Release date: June 12, 1959, 119 minutes
Director:John Ford
Cast Includes:
Synopsis:
The year is 1863, the month April. The Civil War has been going badly for the Union - the key stumbling block is Vicksburg, high on a bluff over the Mississippi River. Ulysses S Grant has been sitting in front of Vicksburg for a year. If he doesn't take it before summer, he'll probably be there another years. If he can take it, then General Sherman can be turned loose, march to the sea, cut the Confederacy in two - and sooner than later, the bloodshed would be over and the war won by the Union.
Grant calls in Colonel Marlowe (John Wayne), dispatches him 300 miles into enemy territory to cut the railway line at Newton Station by destroying that railhead. This would dry up Vicksburg's supply line.
Colonel Marlowe takes off on his "horse ride" with an understrength brigade of Union cavalry. His men think they are on the way north for a parade. They learn different at daybreak, when they find the sun rising over their left shoulders.
The start is marred by friction between Marlowe and his surgeon, Major Kendall (William Holden). Marlowe has the expected contempt of the combat solider for his colleague who carries no arms. In addition, when Kendall asserts his rights as an officer in the medical corps to declare unfit any solider he considers so, Marlowe and Kendall clash. It doesn't help the situation any when Marlowe is reminded that regulations back up Kendall.
On route to Newton Station, Marlowe stops at a plantation where Hannah (Constance Towers), its beautiful owner, learns their plans. He is forced then to take her along with them for security reasons, beginning a hectic romance between violently opposing strong personalities.
Marlowe destroys Newton Station. Unable to return to La Grange, Tennessee, his starting point, he continues another three hundred miles through the heart of Rebel territory into Baton Rouge, then in Yankee hands, but fighting and running every inch of the way.
The climax comes at a bridge spanning the Amite River. To escape closely pursing Confederate cavalry, Marlowe orders the bridge mined. Seconds before the bridge is destroyed, Marlowe gets across, leaving Hannah behind after fond vows to meet when the war is over.