The Fighting 69th (Warner Bros.) (1940)

[ot] The Kind of Cockeyed Merrymen You Love.... and Envy. Men Whose Glorious Records Are Tops in History’s Pages! By HARRY LEE HE patriotic organization which became known as ff ‘The Fighting 69th’ may be said to have begun in 1786, when Company A and Company B became part of the 3rd Infantry Regiment commanded by the brilliant and erratic, Aaron Burr. This aggregation saw honorable service in the war of 1812 and in 1858 was made part of the 69th New York, which had been formed seven years before, by the consolidation of a number of separate com panies in New York City. Such was the uninspiring origin of a regiment which today is known to all by its . tradition of glory and valor. The ‘Old 69th’ was in the service of the Union continuously through the four years of the Civil War as part of Meagher’s Irish Brigade and Corcoran’s Legion, It fought at Fair Oaks, Antietam, Fredericksburg, Gettysburg and many other noted battles and suffered the loss of over a thousand men. In the battlefield of Gettysburg a twenty-foot Celtic Cross hears ailent witnescc to +e Father Duffy (Pat O’Brien)—Private Plunkett (James Cagney )—‘Wild Bill’ Donovan (George Brent) mer two weeks to intensive training in the field. They wear the uniforms of the United States Army and receive a small wage for the weekly night of drill. During the two weeks of encampment, officers and men receive the regular army pay of their rank. Officers, and men aspiring to be officers, study military courses by means of correspondence in the hope of passing examinations which will scribed by Father Duffy as “a fine, manly, upstanding young Irishman devoted to high ideals, practical and efficient withal.” Many of the present day officers of the 165th infantry of a new generation, too young to have fought with the colors in France, have roots deep in the 69th’s traditions. Captain John T. Prout, for example, commander of the Howitzer Company, was only eight years old in 1918, but his father, a native of Tipperary, was a captain in the regiment and served through the Ourcq and other battles, later being promoted to major in another division. Captain Prout was chosen by Warner Bros. to act as technical adviser in their brilliant motion picture “The Fighting 69th.” Prout was but one of several technical assistants on the job daily to make sure that everything was done in regulation style. Aiding with the military angles were two other men, Corporal Mark White, not only with this company during the war but with the Sixty-ninth all during the Mexican Border campaign, and Sergt. Carl Voss, ex-officio “Commander of the Hollywood Army.” Voss, six-foot plus 200-ponder, with a voice like a fog horn, is one of the most familiar figures in Hollywood when war pictures are being made. “The Fighting 69th” is the 229th film of that ee eee ys eee. NE Wor ae an Se ey Re eee, Saree | crew stood ready, the cameras turned, Keighley fired a signal shot from a pistol and the war was on. While all this was going on— it took two days to film the action scenes in the ‘break away” set — studio technicians were building a city of army tents at Warners’ Providencia Ranch, just across the wide bed of the shallow Los Angeles River from the Burbank studio. It was a replica, exact according to publicity reports, down to the last tent peg, of Camp Mill, as it was first built near Mineola, Long Island, in October, 1917. There the old New York Sixtyninth was mobilized and brought up to war strength as the 165th regulars and there the Rainbow Division itself was formed by men from 27 states and the District of Columbia. Thence its name: a band of many colors. James Cagney plays the role of the unmanageable Private Jerry Plunkett; Pat O’Brien is Father Duffy; and George Brent ‘Wild Bill’ Donovan. Jeffrey Lynn portrays the heroic soldierpoet, Joyce Kilmer; Frank McHugh is ‘Crepe-Hanger’ Burke, the man who is happy only when he’s sad; Dick Foran is ‘Long John’ Wynn, Romeo of the barracks; Alan Hale is ‘Big Mike,’ Uncle Sam’s one-man army; Dennis Morgan is ‘Silent’ Oliver Ames, whose fists do his talking and Big Boy Williams is Paddy Dolan, who’d rather fight than eat, and likes to eat. “The Fighting 69th” is more eee A Lh eee Of on oan wn.