Last Train from Gun Hill (1959)

Must See Movie...

Great Film overall

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

A Stiff and Super Clean Look is What You Get From the Overrated Director John Sturgess Once Again. The Man Wouldn't Know Grit if it Covered the Bottom of His Elevator Boots. The Strong Acting from Kirk Douglas and Anthony Quinn with the Radiant Beauty of Carolyn Jones Cannot Save Another Clunker from Sturges and His Bland Direction.There is Some Tension from the Script, Borrowed from and Almost Identical to Other Recent Movies of the Era, the Shallow and By the Numbers Style of So Many Fifties Westerns Renders the Suspense Somewhat Anemic.The First Act is the Best and it All Goes Down (Gun) Hill From There. The Cinematography is Lusciously Competent but Nothing Different from a Thousand Other Professionals, and the Dimitri Tiomkin Score is Intrusive and Overdone Frequently.Worth a Watch with Low Expectations but for Those Looking for One of the Better Westerns from the Many in the Decade of "The Western", Need Look Elsewhere.

OK, if you just want to waste your time on a movie that makes NO sense at all, this is it. Oh it has great actors, and they play their part very well, but I know they must have been laughing all the way to the bank. OK, so you have this town Marshal (Kirk Douglas) who's wife is raped and killed, so he goes after the bad guy's who it turns out that one of them is the son of he best friend (Anthony Quinn) from year gone by that he hasn't seen in a long time. So far so good. Should be a great story right, well, you haven't heard the punch line yet.I will just cut to the chase and tell you, it's all about Douglas getting Quinn's son on a train back to the marshals town to stand trial. The problem is they go through all this crazy stuff to stop Douglas from getting to the train and taking off, WHEN ALL THEY HAD TO DO WAS STOP THE TRAIN FROM LEAVING!!!!! If the train doesn't leave, guess what, Douglas and Quinn's son doesn't leave, end of story. How stupid could this ending be.Your watching this movie and about half way through it you realize what a waste of time you have spent on a movie that no one in it has the brains to just say, hey, let's just stop the train.So, if you like a western movie that makes no sense, then this movie and 3:10 to Yuma are for you, in both films all they have to do is stop the train.

Beautiful scenery, beautiful color, a somewhat stellar cast, appropriately tense music score by Dimitri Tiomkin, very good directing by John Sturges, excellent producing by Hal Wallis, and an a la "High Noon" storyline all combine to make this an exciting Hal Wallis western,a favorite of mine. Again, it is so very much like "High Noon" and "3:10 to Yuma" as well. The two outstanding veteran actors are very much alike in their character portrayals: Anthony Quinn, who plays Craig Belden, the rich owner of the town of Gun Hill, is a good friend to Sheriff Matt Morgan(Kirk Douglas) from Pawnee, OK, and has been his friend for years, until Morgan must take Craig's son Rick back to Pawnee because he has raped Belden's Indian wife, and lets Belden know that he must take Rick back. Similarly, Morgan has been a good friend to Craig, until the moment that the sheriff delivers the bad news; they both become convincing enemies to each other. Earl Holliman does well in the stigmatic role as Craig's spoiled brat son Rick, Walter Sande adapts well to his role as the owned coward of a sheriff in Gun Hill, and Carolyn Jones portrays well a tough-skinned lady whom no sensible person wants to tangle with; she plays the lover of the widowed Craig Belden who becomes caring toward the sheriff. The superb music director Dimitri Tiomkin was his outstanding self as his music conveys, and the Old West movie site Old Tucson was the perfect place to film this cinematic piece. Again, I like the color, the acting, the action, and the tense plot. Yes, I personally thought it was outstanding.

Sometimes, in the crucial moments of our lives we have no choice whatsoever, it is as destiny has already established our course. That is what happens to Morgan (Douglas) and Belden (Quinn), when Belden's son (Holliman) commits a barbaric act of murder and rape, the victim being Morgan's wife. Morgan and Belden were friends,and nobody would think they would ever fight each other, but now everything changes. John Sturges directed famous westerns (Magnificent Seven, Gunfight at the O.K. Corral, Bad Day at Black Rock), and this one is good, but not quite on the same level. The colors in the film are very sharp, with what seems to be a predominance of green and this is in contrast with the intense drama, a more sombre color would be more appropriate, except at the sequence of the rape where it is excellent.