THE HORSE SOLDIERS (1959) **1/2 Ok, if John Wayne is supposed to be so damn ruthless (as contrasted to William Holden's compassionate), why is it that he spends the entire film getting conned by Constance Towers, thereby endangering every one of his men in the process. Then there's the glorious Follow Me Boys moment when he gets routed by a youth military academy. I mean, c'mon, this is trying to pass itself off as a historical film--I must have just missed the part where he turns to his podnah and goes something like "It's a war, Sam, you shoot people that are shooting at you." But no. For all that it's entertaining enough, and doesn't try to run much deeper than it does. Mr. Wayne amazes as always by managing to profess and communicate so much with monosyllabic grunts, and the writers bail Holden out of the big scene before it can get too bloody. Althea Gibson's in it too, her only appearance on the big screen. She's not as great an actress as she was an athlete, but no one much else is either, and she does it up right. Some people can do anything.
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