# Custer of the West
*Custer of the West* is a 1967 biographical Western directed by [Robert Siodmak](https://www.edgepedia.org/robert-siodmak), starring [Robert Shaw](https://www.edgepedia.org/robert-shaw-actor) as General George Armstrong Custer, which follows the Civil War hero from his command of the 7th Cavalry to his death at the [Battle of the Little Bighorn](https://www.edgepedia.org/battle-of-the-little-bighorn). It was an independent production by Philip Yordan's Security Pictures, shot in Spain in the Super Technirama 70 widescreen process, and it served as the debut release of Cinerama Releasing Corp.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/20659-CUSTER-OF-THE-WEST)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Director | Robert Siodmak, with Irving Lerner credited as executive producer and director of civil war sequences[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/20659-CUSTER-OF-THE-WEST) |
| Writers | Bernard Gordon and Julian Zimet; Zimet was initially credited under the pseudonym Julian Halevy until the WGA corrected the credit[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/20659-CUSTER-OF-THE-WEST) |
| Producers | Philip Yordan and Louis Dolivet, for Security Pictures, Inc.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/20659-CUSTER-OF-THE-WEST) |
| Cast | Robert Shaw (Custer), Mary Ure (Elizabeth Custer), Jeffrey Hunter (Benteen), Ty Hardin (Maj. Marcus Reno), Lawrence Tierney (Gen. Philip Sheridan), Kieron Moore (Chief Dull Knife), Robert Ryan (Sergeant Mulligan)[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/20659-CUSTER-OF-THE-WEST) |
| Format | Technicolor, Super Technirama-70, 35 and 70 mm, 143 minutes[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/20659-CUSTER-OF-THE-WEST) |
| Filming | Spain, principally Almería, Colmenar Viejo near Madrid, and Toledo; twelve weeks ending December 1966[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/20659-CUSTER-OF-THE-WEST) • [2](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0062844/locations) |
| Release | London premiere 7 November 1967; U.S. 70mm roadshow openings in Dallas and Houston on 24 January 1968[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/20659-CUSTER-OF-THE-WEST) |
| Reception | 25% on the Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer from 8 reviews[3](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/custer_of_the_west) |
## Spoilers
### Story and historical liberties
The screenplay follows Custer from Civil War skirmishes to his assignment by General Sheridan to command the 7th Cavalry, his conflicts with the hard-drinking Major Reno and with Lieutenant Benteen, who is sympathetic toward the Native Americans' plight, and finally the miscalculations that lead to Little Bighorn.[4](https://www.tcm.com/articles/151881/custer-of-the-west) Among the screenplay's most striking departures from historical fact, Custer's adversary is portrayed as the Cheyenne rather than the Sioux.[4](https://www.tcm.com/articles/151881/custer-of-the-west) TCM's synopsis also describes a politically charged sequence in which Custer, recalled to Washington as a scapegoat after a Cheyenne reprisal attack on a passenger train, blames the deteriorating situation on the government's and military's willingness to kowtow to big business.[4](https://www.tcm.com/articles/151881/custer-of-the-west) The DVD Savant review observes that the script's actual text is fairly progressive, describing the film as almost strident in its cynicism about Washington's motives, ahead of the pro-Indian *Little Big Man* (1970) in that respect.[8](https://www.dvdtalk.com/dvdsavant/s1230cust.html)
## Production
The project began under the title *The Last Trumpet*, with other working titles including *A Good Day for Fighting*, *Custer*, and *Custer's West*.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/20659-CUSTER-OF-THE-WEST) According to the [Turner Classic Movies](https://www.edgepedia.org/turner-classic-movies) account, the original director was [Akira Kurosawa](https://www.edgepedia.org/akira-kurosawa), who bowed out of the project before Yordan handed the reins to Siodmak, the German-born director of film noirs such as *The Killers* (1946) and *Criss Cross* (1949).[4](https://www.tcm.com/articles/151881/custer-of-the-west) DVD Talk's review adds context: Yordan had worked with producer Samuel Bronston on the Spain-based epics *[El Cid](https://www.edgepedia.org/el-cid-film)* (1961) and *The Fall of the Roman Empire* (1964), and when Bronston's operations collapsed, Security Pictures filled the void, producing three features for Cinerama: this film, *Krakatoa, East of Java* (1968), and *The Royal Hunt of the Sun* (1969).[5](https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/72328)
**Shooting in Spain.** Principal photography ran twelve weeks and ended in December 1966. To reduce shooting time, Yordan organized separate filming units under chief director Siodmak, aided by Irving Lerner, Noel Howard, and Jack Willoughby; Lerner was ultimately credited as executive producer and director of the civil war sequences, Howard as second unit director, and Willoughby was not credited onscreen.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/20659-CUSTER-OF-THE-WEST) IMDb lists the filming locations as Colmenar Viejo near Madrid, Almería in [Andalusia](https://www.edgepedia.org/andalusia), Toledo, and Madrid, with studio work at Sevilla Films in Madrid.[2](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0062844/locations) Scoring was underway at Shepperton Studio Centre in England by early January 1967, with other post-production set for [Pinewood Studios](https://www.edgepedia.org/pinewood-studios).[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/20659-CUSTER-OF-THE-WEST) The music was composed by Bernardo Segall, with a marching song carrying lyrics by Will Holt.[6](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0062844/)
## Release
The film was scheduled to debut as an out-of-competition entry on the last night of the 1967 Cannes Film Festival, but a print was not ready and the picture was pulled; distribution rights were unacquired at that point, though [Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer](https://www.edgepedia.org/metro-goldwyn-mayer) was reportedly interested.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/20659-CUSTER-OF-THE-WEST) Cinerama ended up releasing the film on its own after the [American Broadcasting Company](https://www.edgepedia.org/american-broadcasting-company) took a fifty-percent interest in it and in *Krakatoa, East of Java* in the summer of 1967, with ABC's total investment in both films reported as $4 million.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/20659-CUSTER-OF-THE-WEST) IMDb lists the estimated budget as $4,000,000.[6](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0062844/)
The London premiere took place on 7 November 1967, two days earlier than initially planned.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/20659-CUSTER-OF-THE-WEST) In the United States the film opened as a 70mm "hard-ticket" roadshow presentation in Dallas and Houston, Texas, on 24 January 1968, with plans for twelve to fifteen roadshow markets followed by 35mm releases in July and August 1968. A Variety brief in May 1968 described the roadshow series of openings as "generally unsuccessful."[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/20659-CUSTER-OF-THE-WEST) TCM notes that although the film was shot with the intent of making it one of the final releases in the Cinerama process, it was almost exclusively exhibited in conventional widescreen.[4](https://www.tcm.com/articles/151881/custer-of-the-west) The German release title was *Big Horn – Ein Tag zum Kämpfen*, first shown in Germany on 28 March 1968.[7](https://www.filmportal.de/film/custer-of-the-west_b09def5345b2416dbfcf16dd158efe5c)
## Critical reception
The film drew mixed to negative reviews. Renata Adler of The New York Times wrote that so much strange cutting and botching went into the job that it is nearly impossible to follow the story.[3](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/custer_of_the_west) Variety found it capable, audience-involving adventure on the visual level that does not rise to epic stature, resuming the "facts" about the Seventh Cavalry without taking a coherent attitude toward them.[3](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/custer_of_the_west) Time Out called it an ambitious and occasionally stylish work, expertly crafted but let down by a script that does not decide what angle to take on its controversial protagonist.[3](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/custer_of_the_west) TCM singles out Shaw's intense work in the title role as the film's chief virtue, a textured effort giving a more complex portrait than [Errol Flynn](https://www.edgepedia.org/errol-flynn)'s glossy treatment in *They Died with Their Boots On* (1941) or [Richard Mulligan](https://www.edgepedia.org/richard-mulligan)'s darkly comic megalomaniac in *Little Big Man*.[4](https://www.tcm.com/articles/151881/custer-of-the-west)
## Legacy
The film sits at the cusp of the 1960s re-evaluation of the "winning of the West," appearing between the heroic Flynn portrait of 1941 and the revisionist *Little Big Man* of 1970.[4](https://www.tcm.com/articles/151881/custer-of-the-west) It was among the last films shot in the Super Technirama 70 process used on *Spartacus*, *El Cid*, and *[Zulu](https://www.edgepedia.org/zulu-1964-film)*, and among the last widely presented in 70mm Super Cinerama.[5](https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/72328) Home video releases were long poor, with DVD releases from Anchor Bay and MGM in inadequate 4:3 letterboxed transfers; the film is currently owned by Disney, and a Kino Blu-ray followed in 2017.[5](https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/72328)
## References
1. [Custer of the West, AFI Catalog of Feature Films](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/20659-CUSTER-OF-THE-WEST)
2. [Custer of the West (1967), Filming & production, IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0062844/locations)
3. [Custer of the West, Rotten Tomatoes](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/custer_of_the_west)
4. [Custer of the West, Turner Classic Movies, by Jay S. Steinberg (2008)](https://www.tcm.com/articles/151881/custer-of-the-west)
5. [Custer of the West, DVD Talk review by Stuart Galbraith IV (2017)](https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/72328)
6. [Custer of the West (1967), IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0062844/)
7. [Custer of the West, filmportal.de](https://www.filmportal.de/film/custer-of-the-west_b09def5345b2416dbfcf16dd158efe5c)
8. [DVD Savant Review: Custer of the West, Glenn Erickson](https://www.dvdtalk.com/dvdsavant/s1230cust.html)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Action and adventure films (individual works) › Westerns before 1980 › Released 1961 to 1979*
*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*
License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license