The Last Wagon (1956)

To me, this movie is perfection.

Simply Perfect

Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

Arrested for killing the men who murdered his wife and sons, "Comanche" Todd survives being chained to a wagon wheel when Apache ambush the wagon train leaving only 6 young people as well as Todd: it falls to him to lead them to safety through hostile territory.Richard Widmark has a meaty action hero leading role as Todd in this 1956 western. The other characters are an interesting bunch, with Nick Adams in the thankless role of aggressive ass, Tommy Rettig as substitute son, and Felicia Farr as tasty young thing who could easily adapt to frontier wife.The action is good, the music is typical western fare, and the scenery is wonderful. This is a very traditional western, but a good one.

A half-breed (Richard Widmark) wanted for multiple murders is hunted down and captured by a vicious sheriff (George Matthews) who, as he's dragging him back to civilization to be tried and then hung, coincidentally meets up with a wagon train of devout Christians. The situation as they join the train is the best part of the film, as Richard Widmark as the half-breed being convincingly mistreated by the sheriff (Matthews is pretty believable) wins the sympathy of a sizable proportion of those in the wagon train, which includes attractive Felicia Farr, Stephanie Griffin and Susan Kohner. The opposing views of justice, Christian piety, humane treatment etc... are well enough done, and the action builds fairly well with Widmark being chained to a wagon wheel, who manages to get one hand free enough to kill Matthews by skilfully throwing a hatchet at him. The culmination of this weird setting is when the young women accompany Nick Adams on a night time skinny-dipping outing. That, unfortunately is the high point of the film, for when they return they find that everyone in the train has been killed by Apaches except Widmark who somehow escapes even though he's still chained to the wagon wheel. The rest of the film is Widmark, half-breed, who's lived with Commanches for most of his life, now saving the young and attractive females along with Nick Adams and Tommy Rettig as he leads them to a town, where he faces a trial that is one of the more inane court scenes you are likely ever to see.

Comanche Todd (Widmark) must lead a small band of teenage survivors through hostile Apache territory, despite suspicions about his Indian background.It's a great shot when the wheel with Todd shackled to it gets pulled up the rock overhang, with the spectacular Technicolor scenery behind it. The young folks better save him if they want to get through Apache country, but can they trust him. He may be white on the outside, but he's Indian on the inside. Plus, he's already killed four white men, with a white man's court waiting to hang him. And to top it off, he's an ornery cuss even if he does know how to get a rabbit out of its burrow. No doubt about it, the youngsters are in a tight spot.The real star here is the magnificent Sedona scenery, never better filmed or blended into the story. However, two popular themes of the time do emerge—rebellious teens (think the previous year's Rebel Without a Cause) and race prejudice (with Indians standing in for an emerging civil rights movement). There's some tension in the little band's predicament; however, the story is more about human interest than battling Apaches. On the upside are fine performances from Widmark and an unheralded George Mathews's sadistic sheriff. On the downside are shaky turns by Griffin and Kohner as the feuding half-sisters, along with a screenplay that sometimes meanders. Nonetheless, it's all smoothly helmed by writer- director Delmer Daves. Daves is probably best remembered for his 1960 soap-opera smash, A Summer Place. Too bad that he remains an under-rated director of Westerns, starting with Drum Beat (1954) and ending with The Hanging Tree (1959). The best of these is the tense and taut 3:10 to Yuma (1957) , followed closely by the scenic and sprawling Jubal (1956). I mention these because the late 50's was so thick with TV and theatrical Westerns that I'm afraid Daves' contribution has been overlooked. His Westerns may lack the thematic continuity of the celebrated Boetticher-Ranown series, yet he shows a rare ability to handle a wide array of Western themes with both skill and sensitivity, as he does here.

As with the same year's BACKLASH, star Richard Widmark puts his stamp of authority on what otherwise might have been a routine Western. He ends up guiding what's left of a wagon train family to safety from the Apaches. Most of the survivors are not exactly thrilled with this wild and wooly frontiersman leading them anywhere, and it is all Widmark can do to keep them from painting big red targets on each other's chests and backs for the Indians to shoot at. LASSIE's Tommy Rettig is the juvenile in the group. The female leads are great to look at in a 1956 kind of way. With the exception of Nick "Johnny Yuma" Adams, none of the rest of this cast is particularly well known, but veteran director Delmer Daves keeps them in line and believable as a group of frightened tenderfeet. James Drury, who would go on to fame as THE VIRGINIAN on TV, is in the film for bit.