Rent Last Train from Gun Hill (1959)

Ok If Typical 50s Western - Last Train from Gun Hill review by GI

In many ways this is a typical late 50s western and a John Sturges film. It boasts the look, characters, structure and even soundtrack of most westerns of this period with two stars in Kirk Douglas and Anthony Quinn. It does include some tension and indeed risqué scenes involving rape, at least for this period, but ultimately it offers little to the genre. In some ways it utilises narrative structures from other westerns in particular 3.10 From Yuma (1957) in the waiting for the train plot and Rio Bravo (1959) with its siege element. Interestingly the plot's structure is very similar to the later Lawman (1971), with the idea of a lone lawman arriving to take in the offspring of the local and powerful cattle baron. Here Douglas is the lawman whose Indian wife is raped and murdered by the son of Quinn's cattle baron. The son (Earl Holliman) is the clichéd cowardly and weak offspring that nonetheless is protected by his father. This is a reasonably well constructed western but does feel and look very similar to so many other films of this time that it doesn't stand out amongst the best of the time.