Ten Gentlemen from West Point

Hopefully, when people went to see "Ten Gentlemen from West Point" they weren't expecting a history lesson, as the plot is, for the most part, fiction...and rather silly fiction. According to this film, the US Congress was not particularly excited about starting the military school at West Point, New York and the film shows that the school's commandant, Major Carter (Laird Cregar) does his best to make the cadets hate the school and want to go back home. So, for much of the film, he has the cadets treated poorly though, unexpectedly, the men somehow prove themselves.

The problem with this movie isn't just that it's poor history but the dialog and music are, well, pretty dumb. Again and again and again, you hear strains of "Yankee Doodle"...and the band at West Point only seems to play this tune! I can only assume no other songs were written at the time! And, the dialog and characters just seem a bit cartoony and unreal. Overall, a rather silly film and by the end I still had no idea WHAT Maureen O'Hara was doing in the middle of all this. Easy to skip and just plain silly.

By the way, towards the end you see natives from the Indiana/Ohio area all hanging out in tipis. This was NOT how they lived and such dwellings were used much further west by nations like the Sioux.

The above comments should be corrected

The setting of the story is 1808-1811 - several years after the Academy at West point was established in 1802. The story is erroneously perceived to be about the beginning of West Point, but it is concerned with a period when the Congress was considering closing the already existing Academy. There was a move (in the film) by Henry Clay in Congress and fostered by people like Maureen O'Hara's character to keep the school going. Another character alludes to the idea that the school was able to only graduate 1 officer the year before and that the past graduates were not all that could be expected. Worth watching. It is a shame that it was filmed on Hollywood's Western ranch sets rather than the beautiful setting on the Hudson. I guess it would have been too expensive and they would have to shoot around the more modern buildings. A historic fort like Ticonderoga would have been a good setting.

If anyone is looking for a real history of the Military Academy at West Point Ten Gentlemen From West Point will not be what you are looking for. It should be remembered that we were just going to war in 1942 and this film and a film for the would be enlisted men and junior officers about the creation of the army brass who were leading them was a film that Darryl Zanuck and 20th Century Fox was ready to give the movie going public.

What is true is that the Academy in its early years was a pretty slap dash affair which did face challenges to its existence. The superintendent who really got the place going on a full time basis was a man named Sylvanus Thayer who arrived in 1817 after the War Of 1812.

But this story which is before the War Of 1812 has a man from the regular army come with a company of regular army men to be in charge of the Military Academy. Laird Cregar does not believe in the mission of the Academy, you only learn by being in the army and he says plainly to those new recruits is force them to quit and to close the Academy at West Point down.

Of course the cadets show they have the right stuff and as we know West Point still exists. As for the particulars of the plot Washington society belle Maureen O'Hara whose father supported the idea of the Academy has two recruits sniffing around her in some deep heat. One is southern aristocrat John Sutton and the other is frontiersman from Kentucky George Montgomery. No doubt Montgomery was in a part that may have been offered to Tyrone Power first. Personally I think Maureen's favorite leading man John Wayne would have been ideal.

She would have settled for either Ty or the Duke whom she spoke favorably of in her memoirs. Her rather distasteful memory of the film comes from Montgomery trying to take liberties with her while the film was shooting. Maureen said she loathed Montgomery and walked off the set, but came back and finished the film.

It's not history but Ten Gentlemen From West Point holds up well as action/adventure entertainment.