The Horse Soldiers (1959) on Netflix
Approved19591h 55mAdventureWarWestern
Col. John Marlowe leads Union cavalry behind Confederate lines to destroy a rail supply depot. Surgeon Henry Kendall clashes with him, and Miss Hannah Hunter, overhearing the plan, comes along.
- Netflix3.7/5
- IMDb7.1/1013,271 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes81%
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Plot summary
Colonel John Marlowe, a railroad engineer in civilian life, commands the Union cavalry brigade sent behind Confederate lines to tear up track and wreck the supply depot at Newton Station. Major Henry Kendall, the brigade's new surgeon, is torn between his duty and the war's cost, and clashes with Marlowe. Colonel Phil Secord, who leads the other cavalry regiment, second-guesses Marlowe's orders. The raiders spend a night at Greenbriar Plantation, where its mistress, Miss Hannah Hunter, hosts the officers while hiding her disgust at the invading Yankees. She and her enslaved maid Lukey listen in on a staff meeting as Marlowe describes his plan to ride south through Mississippi toward Baton Rouge and avoid Confederate troops, so he brings the women along to keep the mission secret.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about The Horse Soldiers (1959)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
SPOILER
Veteran stuntman Fred Kennedy broke his neck and died performing a horse fall during the climactic battle scene of The Horse Soldiers. Director John Ford was devastated and lost interest after the death; the film had been scripted to end with the triumphant arrival of Marlowe's forces in Baton Rouge.- Lukey's dialogue was first written in "Negro" dialect that Althea Gibson, the former Wimbledon and U.S. National tennis champion cast in the role, found offensive. Gibson told director John Ford she would not deliver the lines as written, and he agreed to change the script.
- Major Hank Kendall's real-life counterpart, surgeon Dr. Erastus Dean Yule, did volunteer to stay behind and be captured with the men too badly wounded to move. Because the raid came about a year before the Andersonville POW camp was built, he was swapped out after several months as a prisoner.
- John Wayne and William Holden each received $750,000 for starring in The Horse Soldiers, a record salary at the time.
- The production built a bridge over the Cane River in Natchitoches Parish, Louisiana, for the film's pivotal battle scene, and hired many local residents as extras.
