The Last Wagon
by Delmer Daves
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Actor: Felicia Farr, Richard Widmark, Stephanie Griffin (II), Susan Kohner, Tommy RettigDirector: Delmer Daves
Brand: Fox
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown), Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo; English (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo
Format: Color, DVD, NTSC
Picture Format: 2.35:1
Running Time: 98 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2006-05-23
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: 20th Century Fox
DVD Reviews of The Last Wagon
DVD Review: Widmark shines in beautiful, morally complex Delmer Daves western
Summary: 4 Stars
Director and screenwriter Delmer Daves is almost certainly best-known nowadays for the 1957 3:10 TO YUMA, a taught and suspenseful, almost minimalist character-driven western in black and white which got a new lease on life when it was remade 50 years later. Otherwise, Daves' many westerns have faded somewhat in the collective cineaste consciousness, at least in comparison with his contemporaries John Ford, Anthony Mann, Howard Hawks and Budd Boetticher, and though these are all names worthy of remembering, it's a bit of a shame that Daves hasn't stayed in their company, as he was doing some of the most interesting and progressive work in the genre during it's heyday.
Daves specialized in films dealing with Indians, and starting with his very first western, BROKEN ARROW (1950) he always treated them more sympathetically than his peers did. THE LAST WAGON is no exception, though the "real" natives play an antagonistic and largely offscreen role throughout the film. Richard Widmark stars as Comanche Todd, a white man raised by the tribe of the same name since childhood, who self-identifies primarily as a native. We meet him on the run from three men in a valley in Arizona. One he picks off right away; another (played by an unidentified Timothy Carey) after losing his gun and improvising a trap; the third, Sherriff Bull Harper (George Matthews in an over-the-top but wonderful display of brutality and callousness) captures him and attempts to drag him back to civilization. He's killed three men apparently and Harper means to hang him. But soon Harper and Comanche run into a wagon train of Christian settlers and join up with them - and soon afterwards, the wagon train meets a band of Apaches, and only a few younger members of the group and Comanche manage to survive.
From this point on the film becomes a survival and chase story, with Comanche trying to lead the reluctant settlers through the "Canyon of Death" to safety, and having to contend with their animosity and hatred towards him - more for being a "savage" than for his alleged crimes - and their contentious feelings towards each other, most obviously in the case of the white Valinda (Stephanie Griffin) and her half-Navajo half-sister Jolie (Susan Kohner). Jolie likes Comanche right away, as do Billy (child star Tommy Rettig) and his sister Jenny (Felicia Farr) with whom Comanche develops a mutual attraction fairly quickly. Clint and Ridge (Ray Stricklyn and Nick Adams), the latter also unfriendly towards Comanche, complete the party. They have between them one single revolver, and little water or food, so it's up to the white Indian to get them through things.
What's refreshing about THE LAST WAGON to me is that the prejudices and attitudes of the party seem to develop and change pretty organically - sure, a lot happens over the course of a few days, but what's really going on is that these "Christians" start to really act the way the best elements of their faith instruct them to, and they start to treat Comanche - and each other - as real human beings, and not as stereotypes. And Comanche's feeling for his people, and his non-Christian spirituality, is never mocked or disavowed by the film - and clearly serves him better than the piousness of the settlers.
Widmark was as comfortable in the western hero role as he was in the underbelly of noir, and this is a terrific, almost invisible performance, a character that he seems to inhabit like an old robe that he knows every stitch of; the rest of the cast is fine but apart from Matthews' brutal sherriff I can't say they make a huge impression. The Technicolor, Cinemascope on-location photography in Arizona by Wilfred Cline is just spectacular - this must have really been something on the big screen. The only real problem with the film, and it's not insignificant, is in the ending courtroom scene, which ties up all of the moral ambiguities way too neatly. It's kind of uplifting, and the film's heart was in the right place in regards to it's attitude about Native Americans, but after the tough survival story we've watched for an hour and a half, it's just too easy.
Still a terrific, well above-average 50s western, and I look forward to getting more into Daves' filmography. The DVD looks fine; extras include trailers for several other westerns from the period, production sketches, and poster art.
Description of The Last Wagon
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