This is the story of Martin Maher, who spent a total of 50 years at West Point, beginning at the Turn of the 20th Century. There are many familiar cast members from other Ford films, including Maureen O'Hara, Ward Bond, Donald Crisp, Harry Caray Jr. (as Cadet Dwight D Eisenhower), Sean McClory, Phillip Carey, Willis Bouchey, Jack Pennick and 16 year old Patrick Wayne (son of you-know-who). Unfortunately the screen writers found it necessary for some reason to invent events. At the conclusion of the story, Maher is visiting President Eisenhower at the White House, and is lamenting being forced to retire. This would have been in 1954 or 1955. In fact, Maher had retired from the Army in 1928, and from the Civil Service at West Point in 1946. There is also an important sequence in the film involving the death of Maher's infant son, when in fact Maher never had any children.
Review of The Long Gray Line
