The Alamo: Thirteen Days to Glory (1987) (TV)

Information from IMDb

Plot Summary
The story of the famed siege of the Alamo during the Texas Revolution,
in which a small band of soldiers held off an overwhelming army under the Mexican general
Santa Anna long enough to allow the Texan army to gather its strength.
Written by Jim Beaver

Full Cast
James Arness ... Jim Bowie
Brian Keith ... Col. Davy Crockett
Alec Baldwin ... Col. William Barrett Travis
David Ogden Stiers ... Col. Black
Jim Metzler ... Maj. James Bonham
Tom Schanley ... Pvt. Danny Cloud
Fernando Allende ... Col. Alamonte (Santa Anna's nephew)
Kathleen York ... Mrs. Susannah Dickinson
Isela Vega ... Senora Cos
Raul Julia ... Gen. Antonio Lopez de Santa Ana
Gene Evans ... McGregor
Michael Wren ... Juan Seguin
Jon Lindstrom ... Capt. Almeron Dickinson
Hinton Battle ... Joe (Travis' servant)
David Sheiner ... Luis
Noble Willingham ... Dr. Pollard
Eloy Casados ... Gregorio
Tony Becker ... George Taylor
Thomas Callaway ... Col. James W. Fannin
Lorne Greene ... Gen. Sam Houston
Buck Taylor ... Buck Smith
Jerry Potter ... Jacob Walker (as Jerry Potter)
Grainger Hines ... Charles Despelier
Tom Everett ... Major Evans
Stan Ivar ... Doc Sutherland
Ethan Wayne ... Edward Taylor
Jan Tríska ... General Wolf
Gary Kasper ... Major Wheelwright
John Furlong ... Zanco
Jay Baker ... Hayes
Dale Swann ... Lt. Kimball
Laura Fabian ... Lucia
Loyda Ramos ... Senora Esparza
Bel Hernandez ... Mina (as Bel Sandre)
Laura Harring ... Santa Anna's bride (as Laura Martinez Harring)
Nicky Blair ... John Jones
Red West ... Cockran

Writing Credits
Lon Tinkle (book)
Clyde Ware and
Norman Morrill (as Norman McLeod Morrill)

Produced by
Stockton Briggle .... executive producer
Richard Carrothers .... executive producer
Bill Finnegan .... producer
Patricia Finnegan .... producer (as Pat Finnegan)
Dennis Hennessy .... executive producer
Sheldon Pinchuk .... producer

Original Music
Peter Bernstein

Cinematography
John Elsenbach

Trivia
The final charge consists mostly of footage from The Last Command.

Final film appearance of Lorne Greene.

Memorable Quotes

Filming Locations
Alamo Village - Highway 674, Brackettville, Texas, USA
Brackettville, Texas, USA

The Alamo: Thirteen Days to Glory (1987) was made for TV
and directed by one of Duke's directors, Burt Kennedy.
In fact the Duke connection goes on to include star James Arness, and Duke's son Ethan Wayne.

It is also worth noting that this movie was the final film
appearance of Lorne Greene.

It also includes final charge footage from a previously reviewed movie
The Last Command

User Review

Quote

Modest But Sincere
22 December 2007 | by kayaker36 (Queens, NY)
This made for television version of the legendary stand against hopeless odds is more objective, more realistic than earlier filmed versions of the events, though the one movie made after this went perhaps too far in humanizing the figures of Sam Houston, Bowie, Travis and Crockett.

The focus here is on Jim Bowie, played with sharp, cynical detachment by James Arness who passed away in 2011 at age 88. Then 65, he made a comeback to acting after years away from the screen to do this part.

Puerto Rican-born Raul Julia humanizes Gen. Santa Ana as no one since J. Carol Naish back in '54 had done. However, the Mexican dictator is portrayed as a lecherous, vainglorious popinjay--gaudier uniforms have never been seen before or since. He receives excellent advice from the European officers he has hired but, convinced of his own infallibility, he does not heed it. He also ignores the warning from one of his own staff officers that it is not "prudente" to divide one's army in the face of the enemy. The result is the disaster of San Jacinto.

Alec Baldwin is the one actor whose age is appropriate to the character he plays: Col. William Travis. His portrayal is earnest. He is almost in awe of the older men who share command with him.

The one jarring note was Brian Keith as Crockett. In a coonskin cap and carrying Ol' Betsy, he stumbles about as if he had wandered in from another movie. With no conviction in the portrayal, the character is reduced to a few stage conventions.

The script reveals some historical facts overlooked or suppressed in earlier film versions. We learn that Jim Bowie was, in the person of Santa Ana, fighting his own brother-in-law. The Mexican soldiers performed poorly in part because they were armed with rifles left over from the Napoleonic Wars a generation earlier. "Santa Ana likes a bargain." Bowie wryly explains. The whole project of defending the former Spanish mission as a fort was courageous but militarily ill- advised--a fact explored in greater depth in the 2004 film "The Alamo".

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