The Red Badge of Courage (1951)

Director:

John Huston

Writers:

Stephen Crane (novel)
John Huston (screenplay)
(more)

Release Date:

16 March 1951 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | War | Western

Tagline:

Stephen Crane's Great American Story of the Civil War

Plot:

Truncated adaptation of Stephen Crane's novel about a Civil War Union soldier who stuggles to find the courage to fight in the heat of battle.

Plot Keywords:

Courage | Battle | Union Soldier | Civil War | Hero

Awards:

Nominated for BAFTA Film Award. Another 1 win

Cast

Audie Murphy	...	The Youth
Bill Mauldin	...	The Loud Soldier
Douglas Dick	...	The Lieutenant
Royal Dano	...	The Tattered Man
John Dierkes	...	The Tall Soldier
Arthur Hunnicutt	...	Bill Porter
Tim Durant	...	The General
Andy Devine	...	The Cheery Soldier
Robert Easton	...	Thompson (as Robert Easton Burke)
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Smith Ballew	...	Captain (uncredited)
Albert Band	...	Union Soldier Fording River (uncredited)
Gregg Barton	...	Soldier (uncredited)
Whit Bissell	...	Wounded Officer (uncredited)
Robert Board	...	Soldier (uncredited)
Edwin Breen	...	Confederate Flag Bearer (uncredited)
Joe Brown Jr.	...	Soldier (uncredited)
Benny Burt	...	Union Soldier (uncredited)
Robert Cavendish	...	Wounded Soldier (uncredited)
Mack Chandler	...	Veteran (uncredited)
Robert Cherry	...	Singing Soldier (uncredited)
Jimmy Clark	...	Stevens (uncredited)
Lyle Clark	...	Union Soldier (uncredited)
David Clarke	...	Corporal by Campfire (uncredited)
John Cliff	...	Soldier (uncredited)
John Crawford	...	Soldier (uncredited)
Dick Curtis	...	Veteran (uncredited)
Bert Davidson	...	Union Soldier (uncredited)
Bob Davis	...	Confederate Soldier (uncredited)
Dennis Dengate	...	Lieutenant (uncredited)
Billy Dix	...	Soldier (uncredited)
James Dobson	...	Soldier (uncredited)
Gloria Eaton	...	Southern Woman at Farm (uncredited)
Lynn Farr	...	Confederate Soldier (uncredited)
Robert Fisher	...	Confederate Soldier (uncredited)
Eugene Gericke	...	Soldier (uncredited)
William Grueneberg	...	Union Soldier (uncredited)
Bill Hale	...	Confederate Soldier (uncredited)
James Harrison	...	General's Aide (uncredited)
Joe Haworth	...	Soldier (uncredited)
Dick Haynes	...	Confederate Soldier (uncredited)
Jim Hayward	...	Soldier (uncredited)
Ed Hinton	...	Corporal (uncredited)
Shep Houghton	...	Union Soldier (uncredited)
John Huston	...	Grizzled Union Veteran (uncredited)
Tennessee Jim	...	Confederate Soldier (uncredited)
I. Stanford Jolley	...	Veteran (uncredited)
Todd Karns	...	Soldier (uncredited)
Norman Kent	...	Veteran (uncredited)
Fred Kohler Jr.	...	Veteran (uncredited)
Herb Latimer	...	Corporal (uncredited)
Norman Leavitt	...	Union Soldier (uncredited)
Emmett Lynn	...	Jake - Veteran (uncredited)
Casey MacGregor	...	Veteran (uncredited)
Joel Marston	...	Union Soldier (uncredited)
Strother Martin	...	Corporal (uncredited)
Frank McGrath	...	Captain (uncredited)
Frank Melton	...	Confederate Soldier (uncredited)
Robert Nichols	...	Fat Union Soldier (uncredited)
Lou Nova	...	Veteran (uncredited)
Allen O'Locklin	...	Union Soldier (uncredited)
George Offerman Jr.	...	Union Soldier (uncredited)
Ivan Parry	...	Soldier (uncredited)
House Peters Jr.	...	Passing Soldier - Veteran (uncredited)
William 'Bill' Phillips	...	Veteran Officer (uncredited)
William Phipps	...	Officer (uncredited)
Obed 'Bubb' Pickard Jr.	...	Confederate Soldier (uncredited)
John Piffle	...	Confederate Soldier (uncredited)
Dixon Porter	...	Union Army Lieutenant (uncredited)
Lee Roberts	...	Union Soldier (uncredited)
William Roberts	...	Soldier (uncredited)
Buddy Roosevelt	...	Veteran (uncredited)
William Schallert	...	Union Soldier (uncredited)
Mickey Simpson	...	Veteran (uncredited)
Glenn Strange	...	Colonel (uncredited)
Frank Sully	...	Veteran (uncredited)
Hugh Thomas Jr.	...	Soldier (uncredited)
Arthur Tovey	...	Soldier (uncredited)
Dan White	...	Sergeant (uncredited)
James Whitmore	...	Narrator (voice) (uncredited)
Guy Wilkerson	...	Veteran (uncredited)
Wilson Wood	...	Union Soldier (uncredited)
Duke York	...	Veteran (uncredited)

Directed by
John Huston

Writing credits
Stephen Crane		(novel "The Red Badge of Courage")
John Huston		(screenplay)
Albert Band		(adaptation)

Produced by
Gottfried Reinhardt	....	producer
Dore Schary	....	executive producer (uncredited)

Original Music by
Bronislau Kaper

Cinematography by
Harold Rosson		(director of photography)

Film Editing by
Ben Lewis

Art Direction by
Cedric Gibbons
Hans Peters

Set Decoration by
Fred M. MacLean		(as Fred MacLean)
Edwin B. Willis

Makeup Department
William Tuttle	....	makeup creator

Production Management
Lee Katz	....	unit manager (uncredited)

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Ridgeway Callow	....	assistant director (uncredited)
Andrew Marton	....	second unit director (uncredited)

Sound Department
Douglas Shearer	....	recording supervisor

Special Effects by
Warren Newcombe	....	special effects

Stunts
Paul Baxley	....	stunts (uncredited)
Bob Herron	....	stunts (uncredited)
Bill Hickman	....	stunts (uncredited)
Terry Wilson	....	stunts (uncredited)

Editorial Department
Margaret Booth	....	supervising editor (uncredited)

Music Department
Robert Franklyn	....	orchestrator (uncredited)

Other crew
Jack Aldworth	....	script supervisor (uncredited)
Albert Band	....	production assistant (uncredited)
Paul R. Davison	....	technical advisor (uncredited)
Howard Strickling	....	publicity director (uncredited)

Production Companies

• Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)

Distributors

• Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) (1951) (USA) (theatrical)
• Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) (1972) (USA) (TV) (network premiere)
• Comet Video (????) (USA) (DVD)
• MGM/UA Home Entertainment (USA) (VHS)
• Warner Home Video (2003) (USA) (DVD)
• Warner Home Vídeo (Brazil) (DVD)

Also Known As:

Runtime:

69 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Sound System)

Certification:

USA:Approved (certificate #14937) | Canada:PG (video rating) | Australia:PG | Finland:K-16 | Sweden:15

Filming Locations:

Bidwell Park - Manzanita Avenue, Chico, California, USA

Company:

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)

Trivia:

This production amounted to a power struggle between Louis B. Mayer and producer Dore Schary. Mayer rejected the production (partly on account of it lacking women and thus a romance angle) and Schary insisted. Mayer appealed to Loew's Inc. chairman Nicholas Schenck and was rebuffed. This and other ego-bruising incidents that occurred during the same period resulted in Mayer's ouster from the company he helped found in 1924. As Mayer predicted the $1.6 million film flopped badly but by the Summer of 1951 he was out.

Goofs:

Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): There was no 304th infantry regiment in the Civil War. No state assigned a regimental number over the mid-100s.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "House M.D.: The Itch (#5.7)" (2008)

Summoned Up His Memories

Although John Huston's The Red Badge of Courage has stood the test of time critically, back then it lost lots of money in its first release. The film was a bone of contention between Louis B. Mayer and Dore Schary who were locked in a power struggle for control at Metro-Goldwyn- Mayer. Schary wanted to make the film, Mayer said it would flop and he was proved right. He also got ousted anyway.

The Red Badge of Courage refers to the blood that gets spilled should you sustain a battle wound. If you remember in Oliver Stone's Platoon, the men don't treat new arrival Charlie Sheen until he's gotten one of those. Here the Red Badge is something to be avoided if possible.

By a piece of serendipity when Audie Murphy returned from World War II and was deciding on a career, he chose the movies. He certainly was loaded down with offers, but I guess he sensed in himself an inner gift for being an actor. Not Marlon Brando or Laurence Olivier, but someone in the hands of the right director could get a good performance out of him. In John Huston he found that director, twice in fact as he later worked with him in The Unforgiven.

There was no need for research because our most decorated soldier in history lived the research in North Africa and Europe. There's a dimension to Audie's performance and that of GI cartoonist Willard Mullin that no training at the Actor's Studio could have given them. Murphy just summoned his memories of what it was like to be a kid from Texas whisked off to Europe the way young Henry Fleming is facing the Confederates in their backyard.

Murphy gets good support from an able cast of people like Arthur Hunnicutt, Royal Dano, John Dierkes, and Andy Devine as various other soldiers in the Union Army, all citizens serving their country. No career people in this crowd. Also James Whitmore, reading the narrative of Stephen Crane's novel serves almost like another cast member and moves the film's story line along.

Though it lost money for MGM, The Red Badge of Courage is still a fine film with some great insights into the meaning of battlefield bravery.