40,000 Horsemen

Among those who saw the film on its US release was a young Clint Eastwood. Richard Schickel writes in his 1996 biography of Eastwood: "Treasured among these films and stars [that Clint Eastwood saw while growing up] is one slightly more exotic title, 'Forty Thousand Horsemen'. The story of an Australian cavalry brigade that fought in Palestine in World War I, it starred Chips Rafferty, was made in 1940 and entered the world market a couple of years later. Its dialogue contained a few mild, but in those days shocking, cuss words. Clint remembers going to it with his family and, when the first 'hell' or 'damn' was heard, being aware of respectable citizens leaving the theater. The Eastwoods soon followed, but 'I snuck back later, because I wanted to see the whole movie; it had a lot of action--horses, and lancers and what have you'."

Opuntia did not grow wild in Sinai and Arabia during World War I, but was found in Australia (where the desert scenes were filmed).

Featured in Forgotten Cinema: The Golden Age of Australian Motion Pictures (1967)