With the exception of the Civil War segment in HOW THE WEST WAS WON, THE HORSE SOLDIERS was director John Ford's only film dealing with the War Between the States. The film is gorgeously photographed and contains many memorable images (the opening credits and breathtaking final shot) and
moving scenes (one in which a Southern military school is forced to send its cadets--all children--into battle against the Union forces is a stunner), but this is not one of Ford's best efforts, suffering from a weak script and an overwrought performance from its female lead, Constance Towers.
Based on an actual mission known as Grierson's Raid, the film takes place in the spring of 1863 and finds Union general U.S. Grant (Stan Jones) frustrated by his inability to take Vicksburg. Taking drastic action, Grant decides to send a cavalry unit to Newton Station, Mississippi, deep in
Confederate territory, to cut enemy supply lines to Vicksburg. The man selected to lead this daring raid is tough, no-nonsense Col. Marlowe (John Wayne), a citizen soldier who designed railroads before the war. With him goes a bevy of officers with mixed motives, including Col. Seacord (Willis
Bouchey), whose political ambitions dictate his every action, and Maj. Kendall (William Holden), a conscientious physician who sees no glory in war--only suffering and death. En route to Newton Station, the cavalry bivouacs at a plantation owned by Hannah (Towers), a Southern belle devoted to the
Confederate cause. Caught spying on Marlowe and his commanders as they plan strategy, Hannah and her slave, Lukey (Althea Gibson), are taken along on the mission, lest they reveal the top-secret plans to the rebels.
While minor Ford is still head-and-shoulders above the best of most others, THE HORSE SOLDIERS is a mostly workmanlike effort in which the great director struggles against a poorly written script, with sketchy characters and overly explicit dialogue in which deep feelings and motivations come
tumbling out in succinct speeches. Such pat character development invariably lends a superficial feel to the conflicts and relationships among the principals, and the viewer never really feels very deeply for the protagonists. Ford is such a master of his craft that he injects enough personal
spark into the material to nearly override the script's deficiencies, but there's no denying that THE HORSE SOLDIERS is the work of a distracted, tired, and somewhat bored artist. Indeed, in his famous interview with Peter Bogdanovich, the director couldn't recall whether or not he had even seen
the final cut.
