IMDb > The Long Gray Line (1955)

The Long Gray Line (1955) More at IMDbPro »

Overview

User Rating:
7.3/10   839 votes
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Director:
John Ford
Writers:
Nardi Reeder Campion (book)
Edward Hope (writer)
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Contact:
View company contact information for The Long Gray Line on IMDbPro.
Release Date:
9 February 1955 (USA) more
Genre:
Biography | Comedy | Drama | Sport more
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... more | add synopsis
Plot Keywords:
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Awards:
1 nomination more
User Comments:
It took him 40 years or so to get the hang of it. more (33 total)

Cast

  (Cast overview, first billed only)

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
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Additional Details

Parents Guide:
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Runtime:
138 min
Country:
USA
Language:
English
Color:
Color (Technicolor)
Aspect Ratio:
2.55 : 1 more
Sound Mix:
4-Track Stereo
Certification:
Australia:G | West Germany:12 (nf) | Finland:S | Sweden:Btl | Argentina:Atp
Company:
Columbia Pictures Corporation more

Fun Stuff

Trivia:
John Ford originally wanted to cast John Wayne as Marty Maher. more
Goofs:
Factual errors: In the film, Mary O'Donnell Maher dies sometime before Christmas 1944 while World War II is still raging. In real life, according to her headstone at the West Point cemetery, she died in 1948. more
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?
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Soundtrack:
My Country, 'Tis of Thee more

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User Comments

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22 out of 23 people found the following comment useful.
It took him 40 years or so to get the hang of it., 8 July 2005
10/10
Author: bkoganbing from Buffalo, New York

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.

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