They Died with Their Boots On (1941)

Calificación de los usuarios:

7.3/10   

Director:

Raoul Walsh

Escritores:

Wally Kline (original screenplay) and
Æneas MacKenzie (original screenplay)

Fecha de Lanzamiento:

1 enero 1942 (USA)

Género:

Biografía | Drama | Romance | Guerra | Del Oeste

Frase comercial:

The heroic saga of Custer's Last Stand!

Plot:

This is the story of General Custer from the time he enters West Point military academy, through the American Civil War...

Plot Keywords:

Civil War | West Point | Little Big Horn | Crazy Horse | Cavalry

Comentarios de los usuarios:

Balderdash on the Little Bighorn, though first rate balderdash.

Reparto

Errol Flynn	...	George Armstrong Custer
Olivia de Havilland	...	Elizabeth Bacon
Arthur Kennedy	...	Ned Sharp
Charley Grapewin	...	California Joe
Gene Lockhart	...	Samuel Bacon, Esq.
Anthony Quinn	...	Crazy Horse
Stanley Ridges	...	Maj. Romulus Taipe
John Litel	...	Gen. Phil Sheridan
Walter Hampden	...	William Sharp
Sydney Greenstreet	...	Lt. Gen. Winfield Scott
Regis Toomey	...	Fitzhugh Lee
Hattie McDaniel	...	Callie
G.P. Huntley	...	Lt. "Queen's Own" Butler (as George P. Huntley Jr.)
Frank Wilcox	...	Capt. Webb
Joe Sawyer	...	Sgt. Doolittle (as Joseph Sawyer)

También conocida como:

To the Last Man (USA) (working title)
Murieron con las botas puestas (Spain) [es]

Duración:

140 min

País:

USA

Idioma:

Inglés

Color:

Negro y Blanco

Relación de Aspecto:

1.37 : 1

Sonido:

Mono (RCA Sound System)

Clasificación:

Australia:G | Norway:16 (1947) | Finland:K-8 (1965) | Finland:S (1943) | UK:U | USA:Approved (PCA #7505)

Locaciones de Filmación:

Busch Gardens - S. Grove Avenue, Pasadena, California, USA

Compañía:

Warner Bros. Pictures

Trivialidades:

The filming of the "Last Stand" sequence from this movie involved some 200 horsemen charging around in pretend battle and was so dangerous that one day during filming Anthony Quinn, who played Crazy Horse, arranged as a gag for a hearse to show up at the filming location

Errores:

Errores Reales: In the film, Custer is awarded a medal. In reality, he never received any decoration, though he did receive honorary (brevet) promotions for gallantry. The only medal awarded by the government, or the Army, was the newly developed "Medal of Honor", which George Custer never won - though his brother Thomas was one of three soldiers in the Civil War (along with only sixteen others since then) to receive it twice.

Citas:

[after they first meet, Custer walks Miss Bacon to Gen. Sheridan's house]
George Armstrong Custer: Do you think if I were to come strolling past your house around nine o'clock at night you might be just sitting around on the veranda?
Elizabeth Bacon: Life is full of surprises.
George Armstrong Custer: And if I did find you sitting on the porch perhaps you and I could go for a walk together.
Elizabeth Bacon: [laughs] We seem to have been walking together ever since we met.
George Armstrong Custer: Well, I can't imagine, ma'am - if I may say so - any pleasanter journey, ma'am, than walking through life with you beside me, ma'am.

Conexiones de Película:

Referenced in "EastEnders: (2000-12-25)" (2000)

Banda de Sonido:

I Wish I Was in Dixie's Land

Balderdash on the Little Bighorn, though first rate balderdash.

This is Custer's last stand, through the Warner Brothers' mill. As a 'biopic', "They Died With Their Boots On" is pure poppycock. One cannot help but admit, however, that Errol Flynn was the ideal choice to play the part of the dashing leader of the doomed 7th Cavalry. Of course, the part wasn't exactly a stretch for him. After all, Flynn had already led "The Charge of the Light Brigade" and portrayed George Armstrong Custer's real-life enemy, Confederate Cavalry General Jeb Stuart, in "Sante Fe Trail" (in which future-President Ronald Reagan depicted Custer).

Appearing opposite Flynn is his ubiquitous co-star, Olivia De Havilland, as Custer's faithful wife Liddy. It has often been said that behind every great man lies a great woman. In Custer's case, that was true to a large extent. The real Liddy Custer spent the rest of her life promoting her late husband's larger-than-life heroic reputation. In that sense, the genesis of this fanciful film might be laid at her door.

Rounding out the fine cast is a young Anthony Quinn as a surprisingly sympathetic (for a 1940s movie) version of Chief Crazy Horse. In fact, Crazy Horse actually comes off as the most sympathetic character in the entire film. Quinn delivered a rather more restrained performance here than was usual in many of his later films. Of course this wasn't the first time he had appeared as a Native American in a movie, but this role was a definite step up because this time Quinn got to play a Native American as a character, and actually deliver some lines.

Of course, action is what any Errol Flynn movie is all about and, in that respect, "They Died With Their Boots On" delivers in spades. Warner Brothers must have collected every horse, rider and pair of boots in Hollywood for the spectacular climax. Surely Custer himself would have approved of Flynn's final scene. One can almost imagine Custer's ghost saying; "Even if that wasn't the way I really died, it certainly is the way I should have".