The Long Grey Line (1955)

BACKGROUND​

It is unlikely that Ford would have been willing to undertake a portrait of West Point Military Academy, if not for the opportunity to turn it into a satirical story of poor Irish immigrants who never entirely fit in among the upper-crust inhabitants of the famous bastion of pomp and privilege. The Long Grey Line uses light-hearted comedy, sure to grate on the nerves of those aching for a more serious approach, to puncture the rarefied atmosphere of the stately Academy with its codes of conduct and archaic pageantry. 

PLOT SUMMARY

An insolent young lad fresh off the boat from Ireland finds a job as a waiter at West Point Military Academy and grows into one of the institute’s most beloved instructors.