They Died with Their Boots On is a 1941 western film directed by Raoul Walsh and starring Errol Flynn and Olivia de Havilland. Despite being rife with historical inaccuracies, the film was one of the top-grossing films of the year, being the last of eight Flynn-de Havilland collaborations.
Plot
The film follows the life of George Armstrong Custer (Errol Flynn) from attending West Point, wooing of Elizabeth Bacon (Olivia de Havilland) who becomes his loving wife, the American Civil War, and the Battle of Little Big Horn. In the film, the battle is blamed on unscrupulous corporations and politicians craving the land of Crazy Horse (Anthony Quinn) and his people.
Custer is portrayed as a fun-loving but almost saintly figure who tirelessly works for Indians and sacrifices himself for their benefit. His last stand is treated as far more significant than it was. In the movie’s version of the story, a few corrupt white politicians goad the Western tribes into war, threatening the survival of all white settlers in the West. Custer and his men give their lives at the Little Bighorn to delay the Indians and prevent this slaughter. A letter left behind by Custer absolves the Indians of all responsibility.
“Custer’s Last Stand” sequence
Only 16 of the extras were Sioux Indians. The rest of the Native American army were Fillipino extras. Knowing the scene would be dangerous, Anthony Quinn ordered a hearse on the day of shooting as a joke. Two extras did die during the filming of the sequence. One untrained rider died in a fall from his horse, reportedly while drunk.
Trivia
- The character of “Queen’s Own” Butler, while English, is essentially a composite of two real-life officers who were from other parts of the British Empire: Canadian William W. “Queen’s Own” Cooke, and Irishman Myles Keogh, who is linked to an apocryphal account of introducing the song “Garryowen” to the 7th Cavalry.
Cast
- 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. Phil Sheridan
- Walter Hampden as William Sharp
- Sydney Greenstreet as Lt. Gen. Winfield Scott
- Regis Toomey as Fitzhugh Lee
- Hattie McDaniel as Callie
