Last Train From Gun Hill

[movieman1957]

With the recent discussions of "3:10 to Yuma" I thought this film might be a good companion.

Starring Kirk Douglas, Anthony Quinn, Carolyn Jones and Earl Holliman. The story lines are similar in that they center around a man holding a prisoner to get on a train out of town later in the day. The difference is Douglas is holding his best friend's son.

I've always liked this movie. Not a great western but a solid one. Douglas and Quinn are their usual good selves but I had forgotten how good Jones was. Holliman is ok as the whiny, generally wimpy son. The whole town is there to watch and see who wins.

I generally like the end of this picture better than "3:10." It feels more realistic. I like the idea of how Douglas got Holliman to the train. It is not as tense as "3:10" because the "guard" and "prisoner" aren't the ones who have the fight. The tension is not so much face to face. That is where it loses some steam in comparison.

Directed by John Sturges. (Even uses the same grove of trees from "Gunfight At The OK Corral.")

(Thanks to my wife for suggesting we watch it so early to get things started. She says "Hi.")

[Mr. Arkadin]

I'm very much in agreement with you here. Last Train is not one of the all time greats, but is a very good film with convincing performances from all the players. douglas is very effective here and you see his low key ability as well whether it's talking to the kids in his town or sitting alone in the same room with the "big kid" who killed his wife. Douglas has lots of opportunites to go overboard here, but wisely keeps himself in reserve.

Quinn also does a nice job and although he is saddled with the cheesiest line in the film when he dies, he delivers it well.

Carolyn Jones provided a good balance between the two leads and has some really good lines drinking whiskey and tea in the bar. She works well as an effective bridge between Quinn and Douglas' inner emotions which they are too proud to express to each other, but are willing to share their true feelings (and vulnerablity) with her.

[MikeBSG]

I've only seen it once, and I liked it. The scene at the start of the movie, where the kids are running around re-enacting a shootout reminded me a bit of the opening of "The Wild Bunch." Also, was there a man riding a bicycle in the early scene in Kirk Douglas' town? The ending of the movie seemed desolate to me. Douglas had lost his wife and killed a friend. What was next for him? (I guess I was impressed that the movie didn't take the easy way out and leave him fixed up with Carolyn Jones, or even imply that that was an option.)

Interestingly, most of what I've read about "Last Train to Gun Hill" has been slightly dismissive. Either the writers know that Sturges' next film was "The Magnificent Seven" and they can't wait to hold forth on that, or they see "Last Train" as the film where Sturges goes flabby.

I guess I have to see "The Law and Jake Wade" and "Backlash" sometime to see how great Sturges was in the Fifties. I remember liking "Escape from Ft. Bravo," but I haven't seen that in ages.

[MissGoddess]

Hi Chris! Thanks for plowing ahead with a thread on this film, which I've seen twice now and like more and more. I have not yet sat down to the original 3:10 to Yuma---that should happen later this weekend---so I can't compare the two yet. If I were naughty (and I am) I would compare it to the remake of 3:10 to Yuma to point out how it gets so much right that the newer film got all wrong, just all wrong.

However, on its own merits it is an exciting film and Carolyn Jones deserves being singled out for praise in brining a great deal to a role that could have seemed limited in a lesser actress' hands. I love the part when she takes that psychotic friend of Holliman's into the back room , pumps him with whiskey to get the real story out of him about Douglas' wife. The expression on her face is all we see to tell us she now knows what the audience does, and it's quite moving. She's blanched, breathing with difficulty, you can tell she just wants to kill that kid but she's maintaining her control. She is now behind Douglas and will do whatever she can to help him.

Did anyone catch the line where she and Quinn have their confrontation, and she bitterly complains to him that he won't marry her because of what his son thinks of her?? That I missed the first time I saw the movie. So Quinn isn't really the big, strong, independent leader he pretends to be, if he lets that idiotic kid of his to dictate to him who he can marry.

Holliman really deserves kudos for making absolutely despise his character. I love it when Douglas shoves his bed in front of the window. That's one of the best bits of fast thinking as I've ever seen in a movie.

[movieman1957]

Mike:

That's why I like the ending. Everybody gets short changed. It does leave open the interpretation that Jones might follow Douglas but it would be after some healing. The whole incident has been a mess. There can be no happy ending.

MissG:

I think it was Carolyn who told Quinn she wouldn't marry him because of what the son thought of her. Anyway why should she after she spent time in the hospital after a beating. Blood is thicker than love or the right thing to do.

BTW my 16 year old daughter really liked the old "3:10." The mind games between Ford and Heflin make the tension more than any action could.

[MissGoddess]

Finally watched the original 3:10 to Yuma and I have to admit I was mistaken when I thought I'd seen it before. If I had, I totally blanked it out and must have confused what I did remember with Last Train from Gun Hill.

Which is fine because that means I really did watch the remake with out too many clear cut preconceptions.

And it's cut quite clear to me that the original stands as the superior western. The cinematography captured my attention from the start, as did the locations and sets. It all felt very dry and arid and barren. I was reminded of High Noon in many scenes, and not just because Dan loses all his back-up at the end.

The leisurely pace takes me some getting used to, though I usually don't mind those things. The characters do get to develop because of the extra time taken with them, and I agree with those who say the two female characters in particular are much better delineated in this version. They each have a poignancy to their relationship with the two male leads. I also believed in this marriage between Van Heflin and Leora Dana---they both looked like they'd lived forever together in a struggle against the odds and against nature. The boys, especially the older one, were more believable than the foul mouthed urchins of the remake (that never would have passed back then--they'd have been run to the woodshed for certain).

In short, the original, blessedly lacking the political correctness of the remake, gave me no reasons to squirm in my seat. I should like to see it again one day because I think there were many subtleties I missed. You'd think at that pace I could have picked up on every detail but Daves really manages to insert a great many nuances that had me focused and concentrated.

Who knows, I might even buy the dvd.

[movieman1957]

MissG:

My family got to watch the old "3:10." I don;t know a thing about Christian Bale but Heflin looks the tired farmer. He seems a man out of his element but driven by desperation.

I told my daughter to watch the subtlety that Ford and Farr are shown to have had their afternoon "get-together." A touch lost on most modern directors.

The battle of wits at the hotel is terrific. The end is a little different than I would have expected but all in all a fine film.

[MissGoddess]

>>>I told my daughter to watch the subtlety that Ford and Farr are shown to have had their afternoon "get-together." A touch lost on most modern directors. <<<

Hi Chris! I thought Daves handled those scenes elegantly and with maturity. This is definitely an adult's western.