Last Train From Gun Hill

Starring:Kirk Douglas, Anthony Quinn, Carolyn Jones, Earl Holliman, Brad Dexter, Brian G. Hutton, Ziva Rodann, Bing Russell, Val Avery, Walter Sande, Hank Mann, Glenn Strange, John R. Anderson, Kim Leslie (II), Kenner G. Kemp, Sayre Dearing, Michael Bachus, Frank Hagney, Len Hendry, Walter Merrill
Director: John Sturges
Studio: Paramount
Product Type: DVD

Description

Recognizing that wealthy cattle rancher Craig Belden's son, Rick, is one of his wife's killers, Morgan travels to Gun Hill to arrest him. Belden refuses to hand his son over, and Morgan is determined to capture Rick and take him away by the 9:00 train but he is trapped in the town alone, with Belden and all his men now looking to kill him.

Customer Reviews:

Enjoyable but Unmemorable.......2007-05-01

"Last Train from Gun Hill" is a solid Western released in 1959. Kirk Douglas stars as Matt Morgan, a Marshal in a small western town (the movie was filmed in Arizona). He's married to a beautiful Native American woman (the movie uses the terms of the time and calls her a "squaw"), who is raped and murdered. He determines to find out who killed her, with only one clue - a saddle inscribed with initials. He turns to one of his best friends, Anthony Quinn (Craig Belden), for help. He eventually discovers who the guilty parties are, which leads to a number of complications for the main characters.

You get about what you'd expect from a Western from this era - a few gun fights, somewhat wooden dialogue, and a general lack of realism. Fortunately, the movie is buoyed considerably by the presence of Douglas and Quinn; Carolyn Jones is also quite good as Quinn's confused, rebellious girlfriend. Director John Sturges had done better work before this movie (Bad Day at Black Rock, Gunfight at the O.K. Corral) and would go on to do better work in the future (The Magnificent Seven, The Great Escape). In fact, he was nominated for an Academy Award in 1955 for Best Director for "Bad Day at Black Rock." However, overall, I enjoyed "Last Train from Gun Hill," even if I'm unlikely to remember it for more than a week.

Last Train from Gun Hill..........2007-02-03

I've always like this movie, and it finally came out on disk. Kirk Douglas and Anthony Quinn are at top form in this Western Drama. Who will win? You've got to find out for yourself...Five stars!!

Two strong leads: Douglas and Quinn!.......2006-11-10

Craig Belden (Anthony Quinn) is a powerful cattle-rancher, the richest of Gunhill, simply the Boss...

His son Rick (Earl Holliman) is weak, coward, a punk kid who just raped and killed Catherine Morgan (Ziva Rodann), a beautiful Indian woman ignoring that she is the wife of Matt Morgan (Kirk Douglas) the Marshall of the town...

From a costly elegant saddle, Matt recognized that the rapist-killer of his wife is close to reach... He decides to take the train to Gun Hill to see an old friend, Craig Belden, asking for help...

The tragic moment of the film is when Craig (Quinn) realized that the murderer is his own son Rick... He can't deliver his son to Matt... He knows the Marshall will hang him...

Quinn is the tragic figure... He is torn between his loyalty and fidelity to his best friend and his deep affection and devotion to the only son he raised alone...

Two superb actors were caught in the tragedy... The denouement was evident!

Directed beautifully by the maker of major fine westerns John Sturges, the film walks slowly toward a showdown, an inevitable clash from which only one will take the last train from Gun Hill...

Formulaic but Still Gripping.......2006-09-01

A "High Noon"/"3:10 to Yuma" storyline (one good man against dozens of bad ones, no one to help him but one woman, yada yada) but with a few twists that take the ho-hum out of it. Good performances by Quinn and Douglas and Earl Holliman plays the evil/weak/horrid son so well you want to reach into the screen and kick him silly.

I almost gave the movie only 4 stars, but I think it deserves the fifth.

Superb Kirk Douglas Western - His Best.......2006-06-01

Kirk Douglas and director John Sturges had worked together in 1957's The Gunfight at The OK Corral, and Douglas and frequent co-star Burt Lancaster had made a memorable Wyatt Earp/Doc Holliday pair.

So when the pair reteamed for 1959's Last Train From Gun Hill, it stood to reason that it would be at least a good film. Well, it's a great film, Douglas' best Western, and one of the great Westerns in the great Western movie heyday in the 50's.

Douglas plays Matt Morgan, a town marshal whose Indian wife is raped and murdered by a young hoodlum from the town of Gun Hill. Morgan finds out that the punk is the son of Gun Hill's owner and boss Craig Belden. Morgan and Belden were saddle pals in the past, and Belden once saved Morgan's life. When Morgan sees that Belden is going to protect his son, Morgan overpowers the son, and holds up with him in a hotel, planing to take the son to justice on the last train out that evening.

This movies has everything-great performances, a great script, and a aura of suspense that is sometimes nerve wracking. Last Train From Gun Hill is a must for every Western movie collector.

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