June 25 - They Died With Their Boots On

Here is a film with a scene that happens today - June 25. I hope you enjoy the movie and watch it tonight. 

THEY DIED WITH THEIR BOOTS ON

George Armstrong Custer makes a flamboyant entrance to West Point and almost gets expelled his first day, only escaping that fate due to a technicality. He racks up a terrible disciplinary record. He meets Libby Bacon at the school. Custer is graduated early, due to the need for officers in the Civil War. However, he sits around in Washington until a chance encounter with Gen. Scott, commander of the army gets him an appointment with the 2^nd Cavalry.  At First Manassas, he disregards orders and captures a crucial bridge. He is wounded and after his recovery goes to visit Libby. However he makes a terrible impression on her father and is thrown out of the house. Custer is accidentally promoted to Brigadier General during the Gettysburg campaign. He leads the Michigan cavalry in a defeat of J.E.B. Stuart that contributes to the north’s victory and makes him a hero. This overcomes the opposition of Libby’s father and the couple are married. After the war Custer suffers from boredom with civilian life and Libby uses her influence to get him assigned to the 7^th Cavalry.  Custer finds Sharpe, an old foe of his from his West Point days is running a bar at the fort, causing drunkenness in the ranks, as well as selling arms to the Indians. Custer ends both practices and restores the units esprit de corp.  However, Sharpe gives each of the troopers a bottle of liquor right before a parade, embarrassing Custer who in anger strikes another old foe Commissioner Taipe, who is working in league with Sharpe.  Custer is court-martialed, while Sharpe and Taipe start a rumor of gold in the Black Hills, causing thousands of whites to enter the Black Hills in violation of a treaty with the Sioux, leading to war. Custer gets his command restored. He leads the regiment after the Sioux and even though outnumbered ten to one attacks in order to save Gen. Terry’s infantry from being massacred. In spite of a brave fight on June 25, 1876 [2:07:39 to 2:15:47] we see Custer and his men annihilated in the battle of the Little Bighorn by the Sioux. Custer is remembered as a hero.  

One of the classic western movies. Interesting on several points. First it is very unusual for the time in that Crazy Horse is presented as a character we are meant to identify with and have sympathy for. Secondly, many of the incidents in Custer’s career and personal life are completely fabricated. If you look at it as entertainment and not history, it’s actually a very exciting and watchableh movie.  

The Custer Companion: A Comprehensive Guide to the Life of George Armstrong Custer and the Plains Indian Wars by Thom Hatch (Stackpole Books, Mechanicsburg, PA, 2002) at pages 179-186 and the movie at 2:08:20 give the date of the battle

Producer - Hal B. Wallis and Robert Fellows

Director - Raoul Walsh

Screenplay - Æneas MacKenzie and Wally Kline

Runtime -  2 hours 20 minutes

Released – November 21, 1941

Starring –

Errol Flynn as George Armstrong Custer

Olivia de Havilland as Elizabeth Bacon Custer

Arthur Kennedy as Ned Sharp

Charley Grapewin as California Joe

Gene Lockhart as Samuel Bacon

Anthony Quinn as Crazy Horse

Stanley Ridges as Maj. Romulus Taipe

John Litel as Gen. Phillip Sheridan

Walter Hampden as William Sharp

Sydney Greenstreet as Lt. Gen. Winfield Scott

Regis Toomey as Fitzhugh Lee

Hattie McDaniel as Callie

Minor Watson as Senator Smith

Joseph Crehan as President Ulysses S. Grant

Watch a trailer for They Died With Their Boots On