They Died with Their Boots On (1941)

Directed by Raoul Walsh. Starring Errol Flynn, Olivia de Havilland, Arthur Kennedy, Charley Grapewin, Stanley Ridges, Gene Lockhart, Walter Hampden, Anthony Quinn, George P. Huntley Jr., Hattie McDaniel, Sydney Greenstreet, John Litel, Regis Toomey.

Don’t look for any truth in this bio—some names and dates are spot-on, almost everything else is pure fiction—but you will find a good amount of entertainment value. George Armstrong Custer is a controversial figure among historians, but as played by Errol Flynn, he’s a dashing maverick with reasonable respect toward Native Americans and even more reasonable distrust and dislike toward unsavory military men, corrupt politicians, and crooked businessmen. We follow Custer from his arrival at West Point through his unconventional yet charming romance of future-wife, Elizabeth Bacon (de Havilland), and heroics as a Union soldier all the way to his assignment in the Dakota Territory and run-ins with Sioux chief Crazy Horse (Quinn). If you don’t mind the inconsistencies and reckless liberties with the truth, it’s good fun, offering up almost two-and-a-half hours of adventure, idealism, romance, patriotism, and even a sizable amount of comic relief in the form of onions or owls or whatever other peculiar bit of amusement struck the filmmakers’ fancies. Arthur Kennedy’s sliminess, Hattie McDaniel’s impish sense of humor, and Sydney Greenstreet’s hammy bluster all leave their marks in the supporting cast. Not recommended, however, to purists when it comes to Custer’s contentious and violation-heavy legacy. Last of eight lead-acting collaborations between Flynn and de Havilland, which lends additional pathos to her final scene honoring her slain husband (um, history book spoiler alert?); concurrently, it’s the first of seven collaborations between Flynn and director Raoul Walsh.

76/100