Amazon.com video review:
John Ford pours on the sentiment like syrup in The Long Gray
Line, a tribute to the traditions of West Point. Tyrone Power ages
50 years to play real-life West Point legend Martin Maher, the scrappy
Irish immigrant who rises from "another Mick waiter" to hot-tempered
cadet to one of the best-loved instructors of the institution. Power is
at his best as the charming rogue with a thick brogue, who ages into a
feisty, gray-haired foster father to the cadets he and his fiery Irish
wife (Maureen O'Hara) adopt over the years, among them Harry Carey Jr.
(as young Dwight D. Eisenhower). Ford claims he didn't care for
CinemaScope, but you wouldn't know it from the handsome, lush images
that fill the frame. It lolls along at a lazy 140 minutes, balancing
the respectful tributes with boisterous humor and boyish pranks but
always centered by the generous heart of Maher. --Sean Axmaker
