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CRACKING THE SWORD Foppish, pre-anorexic and true to his character’s real-life spotless haberdashery refinery and straw hat, Laurence Harvey, usually one of moviedom’s most reliable contemporary cads, unexpectedly lets loose as the famous Lieutenant Col. William Barret Travis with one quick bit making John Wayne’s 1960 botch The Alamo worth sitting through. As the Alamo is being overrun by Santa Anna’s troops, shooting or bayoneting one American hero after another in Wayne-directed kissoffs, and knowing his own end is near after being stabbed and pumped with a few rounds of rifle fire, Harvey cracks his sword over his knee and throws half of it at his killers. Shameful to laugh this hard, but we have to be very thankful. (Btw, Larry didn’t take any guff from Wayne who, half-jokingly calling his Lithuanian-born co-star “the English fag,” not only liked him but also enjoyed his taste in caviar, fine wines and champagne delivered to the Texas hellhole they were shooting in and became an imbiber of Bullshot, Larry’s specialty made from vodka, beef consommé and lime.) Richard Widmark’s farewell gets a load of chuckles, too, as does a Chill Wills look-alike who ain’t goin’ down alone—taking two Mexicans along for the fall. These kinds of screams and other moments were previously seen in 1955’s The Last Command, Frank Lloyd’s economized tale of the battle meant to star Wayne; we’ll leave it to the litigators to decide the degree of theft. Composer Dmitri Tiomkin is at his usual in overusing the brass instruments, and his “Tennessee Babe” hits a new low for inappropriate use, causing upchucking when we hear the lyrics “sugar won’t melt in your mouth,” while his Oscar-nominated “The Green Leaves of Summer” would be pleasingly melodic were it not for the overload of too many variations. The whole score seems a primer for The Alamo, the Musical. A great last shot—the fortress in twilight. Wayne stirred up a fuss with his right-wing God & Guns Oscar campaigning, which he attempted to disavow, though it helped garner seven nominations. Columnist Sidney Skolsky quipped, “It appears more people voted for The Alamo than have seen it.” The 202 minute TODD AO roadshow engagements did not do well; in Chicago, for example, opening at the Palace in late October, 1960, the patriotic hash barely made it into the Xmas season, closing weeks before box office-inducing noms were announced. Harming the initial rollout was the decision by United Artists executives to substitute a shorter version after critics bitched about length, then infuriating big city audiences who bitched about being expected to pay full roadshow prices. (Some theater managers and projectionists avoided the studio cut and ensuant audience ruckus by not running reel 9B—the “birthday party” sequence.) The “popular prices” run, with a Wayne-approved slicing of thirty minutes and in 35mm, did much better. At every level, the story behind the trouble-filled making of the movie is much more interesting than anything on screen. Here’s the link to read: http://widescreenmovies.org/WSM02/alamo.htm Oscar win: best sound. Oscar noms: best picture, supporting actor (Wills), color cinematography, film editing, best scoring for a dramatic or comedy picture, best song. ROLL OVER IMAGE
Text COPYRIGHT © 2000 RALPH BENNER (Revised 7/2026) All Rights Reserved.
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