NekoHomey Purely Joyful Movie!

BoardChiri Bad Acting and worse Bad Screenplay

Kailansorac Clever, believable, and super fun to watch. It totally has replay value.

Matylda Swan It is a whirlwind of delight --- attractive actors, stunning couture, spectacular sets and outrageous parties.

dropdeademail The premises of this movie are hokey Hollywood nonsense. No medical staff would be insubordinate like Holden portrays, and in the field he'd be required to keep to his assignment and jump to when ordered. Nor would his commanding officer be fetching his bag upon orders, etc. Utter nonsense. The female lead, knowingly spying, if not shot would have been tied up and gagged and never gotten away with the rubbish she carries on in this movie. And the politician was so overly bad as to be something from a Laurel and Hardy slapstick comedy. Ugh.

Leofwine_draca THE HORSE SOLDIERS is yet another pairing between western star John Wayne and western director John Ford, the pair who made some of the most memorably macho movies in American cinema. The plot, set during the American Civil War, is a little different from the usual for these guys, although fans of the Duke will be pleased to hear that his character is typically brash and full of bravado.This is a film less about action than it is the intricacies of the plotting. It also has a greater breadth of characterisation than expected for the genre, with William Holden excelling as the conscience-wracked doctor and Constance Towers affected as the southern spy. The cast is rounded out by the usual character actors you see appear in Wayne films. Some parts of the film are action-packed and exciting, with the men-on-a-mission aspect of the story working well, and the emphasis on pain and injury gives it a grittier edge than usual.

classicsoncall Though both are Union officers, Colonel John Marlowe (John Wayne) and Major Henry Kendall (William Holden) find themselves on opposite sides of an emotional divide while marching their troops to a Confederate supply station with the intention of blowing it up. Marlowe is the no nonsense, get the job done type, while Kendall shows a compassionate side that more modern times might have qualified him as a conscientious objector. Their march to Newton Station is interrupted by a brief stay at Greenbriar, where proprietress Miss Hannah Hunter (Constance Towers) has the misfortune of being caught eavesdropping on Marlowe's plan to destroy Newton Station and continue a southward march all the way to Baton Rouge.Unable now to leave Miss Hunter and her personal servant Lukey behind, Marlowe is forced to bring them along to prevent the enemy from learning of his plans. I was rather surprised to learn that the role of Lukey was portrayed by early Wimbledon tennis star Althea Gibson in her only significant screen appearance. I'm kind of curious how she added this job to her resume, there's got to be a good piece of trivia in there someplace.Played pretty much as a straight Civil War drama, there's a curious segment in the second half of the picture in which the elderly administrator of the Jefferson Military Academy sends his teen-aged cadets out to do battle in support of the Southern cause when Marlowe's troops enter the area. Wisely, though somewhat unexpectedly knowing John Wayne's persona in films like these, his character Marlowe calls for a bugle retreat so as not to engage the youngsters in what would have been a horrific massacre.Oddly, once the objective is reached and mission accomplished, the film ends rather abruptly at a point where it looks like one more stand is about to be encountered, the Baton Rouge objective having been cited more than once. Equally questionable, Colonel Marlowe declares his love for Miss Hunter in a head scratcher of a plot contrivance considering all that went before. If anything, it should have been Holden's character to attract Miss Hunter's affections considering the amount of time they spent together tending to wounded and dying soldiers.

utgard14 Union cavalry officer John Wayne leads his men through Confederate Mississippi hoping to reach Baton Rouge. Along the way, he has to deal with Rebel soldiers and spies, as well as clashing with doctor William Holden. While not one of director John Ford's best, this is an interesting movie for a few reasons. First it's a film about the cavalry's role in the Civil War, which is rarely discussed. Second, it takes place largely in Mississippi. Most Civil War movies that take place in the South generally focus on Georgia, Tennessee, Virginia, etc. This is one of the few that I can think of to deal with the war in Mississippi. Third, this is John Ford's only Civil War film. He did direct a small segment of How the West Was Won that took place during the war and he certainly had many characters affected by their Civil War experiences in his westerns. But this is the only full movie of his that actually takes place during the war itself.Duke is fine. It's not one of his more memorable roles, though that's more the fault of the script than his performance. William Holden plays an army surgeon Duke is forced to take along with him. In all honesty, Holden's character seems completely tacked-on to the plot. He could've been removed entirely without upsetting the film much. It might have even improved it. Constance Towers is fun as a Southern belle the soldiers have to take with them on their march. At first she seems flighty but soon shows there's more to her. She also has one of the most provocative scenes from any Ford film, where she bends down in front of John Wayne with her cleavage exposed, offering him some chicken and saying "Would you like a leg or a breast?" She's probably the only standout in the film. It's not one of Ford's best. It's watchable and interesting enough, but also overlong and familiar in tone to other cavalry movies I've seen, despite the change in locale. Obviously Wayne and Ford buffs will want to check it out.