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Ronald Reagan’s Love for the Cavalry

Ronald Reagan of the Cavalry!

By Henry C. Parke

Future President Ronald Reagan had made the leap from working actor to star thanks to two performances; his portrayal of doomed athlete George Gipp in 1940’s Knute Rockne: All American, and as Drake McHugh, whose legs are needlessly amputated by a sadistic surgeon in 1943’s King’s Row. Now, it was 1951. Reagan, who’d made a few Westerns, notably Santa Fe Trail, wrote in his autobiography, Where’s the Rest of Me? “I still wanted a crack at that outdoor stuff. Added to my frustration was the certain knowledge that the cavalry-Indian cycle was wearing thin, due to overexposure.”

Reagan had a personal reason for longing to make a cavalry Western: he was a former cavalryman himself! It happened, oddly enough, due to a radio job. From 1933 to 1937, Reagan was a sports announcer for WHO Radio in Des Moines, Iowa. He writes, “I loved horses,” although he’d only ridden them in his imagination, watching Tom Mix movies.

“The 14th Cavalry Regiment was stationed in Des Moines. One of our announcers was a reserve officer. Through him I learned … that you could sign up as a candidate for a commission and thus be eligible not only to ride cavalry mounts on the spacious reservation, but also to get the best cavalry training in horsemanship.” He’d no desire to be an Army officer, but with the end of World War I, “I thought we had already fought the last war.” Reagan was sure he’d never pass a Cavalry physical because his eyes were so bad, but a physical wasn’t required until one applied for a commission. But when Reagan had to apply for a commission or stop riding, through a combination of cheating, luck, and the doctors’ misguided kindness, he became a nearly blind 2nd Lieutenant in the Officers Reserve Corps. When war broke out, he became part of the 323rd Cavalry Regiment in California, but his service was at Hal Roach Studios, aka Fort Roach, where his vision was no barrier to acting in military training films.

Back to 1951, “Out of the blue came two fellows from over Paramount way, Bill Pine and Bill Thomas, with a story called The Last Outpost. It was based to a certain extent on history: the little-known efforts of the Confederacy in the Southwestern desert seeking to intercept gold shipments to the Union. It was in color, it was loaded with action, and I played a Confederate cavalry captain.”

If cavalry Westerns are often as stiff as an officer’s uniform, The Last Outpost is refreshingly lively and entertaining, thanks in part to director Lewis Foster, who excelled in both action and comedy, directing some of Laurel and Hardy’s funniest films, and winning an Oscar for his writing on Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. (Note: The Last Outpost was re-released in 1962 as Cavalry Charge.) Reagan plays Confederate Captain Vance Britton with charm and a confident swagger. Wearing blue is Reagan’s brother, Union Colonel Jeb Britton, played by Bruce Bennett, the interloper on Bogart and the other gold prospectors in Treasure of the Sierra Madre. The brothers’ conniving against each other provides much of the fun. The woman who Reagan—the cad!—left behind, who turns up at the fort, married to the weasel who runs the trading post, is lovely Rhonda Fleming; she and Reagan made such a good pair they’d do three more films together: Hong Kong, Tropic Zone, and Tennessee’s Partner.

But for the future Commander in Chief, the best thing about making The Last Outpost was another co-star, his thoroughbred, nicknamed Baby. “The two ‘Bills’ thought of everything, including shipping Baby to Tucson, Arizona, to be my mount in the picture. That was no small part of my pleasure. That first morning some of the local cowboys, outfitted as soldiers, had a few derogatory remarks to make about Baby and what she’d be like after a workout in that hundred-degree desert heat. Those boys just didn’t know that a thoroughbred can do anything better than any other horse except quit. By sundown, there were picture horses scattered all over the cactus patch, so beat we had trouble mustering enough for background in the close shots. But old Baby was not only picture-acting—she was kicking those beat critters out of the way. ‘Twas a proud moment for her owner.”

About Henry C. Parke

Henry’s new book, The Greatest Westerns Ever Made, and the People Who Made Them, published by TwoDot, is now available. The Brooklyn-born, L.A.-based writer has contributed articles to the INSP blog since 2016, been Film Editor for True West since 2015, and has written Henry’s “Western Round-up,” the online report on Western film production, since 2010. His screenwriting credits include Speedtrap (1977) and Double Cross (1994). He’s the first writer welcomed into the Western Writers of America for his work in electronic media. He’s done audio commentary on nearly thirty Spaghetti and domestic Westerns.

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