Search - The Last Frontier on DVD

MPAA Rating: NR Content Advisory: Suitable for Children Movie Release: 1955 DVD Release: 09/06/2005 Format: DVD - Color,Enhanced Wide Screen Letterbox for 16x9 TV - Closed Captioned Edition: Restored/Remastered Audio Tracks: English Subtitles: English, Japanese SwapaDVD Credits: 1 Number of Discs: 1 Run Time: 1 hrs 38 mins Studio: Columbia TriStar Members Wishing: 0 Genres: Western, Cavalry Film, Traditional Western

Victor Mature is in rare form in this otherwise uneven cavalry Western about a trapper who prevents a Little Big Horn-type disaster. Having been robbed of a year's worth of skins by marauding Indians, Jed Cooper (Mature), Gus Hideout (James Whitmore), and Mungo (Pat Hogan) sign on at a nearby fort. Jed, however, falls in love with Corinna (Anne Bancroft), the refined wife of the commanding officer, Colonel Marston (Robert Preston), and when the latter begins to plan an all-out attack on an unruly Indian tribe, he attempts to prevent what, in all likelihood, will be a mass slaughter. Based on a novel by Richard Emery Roberts, The Last Frontier was re-released to television as Savage Wilderness and came complete with a rousing title song performed by Rusty Draper. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

Victor Mature - Jed Cooper
Guy Madison - Capt. Glenn Riordan
Robert Preston - Col. Frank Marston
James Whitmore - Gus Hideout
Anne Bancroft - Corinna Marston

Columbia Tri-Star has released Anthony Mann's The Last Frontier (1955) in a well-transferred edition, that captures the extreme-wide-screen early CinemaScope feature in a beautiful letterboxed transfer (2.55-to-1), parts of which are so crisp that they almost seem like they're in 3-D at times; on the other hand, some of the night shots are also transferred so dark that it's impossible to make out precisely what's going on in certain scenes. The movie has been given a less-than-generous 12 chapters, and comes with no other special features -- it sometimes amazes this reviewer that, with the exception of Winchester '73, in which star James Stewart had a financial interest, none of Anthony Mann's major films has ever received the treatment that it deserves, in terms of an audio commentary or other supplement; not that The Last Frontier would be the ideal place to start, but it also wouldn't be the worst place to start, either. As it is, the mere release of this movie (which may be better known under its reissue title, Savage Frontier) in letterboxed presentation should make it an essential acquisition for any western fan, but it could easily have transcended that audience with a little more work put into it. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide