The Red Badge of Courage (1951)

Audie Murphy is Henry Fleming, a young Union soldier who has never seen battle.

His Ohio regiment drills and marches, drills and marches, but never seems to see action, much to the dismay of some of its members.

Henry feigns disgust over the Union commanders as well. In truth, he’s worried he’ll run when the fighting starts.

More worried, apparently, than most of his counterparts, who seem ready to take on the Rebel army single-handed if need be.

Well, when the unit finally does see action, Henry’s fears turn prophetic. They beat back one Rebel assault, but not a second.

Henry turns and runs and doesn’t stop running until he falls in with soldiers wounded during the fighting.

And when he tries to stop another fleeing Union soldier to find out what’s happening at the front, he’s clubbed senseless.

An officer finds him unconscious and guides him back to his troop, where he convinces his colleague the bump on his head is a wound suffered during the battle.

He soon learns he wasn’t the only soldier scared out of his wits the first time he came under fire; good friend Tom Wilson tried to run as well, but was stopped by an officer.

And the next time the unit heads into action, Henry’s able to push those fears aside.

Review:

Well done little Civil War film based on the acclaimed novel by Stephen Crane. Audie Murphy, a World War II hero in real life, is an odd casting choice for a soldier who shows cowardice under fire. But he also turns in one of his best performances.

The focus on the experience of the common soldier helps. The supporting cast includes character actors Arthur Honnicutt, John Dierkes, Andy Devine and Royal Dano.

And the film leaves one to wonder what might have been. That’s because John Huston’s original cut of the film was nearly two hours long. Most of Royal Dano’s role landed on the cutting room floor. Indeed, the film was reduced to a run time of just over an hour.

Seems MGM’s Louis B. Mayer wasn’t a fan of the project, convinced it was doomed to lose money. Indeed it did, turning into one of the studio’s biggest box office busts of the year.

Directed by:
John Huston

Cast:
Audie Murphy … Henry Fleming
Bill Mauldin … Tom Wilson
John Dierkes … Jim Conklin
Royal Dano … Tattered Soldier
Arthur Honnicutt … Bill Porter
Douglas Dick … The Lieutenant
Andy Devine … Cheerful Soldier
Robert Easton … Thompson
Tim Durant … The General

Runtime: 69 min.

Memorable lines:

Henry Fleming: “What are these here guns for anyway? To shoot or to drill with? They might as well be broomsticks.”
Conklin: “Oh, we’ll get our marching orders one of these days. And I reckon, when it comes it will be soon enough.”

Tom Wilson: “I tell you, if anybody with any sense was …”
Jim Conklin: “Oh, shut up, you little cuss. You little fool. You ain’t had that there coats and pants on for six months, yet you talk as if you was George Washington.”

Lieutenant to Fleming, after he single-handedly charges the Rebs : “My heavens, if I had 10,000 wildcats like you I could tear the stomach out of this war in less than a week.”

Union soldier to a wounded Reb: “Want a drink of water?”
Wounded Reb: “Not Yankee water.”
Union soldier: “It’s Reb water. It’s my canteen, but it’s Reb water.”
The wounded soldier begrudgingly takes a drink.

Union soldier, as the troop marches off: “After all the trouble we went through gettin’ that wall, I’d like to sit by it for a while.”

1st Union soldier: “The Rebs didn’t win. That’s something to be thankful for.”
2nd Union soldier: “I’m thankful I’m in one piece.”
Bill Porter: “Me too. I got holes in my cap, holes in my pants, but there ain’t no holes in me ‘cept the ones that was intended.”