The Long Gray Line (1955)

Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

You don't even need to read the credits to recognize the work of John Ford and his band of merry men. The style of story telling, color and camera angles are vintage Ford. Tyrone Power is a small but terrific diversion off the usual casting, but I suppose John Wayne wasn't up to the Irish accent (It has been said that Ford wanted Wayne in the role and the producers said "No."). This is vintage Ford, from the first image to the last, patriotism on his sleeve and a cast uniformly strong and highly recognizable. Being a Ford production means that there are other requirements including not only his usual band of actors but his brand of sentimentality as well. Younger viewers may not get this kind of story telling with its episodic and sentimental nature, but no one ever did it better than Ford and his company of technicians and players. Do yourself a favor and invest the 2 and a quarter hours in a fine film that also shows off West Point.Oh, and you get Maureen O'Hara at her loveliest.

None of John Ford's films are exactly poorly made, and this one is competent enough as it goes. Basically it's the story of Marty Maher (Tyrone Power), a fresh immigrant off the boat from Ireland who finds a home in America's West Point military academy. Starting off in the kitchens and working his way up to an instructor in football and swimming, Maher finds love with a saucy Irish woman (Maureen O'Hara) and finds himself continuously renewing his enlistment although often against his better judgment. He sees some of the boys he trained go off to die in the war and he has to deal with the emotions of those consequences as well as his duty to the academy. When a favorite student dies in WWI (William Leslie), Maher and his barren wife take in his wife (Betsy Palmer) and help raise his son (Robert Francis).Power's performance is excellent and he manages to carry the film. The process of his aging through the film is admirably handled. But I found the film in general to be somewhat corny and heavy-handed. The message of the film seems to be to reinforce a certain brand of military patriotism that I personally find distasteful. That's not to say that the film is a bad film, but it is what it is. It's very much concerned with propagating the idea of "noble sacrifice", and Power's character barely questions the wisdom of training these young men just to send them off to die. It's as if he brings up the idea that it might not be worth it, just so that Ford and his writers can put that idea to rest as soundly as they can.I like the film for its depiction of the main character as a humble man who often lashes out at others in anger but learns to temper his passions with growing wisdom. But I just can't get into the film -- let's just say that if you're not a huge fan of Irish jigs and military marching bands (or the combination of the two), then you will get just as sick of this movie by the end as I did. There's practically no subtext to the film that I can detect, and in the final analysis it's no more subtle than Ford's wartime pro-Army films. I can't make myself feel happy that the son is going to go off to war and risk death just like his father did, or that there's this great honor and nobility in it all. I won't cheer with Power's character as he rudely dismisses the idea of West Point modernizing its approach to military training. The whole film is basically telling us to resist change and to cherish tradition, and that's an aspect of Ford's personality that I just don't appreciate. But I do appreciate the amount of skill and care that went into Power's performance in particular.

The film is supposed to be a real-life account of a soldier who was on staff at Westpoint for about 50 years--so long that he became a bit of an institution through the first part of the 20th century.The first 20 minutes or so of the movie didn't particularly impress me. Unlike the rest of the film, this was all played for laughs and Tyrone Power played this portion very broadly. Some might like this, but I thought the "dumb newbie" routine wore thin very, very quickly. We get to see Tyrone drop some plates, get in a fight by mistake and be one of the biggest screw ups in army history. Frankly, he was so obnoxious and stupid that I really wondered if this even remotely had any similarity to anyone--let alone the real character. In many ways, these aspects of the film reminded me of the "funny" moments from WINGS OF EAGLES and PATHS OF GLORY. Many like this stuff, but I think the different moods of the film don't work out all that well--as if the movie can't decide whether it's a drama or a comedy (would this make it a "dramady"?).Fortunately, after a very inauspicious start, the film slowed down and dropped the pratfalls and became an excellent film--full of the usual John Ford sentiment and style. I was surprised that Tyrone Power did such a good job with the role--and his Irish accent was also pretty good. He was ably assisted by some of the usual Ford actors--Ward Bond, Donald Crisp and Maureen O'Hara. The overall effect is very inspiring and will nearly bring a tear to your eye--it was exceptional film making after a somewhat rocky start.

I saw this movie on TV in the early to mid 60's and then recently caught it again. It is a bit corny and a bit dated and it does play a little loose with the facts of the real Marty Maher's life BUT I did enjoy it immensely. I think it is one of Tyrone Power's best performances and it makes me wonder what kind of a career he might have had if he did not die so young. Having known a number of real Irishmen, I thought his accent was pretty good. He did appear a bit old for the character in the early going. Power was not aging well. He looked even worse in "The Sun Also Rises" and "Witness for the Prosecution". I suppose that might be due to the health problems that resulted in his death at age 44.