- Director: Arnold Laven
- AMG Rating:
- Genre: Western
- Movie Type: Cavalry Film, Revisionist Western
- Themes: Military Life
- Main Cast: Tom Tryon, Harve Presnell, Senta Berger, James Caan, Andrew Duggan
- Release Year: 1965
- Country: US
- Run Time: 112 minutes
Plot
Though written by Sam Peckinpah (he adapted the film from a novel by Hoffman Birney), the direction of The Glory Guys was entrusted to the competent but perfunctory Arnold Laven. Cavalry captain Demas Harrod (Tom Tryon) and his faithful scout Sol Rogers (Harve Presnell) are placed under the command of xenophobic general Frederick McCabe (Andrew Duggan), who hates Indians almost as much as his own men hate him. When not preparing to decimate every Native American in their path, Harrod and Rogers carry on a rivalry over the hand of pretty Lou (Senta Berger; another authentic Wild West type). The novelty of the film is that the Indians, rather than the cavalry, win the final battle. Despite a few bursts of cinematic creativity from Laven in the climactic scenes, it still would have been more interesting to see how Sam Peckinpah would have handled The Glory Guys. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie GuideReview
There are moments in The Glory Guys -- glorious moments -- when its plot, action, and execution call to mind Sam Peckinpah's Major Dundee, made the year before -- no big surprise given that Peckinpah wrote the screenplay for The Glory Guys. There are even certain shots where the hero, played by Tom Tryon, looks like Charlton Heston from the earlier movie, and his friend/antagonist portrayed by Harve Presnell, recalls James Coburn from the prior movie. And the presence of Slim Pickens, Senta Berger, and Michael Anderson Jr., all of whom were in Major Dundee, only adds to the echoes of the earlier movie. The problem is that Peckinpah didn't direct The Glory Guys and apparently was unable to convey to the producers -- Laven-Gardner-Levy, the same partnership that produced The Rifleman, of which Peckinpah had been creator -- what the movie should focus on. The first half of the film, which could have been a modern equivalent to John Ford's Rio Grande or Fort Apache, spends too much time dwelling on the never-fully-convincing romantic triangle between Tryon's, Berger's, and Presnell's characters, and ultimately that, rather than the conflict between Tryon and Presnell with Andrew Duggan's war-mongering commanding general, becomes the focus of the movie. Even that wouldn't have been so bad, except that their conflict in no way meshes with the other third of the story, the formation and training of Tryon's platoon of raw recruits.Arnold Laven, who did direct some good small-scale movies and some interesting Westerns, was not the man to make a movie as sprawling as this. Shot in Panavision, with a huge cast and a fairly involved story, it gets away from him in a way that it likely never would have from Peckinpah. There are also flaws in some of the staging that make the movie difficult to take, especially fights that look unconvincing, although there's also some excellent work by the actors amid all of these problems. Duggan is good, if somewhat stiff as a fictional stand-in for George Armstrong Custer; and James Caan, in an early role as a happy-go-lucky Irish recruit, shines, as does Michael Anderson Jr. as a neophyte soldier. Jeanne Cooper is also fine and memorable in an unusual period role, and Slim Pickens and most of the rest of the supporting cast (including a young Wayne Rogers) are very good. The final section of the film, depicting the disastrous cavalry action, is some of the most exciting and convincingly staged (and violent) material of its era; one can only hope someday for a letterboxed DVD edition of the movie so that the action scenes can be properly seen and appreciated -- just enough of what Peckinpah had in mind remains to make the viewing worthwhile. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide
Cast
- Tom Tryon - Capt. Demas Harrod
- Harve Presnell - Sol Rogers
- Senta Berger - Lou Woodward
- James Caan - Pvt. Anthony Dugan
- Andrew Duggan - Gen. Frederick McCabe
