So, I went in to this superb "Western" with a kind of chip on my shoulders. Some reviewers on Amazon has compared it to "High Noon" which, IMHO is not only one of the best Westerns ever made, but one of the best films to come out of Hollywood's Golden Era. Now that I have seen "Last Train" I understand why one would see the similarity, but I don't agree. "Last Train" really stands on its own -- and no, it is not better than "Noon" -- but is really very different. And good.
The eminent, and still-living Patriarch of Hollywood Actors, Kirk Douglas, plays a man who's Native American wife is raped and killed by the not-so-young and definitely foolish son of a Cattle Baron. The son played by a young Earl Holliman and the Cattle Baron an always excellent Anthony Quinn. The twist is that Douglas's character used to be friends with Quinn's which sets up the straightforward but substantive conflict that shapes the last half of the film.
Where the comparisons with "High Noon" come in are that Douglas's character journeys to the wonderfully named town of "Gun Hill" to exact revenge on said Cattle Baron's son, and states he is going to leave on the 9 pm train, killer-in-tow. So, there is a deadline that itself becomes a motive force in the narrative. The difference with "Noon", though is that the Threat comes from the good guy, Douglas's character, not the Bad Guy(s) as happens in the great Fred Zinneman classic starring Gary Cooper.
Story, direction, and acting is all superb, and the music is done by Dimitri Tiomkin, who did the score for "Noon." But, the score for "Noon" is IMHO one of the best ever penned for a Hollywood film. Here it is great, but merely incidental to the beautiful VistaVision photography ("Noon" was shot in glorious Black and White, of course). Great stuff.
