Other Titles • The Long Gray Line • Mit Leib und Seele (1955)
Synopses for The Long Gray Line (1955)
1.
John Ford pours on the sentiment like syrup in The Long Gray Line, a tribute to the traditions of West Point. Tyrone Power ages 50 years to play real-life West Point legend Martin Maher, the scrappy Irish immigrant who rises from "another Mick waiter" to hot-tempered cadet to one of the best-loved instructors of the institution. Power is at his best as the charming rogue with a thick brogue, who ages into a feisty, gray-haired foster father to the cadets he and his fiery Irish wife (Maureen O'Hara) adopt over the years, among them Harry Carey Jr. (as young Dwight D. Eisenhower). Ford claims he didn't care for CinemaScope, but you wouldn't know it from the handsome, lush images that fill the frame. It lolls along at a lazy 140 minutes, balancing the respectful tributes with boisterous humor and boyish pranks but always centered by the generous heart of Maher. --Sean Axmaker
2.
John Ford cast former matinee idol Tyrone Power against type in the true story of Marty Maher, a humble Irish immigrant who rose through the ranks to become one of West Point's most revered instructors. Arriving at the hallowed military academy near the turn of the 20th century, Maher first gets a job as a cafeteria dishwasher but realizes that the enlisted men receive better treatment and quickly becomes one. The life of military discipline is no easier for the Irishman, and he soon finds himself in the guardhouse after getting in a fight with an officer he mistakenly accuses of a crime. Upon his release, Capt. Herman Koehler (Ward Bond), who saw the fight and admired his pugilistic skill, offers Marty a job as the school's boxing coach. Koehler also introduces him to the quiet Irish-born cook, Mary (Maureen O'Hara), who will become his wife. As the years pass, Marty's role expands beyond his place in the athletic department as he gradually becomes one of the most beloved characters in the school's history, a second father to thousands of grateful cadets. This warmly sentimental, typically Fordian tribute to a life of service--the director's first film following a year off because of eye surgery--features a fine performance by Power as the volatile, big hearted Hibernian.
3.
Newly arrived in America, Marty Maher's (Tyrone Power) first job was as a waiter at West Point. Clumsy and boisterous, he quickly broke so much of the military academy's china that he was forced to join the army to repay his debts. But once enlisted, the rough-and-ready Dubliner served his adopted nation with rare dedication, establishing himself as an inspirational coach at West Point. Spanning fifty years and two world wars, the film shows Maher at his best, molding and motivating the young men who would become America's heroes and presidents.
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