Development The Warner Bros. script was an original screenplay and was announced in early 1941 as a vehicle for Errol Flynn. It was to be made after Warner's aviation film
Dive Bomber, another feature starring Flynn.
Filming The film is frequently confused with
Michael Curtiz's
Santa Fe Trail, released the previous year, in which Flynn portrayed
Jeb Stuart and
Ronald Reagan played Custer, also featuring Olivia de Havilland as Flynn's
leading lady. Three men were killed during the filming. One fell from a horse and broke his neck. Another stuntman had a heart attack. The third, actor Jack Budlong, insisted on using a real saber to lead a cavalry charge under artillery fire. When an explosive charge sent him flying off his horse, he landed on his sword, impaling himself. In September 1941, during filming, Flynn collapsed from exhaustion.
Jim Thorpe, who appears as an uncredited Native American warrior, reportedly had an off-camera fight with Errol Flynn, knocking him out with one punch. The film reunited
Gone With The Wind (1939) cast members
Olivia de Havilland and
Hattie McDaniel. De Havilland appeared in this film while simultaneously making
The Male Animal (1942) starring
Henry Fonda, putting the actress under enormous pressure from a heavy workload.
Custer's last stand While the rest of the film was shot in locations in southern California, the filmmakers had hoped to capture this climactic sequence near the actual location of the
Battle of the Little Bighorn. Owing to scheduling and budget constraints, however, the finale of the film was relegated to a rural area outside Los Angeles. Crazy Horse, played by
Anthony Quinn, is the only individualized Native American appearing in scenes. Quinn is one of the few actors of indigenous American descent in the film. Only 16 of the extras used were Lakota. The rest of the Native American warriors were mostly portrayed by
Filipino extras.
Historical accuracy The film shows Custer leading his troops in a saber charge, in the course of which they are surrounded and Custer, being the last man alive, is killed. In reality, the men had boxed their sabers and sent them to the rear before the battle; site evidence, along with some Native American accounts, indicates that Custer may have been among the first to die. He is also shown during the battle with his trademark long hair when, in reality, he had cut it short just prior to the Little Bighorn campaign. Several members of Custer's family (his brothers Thomas and Boston, his brother-in-law James Calhoun and nephew Henry Reed) also died in the battle but are not depicted in the drama. Custer is portrayed as completely devoted and faithful to his wife Libby but was in reality alleged to have unofficially married an Indian woman named
Mo-nah-se-tah during his campaign against the
Cheyenne and had children with her. However, some historians contend that he had become sterile after contracting venereal disease at
West Point and that the father was really his brother Thomas. The film also, however, accurately portrays Custer as sympathetic to the Indians situation at being forced to give up their lands to the incoming white settlers. He also said that, if he were an Indian, he would fight the encroaching white expansion, which is said in the film, and spoke out against the abuses they had to suffer on the reservations. As depicted, he was considered by many higher-ranking officers to be a glory-seeking troublemaker.
Soundtrack The film score was composed by
Max Steiner. He adapted George Armstrong Custer's favorite song, "
Garryowen", for use in the score. Custer knew the song while he was at West Point, where he is said to have performed it in a talent show. In the film, however, Custer hears the song for the first time being played on a piano by former
English soldier, now a U.S. Army officer, Lt. "Queen's Own" Butler. This connection is apocryphal. It is actually a traditional Irish drinking song, much beloved by the cavalry for its galloping rhythm. Warner Brothers recycled some of the film's music, and variations of it can be heard in
Silver River and
Rocky Mountain, both starring Errol Flynn, and
The Searchers starring
John Wayne.
Box office They Died with Their Boots On grossed $1,871,000 in the United States and $2,143,000 overseas. Its total receipts of $4,014,000 was the studio's third largest of the season. It made the studio a profit of $1.5 million. ==Reception==