🎥🍿They Died with Their Boots On (1941) War, Western

Director: Raoul Walsh IMDb RATING 7.2/10 7K

• Because of new union laws, producers were forced to use regular screen extras without stunt experience. During the first days of shooting, 80 were injured and three were killed. The filming of the Last Stand sequence involved some 200 horsemen charging around in pretend battle and was so dangerous that one day Anthony Quinn, who played Crazy Horse, arranged as a gag for a hearse to show up at the filming location.
• The US government did not keep its treaty with Chief Crazy Horse or his people.
• According to "The Guinness Book of Movie Facts and Feats", three men were killed during the cavalry charge scene. Bill Mead's horse tripped while riding alongside Errol Flynn. As he was going down, the stuntman had the presence of mind to throw his sword forward to avoid it, but bad luck caused the hilt to get stuck in the ground and Mead fell on it, impaling himself.
• Errol Flynn was disappointed with the finished film, as he had wanted a more realistic approach.
• This was the eighth and final film pairing of Errol Flynn with Olivia de Havilland.
• Much has been made of Errol Flynn's and Olivia de Havilland's shooting the emotional last scene of this movie, knowing that it would be their last time working together. However, this was not the scene shot last in the film. According to the daily production notes in the Warner Bros. archives, it was their kissing scene on the Bacon veranda.
• Elizabeth "Libby" Bacon Custer lived until 1933, only eight years before this movie came out.
• To die with your boots in the 19th century meant to die a violent death. It referred to the deaths of cowboys and others in the American West who were killed in gun battles or hanged. It was a derogatory term. As Doc Holiday lay dying, he looked at his bootless feet. His last words were, "This is funny." He expected that he would die in a gunfight, or maybe he preferred to die in battle. Today the term is not so derogatory as in the past. The implication is to die while living life as usual, and not of old age and being bedridden with illness, infirmity, etc.
• The movie never mentions George Armstrong Custer's younger brothers Tom (who was one of the highest-decorated Union soldiers of the Civil War with two Medals of Honor), their sister Lydia's son Henry Reed, and their other sister Margaret's husband James Calhoun, who were all killed at Little Big Horn.
• Custer did commission a new uniform when he was promoted to brigadier general but sources claim it had less to do with glory and arrogance and more about standing out in front of his troops. Custer wanted his men to be able to see him leading the charge from anywhere on the battlefield. The gold braid and buttons glinted in the sunlight which allowed his men to easily spot their commanding officer.