They Died with Their Boots On is a 1941 biographical western drama film directed by Raoul Walsh about the life of George Armstrong Custer. The film stars Errol Flynn and Olivia de Havilland.
Director: Raoul Walsh
Production Company: Warner Bros.
Distributor: Warner Bros.
Cast: Errol Flynn, Olivia de Havilland, Arthur Kennedy, Charley Grapewin, Gene Lockhart, Anthony Quinn, John Litel, Sydney Greenstreet, Hattie McDaniel
US Box Office: $4,677,500 ($179,100,000 adjusted for inflation)
Film Format: Black & White
Genre: Drama, Western, War
Release Date: November 21, 1941
Plot Summary: George Armstrong Custer (Errol Flynn) quickly goes from being a troublesome cadet at West Point to being an officer in the American Civil War, and becoming a hero at the Battle of Gettysburg. During this time Custer meets, fall in love with, and eventually marries Libbie Bacon (Olivia de Havilland), the daughter of a wealthy politician. After the war, Custer is eventually assigned to Fort Lincoln in the Dakota territory to protect settlers from the Sioux. Problems arise for Custer once Ned Sharp (Arthur Kennedy), an old rival from West Point, starts selling guns to the Sioux at a time while tensions are high between Sioux leader Crazy Horse (Anthony Quinn) and the US Government, and Sharp also tries to have Custer removed from his post.
Production: Warner Bros. began work on a film about the life of General George Armstrong Custer in late 1940. The proposed film was titled They Died with Their Boots On, and was to cover most of Custer’s adult life, from his time as a cadet at West Point to his last stand at the Battle of the Little Bighorn, though many aspects of the film were fictionalized. The film was produced by Hal B. Wallis and Robert Fellows, who hired Aeneas MacKenzie and Wally Klein to write the script. The studio planned to have They Died with Their Boots On be a vehicle for Errol Flynn, one of their biggest action stars at the time, and began production on the project after Dive Bomber, another film starring Flynn, wrapped up filming.
Errol Flynn was cast in the lead role of Custer. Warner Bros. originally planned to have Michael Curtiz to direct the film, but by 1941 Flynn was influential enough to have Curtiz removed from the film (Flynn hated Curitz due to an incident on the set of The Charge of the Light Brigade [1936]). Warner Bros. instead chose Raoul Walsh to direct the film, Walsh had recently directed several crime drama films for the studio including High Sierra (1941). Joan Fontaine turned down the part of Libbie Bacon Custer, the wife of Custer. Priscilla Lane, Elisabeth Fraser and Nancy Coleman were all tested for the part as well. The studio eventually decided to cast Olivia de Havilland (the sister of Fontaine) as Libbie. They Died with Their Boots On was the eighth and final film to feature Flynn and de Havilland together as the leading stars (though they both made cameo appearances in Thank Your Lucky Stars [1943]). Walsh had an unusual choice in mind for the part of Sioux chief Crazy Horse, silent comedy legend Buster Keaton! Walsh approached studio head Jack Warner about the possibility, but Warner turned him down commenting, “Custer beaten by Buster Keaton?” Anthony Quinn, who had some Native ancestry, was cast in the part instead.
Filming on They Died with Their Boots On began in early July of 1941 and went until the end of September. Most of the interior sequences in the film were shot at Warner Bros’ Burbank Studios. Most of the exterior and battle scenes, including the Battle of the Little Big Horn, were shot on location at several ranches in southern California including: Iverson Ranch, the Lasky Ranch and Mesa, and Warner Ranch. The studio’s original intention was to shoot the Battle of the Little Big Horn in the Black Hill of South Dakota where the actual battle was fought, however the film was getting too expensive, so the producers decided to just shoot it in California instead. Much of the battle scene was directed by second unit director B. Reeves Easton.
They Died with Their Boots On was a difficult and expensive project to shoot due to its scope and the number of battle scenes shot. Several extras and stuntmen were injured during the battle scenes and three of them were killed. One of them was stuntman Jack Budlong, who was thrown from his horse during filming and was impaled by his own sword. Flynn himself once collapsed from heat exhaustion during filming in September.
Fun Facts and Trivia: Errol Flynn and Olivia de Havilland had previously starred together in another film featuring George Armstrong Custer, Santa Fe Trail (1940). In that film Flynn played Jeb Stuart and Custer was played by Ronald Reagan, with the two being depicted as classmates together at West Point; de Havilland played the love interest of Flynn’s character. Olivia de Havilland and Hattie McDaniel (Callie) had previously starred together in Gone with the Wind (1939).
Most of the background Native American characters in They Died with Their Boots On were played by Filipino actors. Only sixteen Native extras (mostly Sioux from South Dakota) appeared in the film and they were mainly used in close-ups. One of the Native actors in the film was Olympic athlete Jim Thorpe. Thorpe once reportedly got into an off-camera fight with Flynn and knocked him out in one punch!
Reception: They Died with Their Boots On was released On November 21, 1941. Despite its high production cost, the film was major success for Warner Bros., being one of the top twenty highest grossing films of the year and Warner’s third highest grossing film of the year. The film was popular with the American public, however Flynn was disappointed with the final product. They Died with Their Boots On fictionalized many aspects of Custer’s life, and Flynn wanted the film to be more realistic.
They Died with Their Boots on has received mixed-to-positive reviews from critics in retrospect. Ken Hanke of Mountain Xpress thought that the film was “Well-made”, but he criticized it for its historical inaccuracies. Nick Shager of Slant Magazine gave the film a positive review, he thought that it was one of the best films to pair Flynn and de Havilland together. Michael E. Grost of Classic Film and Television praised Raoul Walsh’s directing and described the film as “Powerful.” One negative review came from Christopher Null of Filmcritic.com who criticized They Died with Their Boots On for being too long, and specifically singled out the film for spending to much time on the romance between Flynn and de Havilland.
Why You Should See It: They Died with Their Boots On is a good war drama film. Raoul Walsh does a great job directing the film. He manages to compact a large chunk of Custer’s life into a runtime that’s less than than two-and-a-half hours. He’s also able to handle tone shifts in the film was well, with scenes ranging from being humorous, to romantic, to thrilling. The battle scenes in the film are quite impressive. All of the actors are good in their parts. Flynn in particular does a good job portraying Custer. He is able to successfully portray the character’s growth over time from well-intentioned but troubled cadet, to honorable hero. Olivia de Havilland and Anthony Quinn also give good performances in the film. His role is very minor, but Sydney Greenstreet is memorable as General Winfield Scott.