The Glory Guys is a 1965

1965 in film

The year 1965 in film involved some significant events, with The Sound of Music topping the U.S. box office.-Top grossing films : After theatrical re-issue- Awards :Academy Awards:...

 motion picture based on the novel The Dice of God by Hoffman Birney. Filmed by Levy-Gardner-Laven

Levy-Gardner-Laven

Levy-Gardner-Laven Productions was an American film production company based in Beverly Hills, California.The principals, Jules V. Levy, Arthur Gardner, and Arnold Laven, met while serving in the Air Force's First Motion Picture Unit during World War II. While serving, they decided to form their...

 and released by United Artists

United Artists

United Artists Corporation is an American film studio. The original studio of that name was founded in 1919 by D. W. Griffith, Charles Chaplin, Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks....

, it stars Tom Tryon

Tom Tryon

Tom Tryon was an American film and television actor, best known for playing the title role in the film The Cardinal and the Walt Disney television character Texas John Slaughter...

, Harve Presnell

Harve Presnell

Harve Presnell was an American actor and singer. He began his career in the mid 1950s as a classical baritone, singing with orchestras and opera companies throughout the United States...

, Senta Berger

Senta Berger

Senta Berger is an Austrian film, stage and television actress, producer and author.Regarded by critics as one of the greatest actresses of the post-war period, and frequently named as one of the leading German-speaking actresses in polls, Berger has received many award nominations for her acting...

, James Caan, and Michael Anderson, Jr.

Michael Anderson, Jr.

Michael Joseph Anderson, Jr. is an English actor.He was born in Hillingdon, Middlesex, into a theatrical family. His grandparents and great-great-aunt were acclaimed actors. His father is the film director Michael Anderson, Sr. He is the stepson of actress Adrienne Ellis, and stepbrother of...

 The film's screenplay was written by Sam Peckinpah

Sam Peckinpah

David Samuel "Sam" Peckinpah was an American filmmaker and screenwriter who achieved prominence following the release of the Western epic The Wild Bunch...

 long before the 1965 film was made. The director was Arnold Laven

Arnold Laven

Arnold Laven was an American film and television director and producer. He was one of the founders and principals of the American film and television production company Levy-Gardner-Laven. Laven was a producer of, among other things, the long-running western television series The Rifleman and...

. Riz Ortolani

Riz Ortolani

Riziero "Riz" Ortolani is an Italian film composer.In the early 1950s Ortolani was founder and member of a jazz band of national Italian renown...

 composed the score and the title song.

Though a fictionalized Western based on George Armstrong Custer

George Armstrong Custer

George Armstrong Custer was a United States Army officer and cavalry commander in the American Civil War and the Indian Wars. Raised in Michigan and Ohio, Custer was admitted to West Point in 1858, where he graduated last in his class...

's 7th Cavalry Regiment at the Battle of the Little Big Horn, the film is almost a generic war story covering the enlistment, training, and operational deployment of a group of recruits that could take place in any time period.

The large-scale film was made in Durango

Durango

Durango officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Durango is one of the 31 states which, with the Federal District, comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. The state is located in Northwest Mexico. With a population of 1,632,934, it has Mexico's second-lowest population density, after Baja...

, Mexico, with large numbers of mounted extras and the final battle scene choreographed on 20000 acres (80.9 km²) of land.

The titles were drawn by Joseph Mugnaini

Joseph Mugnaini

Joseph Anthony Mugnaini was an artist and illustrator. He is best known for his collaborations with writer Ray Bradbury, beginning in 1952....

 for Format Productions. Cover version

Cover version

In popular music, a cover version or cover song, or simply cover, is a new performance or recording of a contemporary or previously recorded, commercially released song or popular song...

s of the title song were done by Al Caiola

Al Caiola

Al Caiola is a guitarist who plays jazz, country, rock, western, and pop music. He has been both a studio musician and stage performer...

 and sung by Frankie Laine

Frankie Laine

Frankie Laine, born Francesco Paolo LoVecchio , was a successful American singer, songwriter, and actor whose career spanned 75 years, from his first concerts in 1930 with a marathon dance company to his final performance of "That's My Desire" in 2005...

.

Cast

Tom Tryon

Tom Tryon

Tom Tryon was an American film and television actor, best known for playing the title role in the film The Cardinal and the Walt Disney television character Texas John Slaughter...

  ... Capt. Demas Harrod

Harve Presnell

Harve Presnell

Harve Presnell was an American actor and singer. He began his career in the mid 1950s as a classical baritone, singing with orchestras and opera companies throughout the United States...

  ... Scout Sol Rogers

Senta Berger

Senta Berger

Senta Berger is an Austrian film, stage and television actress, producer and author.Regarded by critics as one of the greatest actresses of the post-war period, and frequently named as one of the leading German-speaking actresses in polls, Berger has received many award nominations for her acting...

  ... Lou Woddard

Michael Anderson Jr.  ... Trp. Martin Hale

James Caan

James Caan

James Caan is an American actor. He is best known for his starring roles in The Godfather, Thief, Misery, A Bridge Too Far, Brian's Song, Rollerball, Kiss Me Goodbye, Elf, and El Dorado...

  ... Trp. Anthony Dugan

Slim Pickens

Slim Pickens

Louis Burton Lindley, Jr. , better known by the stage name Slim Pickens, was an American rodeo performer and film and television actor who epitomized the profane, tough, sardonic cowboy, but who is best remembered for his comic roles, notably in Dr...

  ... Sgt. James Gregory

Erik Holland  ... Trp. Clark Gentry

Adam Williams  ... Trp. Lucas Crain

Andrew Duggan

Andrew Duggan

-Career:During World War II, Duggan was in the 40th Special Services Company, led by actor Melvyn Douglas in the China Burma India Theater of World War II. His contact with Douglas later led to his performing with Lucille Ball in the play Dreamgirl. He developed a friendship with Broadway...

  ... Gen. Frederick McCabe

Peter Breck

Peter Breck

Joseph Peter Breck is an American prolific character actor of stage, who has played roles on television and in film...

  ... Lt. Bunny Hodges

Laurel Goodwin

Laurel Goodwin

Laurel Goodwin is a former American actress.A child model, Goodwin made her screen debut as the love interest of Elvis Presley in the 1962 film, Girls! Girls! Girls!. Between then and 1969, she appeared in three more films and as a guest actor on several television series, including the role of...

  ... Beth Poole

Jeanne Cooper

Jeanne Cooper

Wilma Jeanne Cooper , best known as Jeanne Cooper, is an American actress best known for her portrayal of Katherine Chancellor on the daytime soap opera The Young and the Restless...

  ... Mrs. Rachael McCabe

Robert McQueeney

Robert McQueeney

Father Robert McQueeney was an American actor, best known for TV roles during the 1950s and 1960s. During and after his acting career, he also worked as a golf pro and instructor. After the official annulment of his marriage, he was ordained as a Catholic priest...

  ... Maj. Oliver Marcus

Wayne Rogers

Wayne Rogers

William Wayne McMillan Rogers III is an American film and television actor, best known for playing the role of 'Trapper John' McIntyre in the U.S...

  ... Lt. Mike Moran

Michael Forest

Michael Forest

Gerald Michael Charlebois, better known as Michael Forest is an American actor who provides the voices for many animated titles. At the age of 71, he provided the voice of Prince Olympius in Power Rangers: Lightspeed Rescue...

... Fred Cushman