The Horse Soldiers

Details

Release year: 1959

Storyline

In 1863, a Union outfit is sent behind Confederate lines in Mississippi to destroy enemy railroads but a captive southern belle and the unit's doctor cause frictions within ranks.

Top credits

Did you know

• The film marked the beginning of mega-deals for Hollywood stars. John Wayne and William Holden received $775,000 each, plus 20% of the overall profits, an unheard-of sum for that time. The final contract involved six companies and numbered twice the pages of the movie's script. The film, however, was a financial failure, with no profits to be shared in the end.

• A long-time alcoholic, John Ford was ordered by his doctor to abstain from drinking or he would surely die from its effects. Even though he was notorious for his stubbornness, Ford obeyed the physician's orders. Still, the absence of drink caused him to treat his cast and crew rougher than usual. The one who usually got the worst treatment, drink or no drink, was John Wayne Ford demanded that Wayne also abstain from drink, even though he had no such orders from his physician. Wayne begged producer Martin Rackin to get him away from Ford's omnipresent gaze, if only for a brief moment. Rackin obliged and lied to Ford, telling him that Wayne's teeth were beginning to show up yellow on film and that he needed to take both Wayne and William Holden to New Orleans to have their teeth cleaned. The drunken trio spent a roaring night in the Crescent City, returning to a furious Ford, who knew through his spies exactly how many bars they had visited.

• John Ford cast tennis champion Althea Gibson as Lukey partly to attract African-American viewers. Gibson was a racial-barrier-breaking athlete, the female Jackie Robinson of tennis, who--just prior to being featured in this film--had won both the Wimbledon and US Open tennis championships in 1957 and 1958.

Box Office

Gross (Domestic): $1,753,526

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Technical specs

Sound mix

Mono

Aspect ratio

1.85 : 1

Color

Color