The Long Gray Line (1955)

User Rating:

7.3/10   

Director:

John Ford

Writers:

Nardi Reeder Campion (book)
Edward Hope (writer)
(more)

Release Date:

9 February 1955 (USA)

Genre:

Biography | Comedy | Drama | Sport

Tagline:

Warms Your Heart! STIRS YOUR BLOOD! and fires your imagination!

Plot:

The life story of a salt-of-the-earth Irish immigrant, who becomes an Army Noncommissioned Officer and...

Plot Keywords:

Irish | West Point | Cadet | Military Academy | Irish Immigrant

Awards:

1 nomination

Cast

Tyrone Power	...	Martin 'Marty' Maher
Maureen O'Hara	...	Mary O'Donnell
Robert Francis	...	James N. Sundstrom Jr.
Donald Crisp	...	Old Martin
Ward Bond	...	Capt. Herman J. Kohler
Betsy Palmer	...	Kitty Carter
Philip Carey	...	Charles 'Chuck' Dotson (as Phil Carey)
William Leslie	...	James Nilsson 'Red' Sundstrom
Harry Carey Jr.	...	Dwight Eisenhower
Patrick Wayne	...	Abner 'Cherub' Overton
Sean McClory	...	Dinny Maher
Peter Graves	...	Cpl. Rudolph Heinz
Milburn Stone	...	Capt. John Pershing
Erin O'Brien-Moore	...	Mrs. Koehler (as Erin O'Brien Moore)
Walter D. Ehlers	...	Mike Shannon
Willis Bouchey	...	Maj. Thomas
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Don Barclay	...	McDonald (uncredited)
Mary Benoit	...	Bit (uncredited)
Richard Bishop	...	(uncredited)
Dona Cole	...	Peggy (uncredited)
Chuck Courtney	...	Whitey Larson (uncredited)
Ken Curtis	...	Specialty (uncredited)
Lisa Davis	...	Nell (uncredited)
Diane DeLaire	...	Nurse (uncredited)
Harry Denny	...	Priest (uncredited)
Mimi Doyle	...	Nun (uncredited)
Jack Ellis	...	Bit (uncredited)
Robert Ellis	...	Cadet Short (uncredited)
Bess Flowers	...	Football Fan, Army / Notre Dame Game (uncredited)
Fritz Ford	...	Bit (uncredited)
Raoul Freeman	...	(uncredited)
Tom Hennesy	...	Cadet Dotson (uncredited)
John Herrin	...	Cadet Ramsey (uncredited)
Robert F. Hoy	...	Cadet Kennedy (uncredited)
Philip Kieffer	...	Superintendent (uncredited)
Robert Knapp	...	Lieutenant (uncredited)
Leon McLaughlin	...	Bit (uncredited)
Martin Milner	...	Jim O'Carberry (uncredited)
Jean Moorhead	...	Girl (uncredited)
Jack Mower	...	Bit (uncredited)
Donald Murphy	...	Army Captain (uncredited)
James O'Hara	...	Cadet Thorne (uncredited)
Pat O'Malley	...	Priest (uncredited)
Jack Pennick	...	Recruiting sergeant (uncredited)
Russell P. Reeder	...	Commandant of Cadets (uncredited)
Robert Roark	...	Cadet Pirelli (uncredited)
Mickey Roth	...	Cadet Stern (uncredited)
Keith Schultz	...	Kitty's Infant Son (uncredited)
Kevin Schultz	...	Kitty's Infant Son (uncredited)
Jim Sears	...	Knute Rockne (uncredited)
Mickey Simpson	...	New York policeman (uncredited)
Elbert Steele	...	The President (uncredited)
Harry Tenbrook	...	Waiter (uncredited)
Norm Van Brocklin	...	Gus Dorias (uncredited)

Directed by
John Ford

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Nardi Reeder Campion		book "Bringing Up the Brass"
Edward Hope		writer
Marty Maher		book "Bringing Up the Brass"

Produced by
Robert Arthur	....	producer

Cinematography by
Charles Lawton Jr.
Charles Lang		(uncredited)

Film Editing by
William A. Lyon

Art Direction by
Robert Peterson

Set Decoration by
Frank Tuttle

Costume Design by
Jean Louis		(gowns)

Makeup Department
Clay Campbell	....	makeup artist
Helen Hunt	....	hair stylist
Robert J. Schiffer	....	makeup artist (uncredited)

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Jack Corrick	....	assistant director
Wingate Smith	....	assistant director

Sound Department
George Cooper	....	sound
John P. Livadary	....	sound (as John Livadary)
Richard Olson	....	sound re-recordist

Stunts
Fritz Ford	....	stunt double (uncredited)
Guy Way	....	stunts (uncredited)

Camera and Electrical Department
Emil Oster	....	camera operator (uncredited)

Editorial Department
Francis Cugat	....	color consultant: Technicolor

Music Department
George Duning	....	music adaptor
W. Franke Harling	....	composer: song "The Corps"
Morris Stoloff	....	conductor
Morris Stoloff	....	music supervisor

Other crew
Lt. Col. George McIntyre	....	technical advisor
Major George Pappas	....	technical advisor

Production Companies

• Columbia Pictures Corporation
• Rota Productions

Distributors

• Columbia Film-Verleih (1955) (West Germany) (theatrical)
• Columbia Pictures
• New Line Home Vídeo (2003) (Brazil) (DVD)
• New Line Home Vídeo (2003) (Brazil) (VHS)

Runtime:

138 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.55 : 1

Sound Mix:

4-Track Stereo

Certification:

Australia:G | West Germany:12 (nf) | Finland:S | Sweden:Btl | Argentina:Atp

Company:

Columbia Pictures Corporation

Trivia:

John Ford originally wanted to cast John Wayne as Marty Maher.

Goofs:

Anachronisms: Red's Medal of Honor that Kitty shows to Marty and Mary is the current design that goes around the neck. In the story, Red earned it during World War I and at that time the Medal of Honor was on a suspension ribbon like most other US medals. It wouldn't be redesigned for around the neck wear until 1944.

Quotes:

Jim O'Carberry: This is Marty Maher. Whitey Larson.
Martin 'Marty' Maher: How do you do, sir?
Jim O'Carberry: If you have any trouble with horses, drop around and see Marty.
Whitey Larson: But he's in the infantry!
Jim O'Carberry: Well naturally! He knows horses. You don't think they'd put him in the cavalry, do ya?

Soundtrack:

Rosen aus dem Süden

It took him 40 years or so to get the hang of it.

Sergeant Martin Maher is in to see President Eisenhower who he knew back in the day when Ike was a West Point Cadet. The army wants to mandatorily retire him. So as Marty pleads his case before the country's most famous West Point Graduate, we're flashed back to the day as a fresh Irish immigrant he arrives at West Point to work as a waiter in their mess.

And the rest of the film is taken up with the telling of Martin Maher's remarkable story which he wrote in a book entitled Bringing Up the Brass on which this film is based. The subject is a can't miss project for John Ford with two of his dearest loves involved, Irish and military tradition.

Tyrone Power who had played in lots of costume pictures as the dashing hero at his home studio of 20th Century Fox, got a chance to do a real character part here. His skill as a player makes us completely believe that he ages during the film from his twenties to his seventies. Of course makeup helped, but I doubt if certain actors could have brought it off.

Maureen O'Hara matches Power equally as Mary O'Donnell the fresh and fiery colleen who marries him. Her relationship with John Ford as she tells in her recent memoirs had its ups and downs, but she respected his talent and gives one of her best acted roles. And O'Hara adored Tyrone Power, she says of him he was a tease at times, loved to play practical jokes, but a fine man and a thorough professional at his job.

The supporting cast is the usual familiar faces in a John Ford production. I would have to single out Ward Bond as the head of West Point's Athletic Department who Power goes to work for as the best of the group. Also note Donald Crisp as Power's father, one of Crisp's best screen parts.

Tyrone Power was very proud of this film, it was a personal favorite and he and John Ford wanted to work together again. They did, but only with Power's voice providing the narration for an anthology film of three Irish stories in The Rising of the Moon in 1957. Tyrone Power's sudden and tragic death in 1958 put an end to what might have been a great actor/director collaboration.

At the beginning of the flashback, Power tells the actor playing Ike that it took him forty years or so to get the hang of the army. At the end he says that now everything he's ever known and loved is in that institution known as West Point. As Power says it, I defy anyone to remain dry eyed.