The Legend of Custer (1968) User Reviews

Not Unwatchable, But Pretty Silly Nevertheless

[FightingWesterner · 6/10 · 6 October 2009]

A feature film cobbled together from episodes of the short lived "Custer" television series, The Legend Of Custer looks fantastic with great cinematography and excellent locations.

It's historically bankrupt (not just inaccurate) plot involves Custer and Crazy Horse being captured by a tribe of Blackfoot and being forced to work together to escape and survive a dangerous trek back to civilization.

Wayne Maunder looks like Custer but this doesn't capture any of the arrogance or the amorality of the man. Here he's a hard driving but just and wise.

This isn't too bad but I would definitely recommend watching Custer Of The West for a better (though also historically inaccurate) viewing experience.

The Legend of Musterd

[Oslo_Jargo · 3/10 · 8 November 2017]

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

The Legend of Custer (1968) has a terribly written script and that makes it bog down to the point of ridiculousness. Unintentionally, it almost seems like a parody it is so ill-fittingly awful. But I think they were serious about elevating Gen. George Armstrong Custer from his reputation downfall.

Putting the stiff actor Wayne Maunder as Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer hampers it even more. Custer is an asinine man. The man is obviously a boisterous braggart and annoying. Richard Mulligan also played Gen. George Armstrong Custer in Little Big Man (1970) with much better effect.

Here he arrives at some fort and attempts to straighten up the place, brandishing his stiff sense of "order" to an unruly cavalry regiment. He also tries to capture or kill his much-hated Oglala Lakota rival Crazy Horse (actor Michael Dante). Michael Dante you'll recognize from "Star Trek" as Maab (1967), Apache Rifles (1964), and as a Blackfoot Chief in Winterhawk (1975).

The scenes with the Native Americans are pathetic. Custer rides his horse through a group of Blackfeet Indians and shoots about five of them. Crazy Horse gets captured by Blackfeet Indians and then Custer wants to rescue him, but afterwards he wants to kill him.

The small plot involves Crazy Horse meeting with a Kiowa Indian chief (actor Rodolfo Acosta, who always played an Apache Indian in many films) who is buying up rifles.

One scene which will make you laugh is when Custer shoots an injured bear and a rock avalanche traps him. The rocks get "neatly" stacked up somehow.

If you like Westerns you'll want to see this, but don't expect much.

It boils down to this. 90 minutes or 17 hr long episodes. Take your pick.

[mark.waltz · 2/10 · 26 March 2022]

I had a copy of this marked as a TV movie. What it is turns out to be a theatrical release of edited episodes released by 20th Century Fox to theaters, and by watching it you get the gist of what the TV series would have been like. This was during the time of lots of popular westerns like "Bonanza" and "The Big Valley" on TV, and a dozen big budgeted Westerns on the big screen and more than several dozen programmers released to neighborhood theaters and quickly forgotten. Most were fictional, others based on fact, but coming from Hollywood, you take it with a grain of salt and research to see what is true and what is fictional, or a better word for it, as with this one, made-up nonsense.

Looking like John Schneider from "The Dukes of Hazard", Wayne Maunder is the sexiest George Armstrong Custer that I've ever seen, and he's also quite commanding. In other words, made-up nonsense. "You're too sure of yourself. Too much your own man", his commanding officer (Robert F. Simon) tells him, with Custer having been reinstated after a court martial for desertion, and indeed, Custer is much hated when he takes over his new regiment. One of the men he gets into a squabble with is Peter Palmer, aka the original Lil' Abner, not singing it out here.

There's also Slim Pickens, Mary Ann Mobley and Michael Dante as Custer's main rival, Chief Crazy Horse, speaking white man's English as if he was a college graduate. Completely cheesy as a film, and a big tall tale as far as a history lesson. There have been better movies about Custer where he was either the lead or supporting character and even an allegory of what would have happened had he lived as a TV play a few years later. Mauder never captures the essence of Custer that history has recorded him to be, and a sympathetic Custer is not a realistic Custer. Interesting for its production values, but definitely one of the lamest historical westerns based on a legend ever made, as pointless as a compilation show the TV series edited down for theater release. Someone at the studio was trying to save face, giving this a second life and ended up coming out looking like Custer after the big battle.

Yikes

[thales-63045 · 1/10 · 16 April 2020]

The cancelled The Time Tunnel to concentrate on this? Funny how we blog about The Time Tunnel nowadays but not about this. Nuff said. Don't waste your time.