Search - Last Train From Gun Hill on DVD

MPAA Rating: NR Content Advisory: Violence, Adult Situations, Questionable for Children Movie Release: 1959 DVD Release: 11/09/2004 Format: DVD - Enhanced Wide Screen Letterbox for 16x9 TV - Closed Captioned Edition: Special Collection Audio Tracks: English Subtitles: English SwapaDVD Credits: 1 Number of Discs: 1 Run Time: 1 hrs 34 mins Studio: Paramount Members Wishing: 3 Genres: Western, Psychological Western See Also: Last Train from Gun Hill

Just outside the small town of Pauley, a Native American woman is attacked by two riders on horseback, raped, and killed. Her husband, Matt Morgan (Kirk Douglas), the town marshal, has only two clues to their identity, a fancy saddle with the initials "C.B." that one of the men left behind, and the fact that his wife cut one of the two men deep across the cheek with a buggy whip. Morgan traces the saddle to Craig Belden (Anthony Quinn), an old friend and now a wealthy rancher in the town of Gun Hill, but he knows Belden well enough to know that he couldn't have had anything to do with attacking his wife. Morgan's arrival with Belden's saddle sets off ugly rumblings in Gun Hill, and when he confronts the rancher, he discovers that it was his son Rick (Earl Holliman) who had his horse and the saddle, and rode out with a cowhand friend of his, Lee (Brian G. Hutton) -- but they claim their horses were stolen. Belden tries to convince Morgan, and wants to believe himself that whoever stole the horses must have killed his wife, but when Morgan mentions the cut that one of the killers will have on his face, they both know the truth. He vows to take Rick and Lee back to Pauley to stand trial, while Belden swears he'll do anything it takes to protect his son. Belden is virtually all the law there is in Gun Hill -- the sheriff (Walter Sande) won't help Morgan serve his arrest warrants on the two men, or even let him use the jail to hold them until the last train that night; there's not a working man, a shopkeeper, or even a prostitute in the whole town that will go against the rancher, and Belden's foreman Beero (Brad Dexter) and his men will strongarm anyone who might start feeling brave. Only Linda (Carolyn Jones), a woman who has been both romanced and abused by Belden, will lift a finger on Morgan's behalf. The marshal is nothing if not resourceful, however, and Rick Belden is also too stupid for his own good, and manages to fall into Morgan's hands in short order. Very quickly, a standoff ensues, with Morgan holding Rick in one of Belden's buildings against virtually the entire town, while the deadline -- the last train out of Gun Hill that night -- approaches. People die and a chunk of Belden's holdings are destroyed, but Morgan is about to get Rick onto the train and off to trial when suddenly, one sudden act of violence destroys father and son in a matter of seconds. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide

Kirk Douglas - Matt Morgan
Anthony Quinn - Craig Belden
Carolyn Jones - Linda
Earl Holliman - Rick Belden
Brad Dexter - Beero

John Sturges' Last Train From Gun Hill (1959) never got to laserdisc, so the VistaVision presentation on this Paramount DVD is a real treat. Like Sturges' earlier Gunfight at the O.K. Corral (also starring Kirk Douglas and co-starring Earl Holliman), the movie makes superb use of spatial relationships in the setting up of suspense and tension, and the proper framing is essential to telling the story the way the director intended it to be seen. The opening sequence, in which the two loutish cowboys pursue, torment, and finally assault (and rape and murder) a Native American woman traveling in a buggy with her son, is a series of beautifully edited and tightly framed shots that exude escalating tension and violence. This is all cut carefully to a tight visual rhythm that, when coupled with Dimitri Tiomkin's interlocked music, is more effective here than it has ever looked in a full-screen presentation, which is the only way the movie has been seen since its original theatrical run until this DVD release.

Letterboxed at an aspect ratio of about 2.0:1 (with enhancements for 16 x 9 screens), the movie has an intensity that a full-screen showing simply lacks. When Douglas' aggrieved federal marshal confronts Craig Belden (Anthony Quinn) over the murder of his wife by his son (Holliman), it now looks like one of the best scenes in Sturges' career, for acting and direction. The disc is enhanced by the use of a genuinely good-quality source, with deep color in the appropriate shots (such as the saloon scenes at 13 minutes in and 43 minutes in) and a washed out naturalism in other shots (such as a mountainous vistas at just before 14 minutes in). And as good as the first 70 minutes of the movie look, the last 25 -- when night falls on the town of Gun Hill and the violence escalates -- is even better, the delicate lighting shrouding just enough picture information to make the action and tension even more intense and focused. There's also an extended sequence showing Douglas leading his prisoner out of town, shotgun barrel poised under the young man's chin as they walk, surrounded by dozens of hostile guns and faces, that is just brilliant, seen framed and mastered this way.

Otherwise, the disc is nicely mastered as far as the sound, with good volume and a lot of presence to Tiomkin's score, which -- apart from an awkward non-period feel to some of the title music -- relies on a lot of his usual orchestral growls and grunts (elements in his work that first showed up in his music for another Douglas movie, Champion) to underscore the action and suspense. If anything, the music has a very slight advantage over the dialogue. The 94-minute movie has been given 14 chapters, which are just adequate for the complexity of the plot, which unfolds in its various layers of events and characters faster than the chapters unspool. If there's an unfortunate aspect of this release, it's that more wasn't done with it -- there's no trailer or other bonus material, and this is such a potent piece of filmmaking that it deserved a commentary track. (Though, ironically, if Sturges were alive, he might well not have participated; he felt that this movie and Gunfight at the O.K. Corral, both produced by Hal B. Wallis, were more Wallis' creations than his own, despite the qualities that he gave both movies.) ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide