The Red Badge of Courage 1951 film was released in 1951. Stephen Crane published his novel The Red Badge of Courage in 1895 before John Huston and Albert Band turned that text into a screenplay for the 1951 film.
Audie Murphy played the lead role of Henry Fleming in this war drama. He was a hero of World War II before he became an actor and his real-life service added weight to his portrayal of a frightened young soldier.
MGM executives shortened The Red Badge of Courage 1951 film because test screenings reportedly went poorly so the studio shortened it to 70 minutes. They also added narration taken directly from Crane's book while John Huston originally envisioned a two-hour version of the film.
The studio claimed the deleted footage was destroyed in the 1965 MGM vault fire. In 1975 MGM asked if John Huston still possessed an original print but he told them no such copy existed.
MGM records show the film earned $789,000 in the US and Canada and international markets brought in another $291,000 for a total loss of $1,018,000. This financial failure made it one of the studio's least successful films that year.