As much as I admire John Ford, I found this film a little overly sentimental and with far too much Fordian Irish humour in the first half of the film.
The film tells the story of Martin "Marty" Maher, an enlisted man who spent over 50 years at the West Point Military Academy as an instructor. It covers the period from his arrival at West Point as a newly landed immigrant to his meeting with President Eisenhauer some fifty years later.
Tyrone Power does a excellent job as Maher aging as he does from a young man in his 20s to his 70s. His makeup is quite convincing and realistic for the time. The ever beautiful Maureen O'Hara plays Mary O'Donnell, Maher's wife. The film follows their relationship from their first meeting to their last.
Ford's affection for the military is quite evident. He gives us seemingly endless march pasts featuring "long gray lines" of cadets along with their marching band. The film is beautifully photographed with plenty of green grass in evidence. There are a couple of beautiful framed shots, one of the wedding of the William Leslie and Betsy Palmer characters and another at a tragic moment in Maher's life.
The John Ford stock company is well represented in this picture. Included in the large cast are Ward Bond as Maher's first commanding officer, Donald Crisp as his father, Sean McClory as his brother, Harry Carey Jr. as Dwight Eisenhauer and a very young Patrick Wayne in his first film as the cadet "Cherub" Overton. Willis Boucher and Jack Pennick also have smaller parts.
Also in the cast are Robert Francis, who died tragically shortly after completing this film, Phil Carey, Martin Milner, Peter Graves and Milburn Stone.
Be sure and have some Kleenex handy for the finale.
The film tells the story of Martin "Marty" Maher, an enlisted man who spent over 50 years at the West Point Military Academy as an instructor. It covers the period from his arrival at West Point as a newly landed immigrant to his meeting with President Eisenhauer some fifty years later.
Tyrone Power does a excellent job as Maher aging as he does from a young man in his 20s to his 70s. His makeup is quite convincing and realistic for the time. The ever beautiful Maureen O'Hara plays Mary O'Donnell, Maher's wife. The film follows their relationship from their first meeting to their last.
Ford's affection for the military is quite evident. He gives us seemingly endless march pasts featuring "long gray lines" of cadets along with their marching band. The film is beautifully photographed with plenty of green grass in evidence. There are a couple of beautiful framed shots, one of the wedding of the William Leslie and Betsy Palmer characters and another at a tragic moment in Maher's life.
The John Ford stock company is well represented in this picture. Included in the large cast are Ward Bond as Maher's first commanding officer, Donald Crisp as his father, Sean McClory as his brother, Harry Carey Jr. as Dwight Eisenhauer and a very young Patrick Wayne in his first film as the cadet "Cherub" Overton. Willis Boucher and Jack Pennick also have smaller parts.
Also in the cast are Robert Francis, who died tragically shortly after completing this film, Phil Carey, Martin Milner, Peter Graves and Milburn Stone.
Be sure and have some Kleenex handy for the finale.