THE HORSE SOLDIERS (1959)

Though John Ford made worse films in the ‘50s (WHAT PRICE GLORY/’52, anyone?), it’s hard to imagine a bigger missed opportunity than this, the one Ford feature to deal directly with the Civil War, a subject of long obsession.  Dissed even by loyal Fordians & biographers, it’s easy to see what this might have been as John Wayne’s Colonel, charged by General Grant with disrupting Southern supply lines, takes a division of horse soldiers deep into Southern territory, saddled with medical officer Major William Holden as main antagonist, fighting not combatants but high numbers of casualties.  And the Rebel Army?  They come in a distant third.  Constance Towers, meant to add complexity & romance as a spying Southern Belle forced to join the march with slavey housemaid (tennis great Althea Gibson giving the movies a one-shot try) gets better as the film goes along, but never quite fits in.  Ford, on the wagon at doctor’s orders*, and unhappy with the script, was already on his worst behavior when a favored stuntman died in what should have been an easy fall.  After that, Ford hardly seemed to care and wrapped up the shoot back in Hollywood.  So, it’s something of shock to see how well the film holds up (particularly the second half) in spite of the faults.  It’s Ford working at about 70%, but with too many indelible scenes between dramatic culs-de-sac to miss.  Especially in additions Ford made to John Lee Mahin/Harold Sinclair's original script.  Some Rebel charges straight out of D.W. Griffith’s bag of directorial tricks, and a remarkable set piece involving a Boys Military Academy, smartly outfitted, in serried ranks assembled, taking on and pretty much defeating (at least by default) the Union Division.  At moments like that, you can see why it earned Ford the last DGA nomination of his career.

DOUBLE-BILL/LINK:  The Civil War rages in the background of a couple of Ford pics, but only his reel-and-a-half contribution to HOW THE WEST WAS WON/’62 and this tackle it directly.  https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2011/10/how-west-was-won-1962.html

ATTENTION MUST BE PAID:  *Not only forbidden from drink, but aware when Wayne & Holden went to town.  Perhaps that explains this film’s two rare incidents of Ford’s approval at wasting perfectly good booze, one jug of moonshine/one half-filled bottle of whiskey.