Red Badge of Courage, The (1951) – Nostalgia Central

Henry Fleming (America’s most decorated real-life World War II hero, Audie Murphy) –  referred to as “The Youth” – is a young Union recruit anxious about his own bravery during the American Civil War.

Terrified during his first intense battle encounter, Henry panics and flees the front lines. Wandering behind the lines, he encounters gruesome casualties and feels deep shame for deserting his unit.

His redemption comes when he gets clubbed on the head by another fleeing soldier and pretends it is a combat wound – his literal “red badge of courage”.

He returns to his regiment and channels his fear into near-suicidal bravado during the next charge.

Director John Huston’s original cut of the film ran for roughly two hours, and early industry screenings generated massive acclaim, with some declaring it the greatest war film ever made.

But following disastrous public test screenings, MGM executives grew nervous about the film’s grim, anti-war undertones (especially with the real-life Korean War raging at the time) and the studio heavily edited the movie down to a sparse 69-minute runtime while Huston was away filming The African Queen.

They also added heavy voice-over narration to bridge the gaps and dumped the film into cinemas as a second-feature “B-movie”.

Both Huston and Audie Murphy tried unsuccessfully to purchase the film so that it could be re-edited to its original length. The studio claimed that the cut footage was destroyed.

After seeing what MGM had done to the film, Huston instructed his agent to include a clause in all future contracts guaranteeing that he would receive a copy of his director’s cut on all of his films.

Henry Fleming (The Youth)
Audie Murphy
The Cheery Soldier
Andy Devine
Thompson
Robert Easton
Lieutenant
Douglas Dick
General
Tim Durant
Bill Porter
Arthur Hunnicutt
Tattered Man
Royal Dano
Jim Conklin (The Tall Soldier)
John Dierkes
Tom Wilson (The Loud Soldier)
Bill Mauldin

Director
John Huston