The Long Gray Line
Time Out says
A beautifully crafted film, every image composed with graceful simplicity, but all that emerges is a lame 'Goodbye Mr Chips of West Point'. As a clumsy young man fresh off the boat from Ireland, hired by West Point Military Academy as a waiter, Marty Maher (Power) enlists to escape the mounting bill for breakages set against his wages, and becomes an instructor despite his ineptitude. Fifty years later, he is still there, a living monument to West Point, revered (he and his wife O'Hara having lost their only child at birth) as a beloved surrogate father to generations of cadets. The placid endorsement of military tradition (a straw dummy doubt about raising boys up to be cannon-fodder is easily disposed of) would be easier to take were it not for the rampant Irishry (jigs and pseudo-poetic blarney at every opportunity) that makes the sentimentality flow in buckets. Good performances, nevertheless.
Details
Release details
Duration:
137 mins
Cast and crew
Director:
John Ford
Screenwriter:
Edward Hope
Cast:
Tyrone Power
Ward Bond
Maureen O'Hara
Donald Crisp
Robert Francis
Betsy Palmer
Phil Carey
Harry Carey Jr
Peter Graves
Ward Bond
Maureen O'Hara
Donald Crisp
Robert Francis
Betsy Palmer
Phil Carey
Harry Carey Jr
Peter Graves