Friday 3 April 2009

LAST TRAIN FROM GUN HILL (1959) on dvd

Last Train From Gun Hill opens pleasant enough but within minutes it descends into off screen violence as two wandering cowboys rape and kill an Indian woman. Only this is not just one of your ordinary Indian woman because she is the wife of the Town Marshall, Matt Morgan (played by Kirk Douglas).
Morgan is determined to bring the killer to justice but this turns a little complicated as it turns out that the killer is Rick Belden (played by Earl Holliman) the son of one of the big cattlemen Craig Belden (played by Anthony Quinn).
As the story goes along it is revealed that Craig Belden had once saved Morgan's life and from then on had become firm friends. While Morgan battles with friendship and a need for justice Belden shows that blood is thicker than friendship.There is no way that Belden is going to let Morgan take his son in.
Morgan gets his man and they have to hide up in town while they wait for the 9:00 pm train from Gun Hill.
Craig Belden does not give up but rides into town intent on rescuing his son. As far as Belden is concerned no one will be catching that Last Train From Gun Hill.
Kirk Douglas and Anthony Quinn work so well together that you can feel them battling with their own emotions.
Although the ending is tense and inevitable I felt a little let down as it was a similar ending to '3:10 To Yuma'.
Still the director John Sturges (who went on to direct 'The Magnificent Seven') did a good job with the material and kept the tension up helped by the music of Dmitri Tiomkin.
Still, it might be an old film but it is one of the good ones.

2 comments:

  1. I've not seen this one in years. Thanks for the reminder. I'll order it from Amazon

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  2. A classic that I've not seen but anything with Anthony Quinn is worth watching.

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