) was a great station to watch and they always played great movies. While the John Wayne marathon was going on at TBS, WGN had a Gary Cooper marathon that I had to get as well as these three movies in order, that I wanted: Boy's Town, Mutiny on the Bounty and Sergeant York. Got them all on the same tape and for years afterwards, on Christmas day, we would watch all three of these movies back-to-back.

Thanks for making me remember these memories and for helping me to bring them back from the dust bin that is known as my brain. :-))

Carl.