The Last Sunset (1961)

[Tim]

  Thanks, angel.  I'll get right on that.

[The Peacemaker]

Take two aspirin & watch "Mary Poppins"..you'll be fine.

Just don't take too many aspirins or that'll be the craziest version of Mary Poppins you'll ever see in your life.      

[The Firecracker]

Just don't take too many aspirins or that'll be the craziest version of Mary Poppins you'll ever see in your life.      

as if that movie wasnt trippy enough.

[moviesceleton]

I must be the only one who actually liked this movie. I give it 7.5-8/10. Not a masterpiece, but could have been. If this had been made during or after the spaghetti boom, it could have been different (I know that's a paradox to say so, since this inspired OUATITW). The showdown could have been grand but they hurried too much with it; obviously they didn't have the courage of Leone to make it even more drawn-out. The twist worked for me and that is very strange because it's not really the most original twist.

[The Peacemaker]

I didn't like it.


Could've been good, but wasn't.

[Silenzio]

I didn't like it.


Could've been good, but wasn't.

You should be a film critic.

[Cusser]

It was OK.  Douglas and Hudson too clean-cut looking for a cattle drive.  needs flies, dirt, stubble, less obvious on relationship to the girl.

[greenbudgie]

It has a great cast to watch. I found part of the story a bit unsavoury but I won't let that let me sway me to being too critical of the film.

There is some pretty photography with the St Elmo's fire etc. It's good to hear Kirk Douglas singing again like he had with his 'Whale Of  A Tale' from a Disney 1950s film. Although I wasn't so sure that it was him singing this time. I wonder if he was dubbed in this?

It's a better western from Aldrich this time after being disappointed by his '4 For Texas' recently. That one did really get boring.

[mike siegel]

Rather bad film. Must be, because I like the three principals A LOT.

I feel Aldrich always needed a certain type of men,
he succeeded quite well with Lancaster, Lee Marvin, Borgnine...

I never saw TOO LATE THE HEROES. Anybody?

[stanton]

Too Late the Hero feels a bit stagey. And it is a bit pretentious, but then, films with Michael Caine rarely really suck. 7/10

The Last Sunset suffers from a Dalton Trumbo script, heavy-handed as usual. It wasn't a film Aldrich wanted to do, and it was in a troubled phase when his career was really in danger. It is not a great film, but good enough for a  fair 6/10.

4 for Texas is more puzzling, cause it was made after (and not before) his comeback film Whatever Happened to Baby Jane, and he should have had again every freedom he always was fighting for, and Aldrich co-wrote the screenplay and even produced it with his own company, but it seems it was Sinatra who was the chief in the ring. Not much in this odd film really works. Neither the drama nor the comedy. Still there are worse, but it is just another ordinary Sinatra clan film and doubtless Aldrich's weakest western. 4/10 for Dino and a sinister Bronson and Jack Elam living up to his "2 reel Jack" fame by complying with it already in reel one.

[greenbudgie]

I am amazed what a variety of different styles of films that Aldrich made. And he made some strange choices. '4 For Texas' is probably the strangest choice of them from what I have seen so far. His themes of his 1960s films are a surprise. I think that 'What Ever Happened To Baby Jane' worked the best for him in this period.

I want to see his 'Apache' again from 1954. That was a good picture with Burt Lancaster and Jean Peters in it. There was some great scenery and photography in that if I remember rightly.

[Spikeopath]

Adding my review to thread.

Well, you see cowboys aren't very bright. They're always broke and generally they're drunk.

The Last Sunset is directed by Robert Aldrich and adapted by Dalton Trumbo from Howard Rigsby's novel Sundown at Crazy Horse. It stars Rock Hudson, Kirk Douglas, Dorothy Malone, Joseph Cotton and Carol Lynley. In support are Jack Elam, Neville Brand & James Westmoreland. The music score is by Ernest Gold, with contributions from Dimitri Tiomkin & Tomás Méndez, and Ernest Laszlo is the cinematographer. It's shot in Eastman Color by Pathe, with the locations for the shoot being Aguascalientes & Distrito Federal in Mexico.

Brendan O'Malley (Douglas) is on the run and drifts into Mexico where he arrives at the home of old flame Belle Breckenridge (Malone). She resides with her drunkard husband John (Cotton) and her daughter Melissa, they are in preparation for a cattle drive to Texas. Hot on O'Malley's heels is lawman Dana Stribling (Hudson) who has a very personal reason for getting him back for justice to be served. Making an uneasy agreement, both men join the Breckenridge's on the drive. As they near Texas the tensions start to mount, not least because Stribling is starting to court Belle and O'Malley is increasingly drawn by her daughter Missy.

Lyrical, contemplative and evocative, three words you wouldn't readily associate with the director of Ulzana's Raid, The Longest Yard and The Dirty Dozen. Yet all three words are very fitting for this underseen Robert Aldrich movie. Although containing many of the basic elements that made up the American Western film's of the 50s, The Last Sunset has a very intriguing screenplay by Trumbo from which to flourish. The story is crammed full of sexual neurosis, yearnings, regret, hate, revenge and forbidden love. If that all sounds very "Greek Tragedy" then that's probably about right, as is the film being likened to a Western done by Douglas Sirk. It is melodramatic, but it does have moments of levity and up tempo action sequences, too. It's a very rounded picture, with very well formed characters, characters very well brought to life by the mostly on form cast. All played out amongst some gorgeous scenic panorama's that Aldrich and Laszlo have managed to make seem as poetic observers to the unfolding drama.

Some of it's odd, and the film is far from flawless (Cotten is poor, Elam & Brand underused), but the little irks are easily forgiven when judging the film as a whole. Lyrical, contemplative and evocative: indeed. 8/10

[drinkanddestroy]

Saw the movie on TCM recently. It's awful. A dumb soap opera; nothing really Western about it.

One good thing: Cinematography is great. The TCM print was great. It's beautiful to look at. A visually lovely piece of shit.

4/10

[dave jenkins]

Good things are being said about the image quality of this: https://www.amazon.fr/perdido-Combo-%C3%89dition-Limit%C3%A9e-Blu-Ray/dp/B081JRNQ2K/ref=pd_bxgy_img_2/262-7026458-3687466?

[dave jenkins]

https://www.amazon.com/Last-Sunset-Blu-ray-Rock-Hudson/dp/B099ZP91CL/ref=sr_1_1?