John Ford Scrapped the Original Ending to His Forgotten John Wayne War Movie After a Real Tragedy

There are few collaborations in the world of Old Hollywood said to be more iconic, dependable, and consistent as that of actor John Wayne and director John Ford. Between 1939 and 1962, the pair worked on over a dozen productions together, from their first collab in Stagecoach to their final on-screen epic, How the West Was Won. While most of these pictures were Westerns, on occasion they explored other genres. Of course, being a Western director, even those other movies — such as the 1959 Civil War film The Horse Soldiers — often felt more like horse operas than not. But regarding The Horse Soldiers, in particular, Ford made a judgment call in the film’s eleventh hour that would seal the fate of this would-be war epic forever.

John Ford Cancelled a Civil War Battle He Planned As ‘The Horse Soldiers’ Ending

Based on the Harold Sinclair novel of the same name, The Horse Soldiers is set during the American Civil War as Union forces are sent behind enemy lines to disrupt the Confederacy’s supply chain. Led by Captain John Marlowe (Wayne), this band of Northern horse soldiers is joined by Major Henry Kendall (William Holden) as they fight their way into the South. Along the way, they meet and take captive young Miss Hannah Hunter (Constance Towers), who becomes vital to Kendall’s medical efforts while falling head-over-heels for Captain Marlowe. In the finale, The Horse Soldiers ends with the Union men racing toward Baton Rogue while the Confederates (plus Kendall, Hannah, and the wounded) are stalled by Marlowe’s destruction of a local bridge, thus avoiding another battle. But this almost wasn’t the case.

As biographer Scott Eyman records in the definitive take on the filmmaker’s life, Print the Legend: The Life and Times of John Ford, tragedy struck the set of The Horse Soldiers during the filming of an action sequence before the location shoots were finished. Stuntman Fred Kennedy fell off his horse during a stunt and landed wrong, resulting in his death. The horrific turn of events changed Ford’s entire demeanor on set, as he and Kennedy had worked together for decades. As Eyman notes, Ford felt personally responsible for everyone on set, and this sudden tragedy hung over him. This occurred not long before Ford and company were slated to shoot the final battle sequence leading to Marlowe’s triumphant arrival in Baton Rouge. The sequence would have ended the film on a high note, solidifying the Union victory and concluding The Horse Soldiers with just the sort of bang the picture needed to be a hit. But that wasn’t to be.

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“A rock and a hard place is what we call Monday.”

“We’ve got Ford, Holden and Wayne; we’ll make a million,” recalled screenwriter and co-producer John Lee Mahin to Ford at the time. “This picture goes right out the window. It’s a little shaky up to there anyway, so let’s at least have a finish.” Indeed, one of the biggest criticisms of The Horse Soldiers is the film’s lackluster action by comparison to many of Wayne and Ford’s previous works together. Had the film concluded with a final battle between the Union and Confederate forces, it may have been considered more of a classic. But Ford wouldn’t have it. After Kennedy’s death, he wasn’t interested in another battle sequence. “No, we won’t spend the money,” he replied, and no further arguments were made. By all accounts, the director wanted to move on from The Horse Soldiers as soon as possible.

‘The Horse Soldiers’ Is Unlike Any Other John Ford Movie

In the end, The Horse Soldiers doesn’t conclude with a triumphant battle sequence that speaks to the honor and glory of the American Civil War, but rather with Marlowe riding away from the invading Confederate forces and putting some distance between them. In some ways, it feels particularly relevant to Ford’s state of mind after Kennedy’s death, resolving to accept defeat and deal with the loss of his “fallen soldier.” As Eyman put it in his section on The Horse Soldiers, “A man had died on his watch. He had failed.”

In this sense, Ford closely identified himself with Wayne’s leading hero. Marlowe chooses to retreat in order to fight another day, accepting that not everyone they leave behind — Kendall, Hannah, and the wounded Union soldiers — will come out unscathed. The same was true of Ford. The lack of a true conclusion to The Horse Soldiers is a fascinating parallel to the real-life behind-the-scenes circumstances that contributed to the film’s end. Had tragedy not occurred, the filmmaker may have pushed to see his Civil War epic through in earnest. We may never know how that battle sequence would have turned out, yet The Horse Soldiers remains among Wayne’s best.