redboots-1

Historically, the real Captain was Benteen but in this movie he is called Captain Benton. I was hearing that said and to verify, I put the movie into mute sound and turned on the closed captions and it was indeed spelled Benton. I suspect this was due to the difficulty of the audience hearing the correct sound as other characters, i.e. Custer, Tom and Custer, George are kept with the correct names and also Major Reno. The Rosebud River is north and east of the Little Bighorn and was actually where one of the two Generals, either Crook or Terry, was defeated prior to the engagement at Little Big Horn. The battle of Little Bighorn was June 25, 1876 and some writers have speculated that Custer expected to ride in to Philadelphia for the national convention on the heels of his victory. A good biography is "Son of the Morning Star" by Evan S. Carlson. I have to agree that the movie is so bad that it is fun and somehow worth watching but, in perspective, a great film, "They Died with their Boots on" shares the same guilt with its lack of historical accuracy and I love "Boots" so it's the movie that counts in these cases, not the facts.

I saw this when I was 15 and we did not get to see our music stars then so movies like this were one of the options. I found it and bought it on VHS some years ago and felt lucky to find it. Jimmy Clanton was one of my musical heroes and he sang "Ship on a Stormy Sea" in this plus several other songs. It is one of the few viewings of the great Eddie Cochran although he does not have his electric guitar plugged in, it is still worth seeing him. Others in the film are great, musically. Yes, the plot lacks but most of this genre of movie lacked a plot. They were a quick and cheap way to rush the visual aspect of our stars to us, the young audience and they entertained us. Remember that they were made for our 13-19 year old minds and we were not technically aware. But, it did not differ from Dick Clark having the same people on his shows when they did not sing but mouthed the words. It has flaws but it is well worth having for anyone who wants to see and remember Jimmy Clanton, Jackie Wilson, Chuck Berry, Eddie Cochran, and Richie Valens.