The Duke of West Point

In a great tradition of films about the Army Military Academy like The Long Gray Line, Flirtation Walk and The West Point Story steps The Duke At West Point. It's about three roommates at West Point, Louis Hayward, Richard Carlson, and Tom Brown and their first two years at the Academy.

Brown has gone to a military school and is gung ho army. Carlson is the son of a war hero killed in the first World War and has a presidential appointment. Hayward is the son of the military attaché at the American Embassy in London and has gone to Cambridge where he starred in Rugby, arguably tougher than American football.

If this had been done at 20th Century Fox Hayward's part would have been a lock for Tyrone Power. Hayward's a cocky arrogant sort who rubs his upper classmates the wrong way. But he has a great deal more character than they realize. He's caught off grounds after hours and doesn't reveal his reason for doing so. I won't reveal it here because it's centerpiece of the whole plot.

In fact Louis Hayward did many roles as a free lance actor that would have been done by Power over at Fox and Errol Flynn at Warner Brothers. Certainly those two are better known to film fans today, but Hayward is someone waiting to be discovered.

Producer Edward Small not having a major studio backing never got to West Point it seems. But with a lot of establishing shots the film has the look and feel of the Military Academy.

This film holds up as well as those others in portraying the tradition of West Point.

I saw this movie on television in New York about 1950. About twelve years after its release. To a ten year old boy it was fun, exciting and got me gung ho about West Point and its traditions. Yes, it was another Hollywood version of life at the academy. This movie was never intended as a documentary. I saw the movie again years later.At that point I enjoyed the actors. Louis Hayward who I had the pleasure of meeting(about 1975) was a really nice guy. He certainly never entertained thoughts that this movie would win critical acclaim. The movie did however provide grounds to hone his skills as an actor...which he became quite accomplished at. Two years later he was a very capable actor/star playing the dual role in The Man in The Iron Mask, followed by THe Son of Monte Cristo. Both were swashbuckler roles. He was a rather modest gentleman, and a decorated marine during WWII. I met Don Barry on location in Del Rio, Tx in 1968 for the movie Bandolero. He had a bit part in the movie...his better days behind him. We talked at great length because I was very familiar with many of the movies he had made. He was surprised that someone would know so much of his career. (As a movie buff, it was natural for me to know). For Richard Carlsen, this was also another early role to hone his skills. All in all, this movie was entertaining.......it is a movie I will watch again if given the opportunity

Louis Hayward is the fifth generation of his family to attend Wet Point, but with his British accent -- explained by eight years in English Public Schools -- athletic achievements, and cocky attitude, upperclassmen like Alan Curtis look to clip his wings, without success. Nonetheless, his room mates, Tom Brown and Richard Carlson, like him, and he tears up the football gridiron because of his skill at rugby. But when Carlson's mother falls sick, and Carlson feels he must resign, Hayward telegraphs her the money with orders not to tell Carlson, lest he resign anyway.... and he's caught out while doing so. He refuses to resign, so the cadets subject him to the Silence; no one will speak to him. Only his room mates are exempt.

Alfred Green does his typically good job directing this movie, which never talks about service or patriotism, just loyalty to the Army. Still, despite its length, it's good to watch, and the way editor Grant Whytock manages to make Hayward a great football and ice hockey player is fascinating for those on the look for it. With Joan Fontaine, Don Barry, Charles D. Brown, Jed Prouty, and Jonathan Hale.

In the 1930's, a lot of movies were released about well-off scalawags with hearts of gold. The population, groaning under weight of the Depression, loved to see depictions of glamorous and wealthy people that showed they were `just like us.' Partly, these movies undermined the class resentment that might otherwise have grown during hard times, partly they held out the promise to everyman that one day he, too, could share in the good life.

By the time `The Duke of West Point' came along, however, this sort of thing was getting pretty old hat. What's interesting about it, however, is that it is the `Duke's' very otherness that makes him stand out as the star, not his common-placeness. The titular `Duke' is actually an American raised in England and schooled at Cambridge who goes to West Point out of family tradition. He speaks like an Englishman and has a variety of bizarre idiosyncrasies, but has an infuriating tendency to always get his own way, a characteristic that makes upperclassmen resent him. In spite of his relatively slight build, he also happens to be an outstanding athlete, apparently able to master any sport in seconds.

All this sets him up to be an insufferable snob, and he is, really. But he does have the ubiquitous heart of gold, and the audience largely sees him through the eyes of his everyman American roommates (played by Richard Carlson and Tom Browne), who he will go to any length to support, even at potential disgrace to himself. There is a curious ambiguity when he receives his comeuppance, at the hands of almost the entire school (apart from those loyal roommates): Yes, he deserves it, and he needs to be taught a lesson, but, no, he isn't such a bad guy as all that.

In the end, I found it hard to root for the Duke. He breaks rules for the fun of it, acts like he is doing the American military a favor by attending its finest institution and woos the one girl within miles of the campus. I also found it hard to watch all those endless sporting events - I have no real interest in ice hockey, football or `ruggers,' although I suppose in the days before television a sports fan would have been thrilled to see a sporting event shot so professionally. This film is an interesting relic of a bygone age, and little more.

Following in the footsteps of 'Brown of Harvard' this supremely nondescript buddy movie detailing the activities of a group of young jocks on the football field at West Point has one sole reason to merit your attention in the form of young actress standing on the sidelines by the name of Joan Fontaine, relatively new to pictures and thus cast dramatically against what was soon to become type.

At the time treading water when she was loaned by RKO to United Artists to make this movie she gives a performance the likes of which she would never gave again as a graceful and patrician young lady dressed to the nines in a fashion recalling the young Myrna Loy.