The Last Wagon (1956)

Director:

Delmer Daves

Writers:

James Edward Grant (screenplay) and
Delmer Daves (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

21 September 1956 (USA)

Genre:

Adventure | Drama | Western

Plot:

When a handful of settlers survive an Apache attack on their wagon train they must put their lives into the hands of Comanche Todd...

Plot Keywords:

Trial | Attack | Survivor | Sheriff | Snake

Cast

Richard Widmark	...	Comanche Todd
Felicia Farr	...	Jenny
Susan Kohner	...	Jolie Normand
Tommy Rettig	...	Billy
Stephanie Griffin	...	Valinda Normand
Ray Stricklyn	...	Clint
Nick Adams	...	Ridge
Carl Benton Reid	...	Gen. Howard
Douglas Kennedy	...	Col. Normand
George Mathews	...	Sheriff Bull Harper
James Drury	...	Lt. Kelly
Ken Clark	...	Sergeant

Runtime:

98 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (DeLuxe) (as De Luxe)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

4-Track Stereo (Westrex Recording System)

Certification:

USA:Approved (certificate #18072) | West Germany:12 | Finland:K-16 | Sweden:15

Filming Locations:

Oak Creek Canyon, Sedona, Arizona, USA

Company:

Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation

Trivia:

Average Shot Length = ~6.7 seconds. Median Shot Length = ~6.1 seconds. Both values are fast for a reasonably early CinemaScope film.

Quotes:

Sheriff Bull Harper: On foot through Apache country without no gun.
Cole Harper: Yeah.
Sheriff Bull Harper: This is his third day without food or water. I'm going to tell one and all that Commanche Todd was the bravest man I ever hung.

Movie Connections:

Version of Pitch Black (2000)

Save the children

The Last Wagon is a film with some good intentions and some very good moments, but it could have been a whole lot better.

A really brutal sheriff played by George Matthews brings a prisoner in to a small wagon train. By his manner he puts off a whole lot of the wagon train member. They start having some sympathy with prisoner Richard Widmark.

When some of the young people of the train go off and frolic in a midnight swim, they return and find the Apaches have massacred the train except for one survivor. Widmark survived by a fluke I won't reveal.

Widmark's a white man who lived with the Comanches and he's the only one who might insure the survival of the rest. Reluctantly they trust him and the adventure begins.

Widmark's is the only really developed character in The Last Wagon, the rest have some strange motivations and attitudes that are not fully explained. Still their are some exciting sequences in the film and it can be enjoyed on that level.