Audie Murphy was great in this movie!

Agreed. For me he was the best actor in this movie, his performance is a sheer delight.









"Life after death is as improbable as sex after marriage"- Madeline Kahn(CLUE, 1985)

Probably his best performance ever. One near and dear to his heart too, I would imagine, since he was from the same general area as the movie depicted.

based on the 3 or 4 other films of his I've seen, I didn't think much of his acting but he surprised me in this.

As a general rule, I like Audie Murphy movies. He is the reason that I watched this movie, and I thought that it was the best performance of his career.

Audie was a very good actor under the right direction. John Huston got a lot out of him in "The Red Badge of Courage" and this film. Joseph Mankiewicz in "The Quiet American". Also when Audie went against stereotype as in "No Name on the Bullet". Of course he was excellent, in a difficult role, playing himself in "To Hell and Back"

I also thought Murphy was excellent in this film. It seemed out of place because he made a career of B-Westerns both before and after this movie. It was strange to see him in a Lancaster/Hepburn movie but he really shined in the role. Kind of like when Tim Holt excelled in Treasure of Sierra Madre with Bogart (also directed by John Huston) while otherwise pursuing a career in in B-films. Kudos to Huston in both cases. And despite a lengthy career playing heroes, Lancaster could not compare to Murphy who was a real life WWII hero and Medal of Honor recipient.

Murphy single-handedly held off a German company by mounting an abandoned, burning tank destroyer and firing a .50 caliber machine gun for about an hour until he ran out of ammunition. He sustained multiple wounds in the war. Murphy achieved legendary status as a war hero in real life-not in movies. Most of his movies were bad but it was impossible to watch him and not be in awe of what he had done for his country. And yet in this movie, he was as good an actor as any of his famous costars!

In The Unforgiven, Murphy's character comes to the rescue and single-handedly attacks an Indian war party. Not at all unrealistic. The real Audie Murphy would have done no less!