They Died with Their Boots On is the Custer story, full of action, Indians and anachronisms, with Olivia de Havilland co-starred.
Warner studio provided generously for the picture, in terms of a good supporting cast, hundreds of horsemen, and outdoor locations. Raoul Walsh directed and brought to the screen all the pageantry and adventure that the biography provides.
They’re a long time getting to the tragic engagement in the Black Hills when Custer (Errol Flynn) with a third of his command, numbering 264 members of the 7th Cavalry, fell into ambush and were slaughtered by the Sioux.
The liberties which the screen writers have taken with well established and authenticated facts are likely to be a bit trying in spots. But the test of the yarn is not its accuracy, but its speed and excitement. Of these it has plenty.
When Flynn is ordered to command of a frontier post, disorders with Indians require immediate and drastic action. Custer is the man for the emergency. There is a period of armistice. Then the civilian traders and land grabbers move in. Trouble with the redskins ride with every covered wagon.
