Custer of the West | |
---|---|
Directed by | Robert Siodmak |
Produced by |
Philip Yordan executive Irving Lerner |
Written by |
Bernard Gordon Julian Zimet |
Starring |
Robert Shaw Jeffrey Hunter Ty Hardin Mary Ure |
Music by | Bernardo Segall |
Cinematography | Cecilio Paniagua |
Edited by | Peter Parasheles Maurice Rootes |
Production
company |
Security Pictures
|
Distributed by | Cinerama Releasing Corporation (1967, original) MGM (2004, DVD) |
Release date
|
|
Running time
|
141 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Budget | $4 million |
Custer of the West is a 1967 American Western film directed by Robert Siodmak. It tells a highly fictionalised version of the life and death of George Armstrong Custer. It starred Robert Shaw as Custer, Robert Ryan, Ty Hardin, Jeffrey Hunter and Mary Ure. The film was shot entirely in Spain.
The plot of the film was very close to that of the 1941 film They Died with Their Boots On, in which Errol Flynn played Custer.
With no better offers to be had, famous American Civil War upstart officer George Armstrong Custer takes over the Western Cavalry maintaining the peace in the Dakotas. He soon learns that the U.S. treaties are a sham, that Indian lands are being stolen and every excuse for driving them off their hunting grounds is being encouraged. With his wife Elizabeth (Mary Ure) Custer goes in and out of favor in Washington, while failing to keep wildcatting miners like his own deserting Sergeant Mulligan (Robert Ryan) from running off to prospect for gold in Indian country. After trying to humble the prideful Indian warrior Dull Knife (Kieron Moore), Custer leads the 7th Cavalry into defeat.
In the mid 1960s 20th Century Fox announced plans to make a film about Custer called The Day Custer Fell, directed by Fred Zinnemann, with Robert Shaw among the actors considered to play the title role. It was cancelled on grounds of cost.