The Last Posse (1953)

Very Cool!!!

Absolutely the worst movie.

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

Its a Western and honors the theme quite well. It has familiar faces, horses, drinking, fighting, saloon activity, bank robbery, little town, scenery and a woman or two or three to make the connection to the audience. What I liked the best was the story. Realize that there must have been millions of stories having to do with settling in the West during the start-up period. All remain remarkable and unique some succeeding and many failing. Here we are introduced to a town that made it through the rough period and it looks like they have a future or do they? Let the story tell it. Also look forward to what I consider a decent ending if only for this reason. It leaves quite a bit to the viewers imagination as to what happened after the end credits. The questions are obvious and I don't want to spoil it for you. It is interesting to note that a rancher made over 100,000.00 in this movie selling cattle (beef) to the a middleman who sells it to the end users. This was in high demand at the time and a person could get wealthy running cattle if they could get past all the hardships including but no limited to: Rustling, drought, death, weather, illness, and huge logistics problems. If one navigated successfully, you made a fortune and did it again and again giving jobs to many and helping a town grow as well as yourself and your holdings. Much wealth early on was generated this way and handed down. Of course people in the cities had to have beef and they ate tons of it. They still do. Today, the prices are outrageously high for this city boy who lives in CA. I wonder if it is cheaper where they raise them? I bet it is. Enjoy a good sandwich and tasty drink while watching this and a decent snack after that. Oh and special mention to Broderick Crawford who I liked who played in Highway Patrol always speaking in his car microphone 2150 by...LOL

The Last Posse is directed by Alfred L. Werker and co-written by Seymour Bennett, Connie Bennett and Kenneth Gamet. It stars Broderick Crawford, Charles Bickford, John Derek and Wanda Hendrix. Primary location used for the shoot is Lone Pine, Alabama Hills, California, with Burnett Guffey on photography duties. Out of Columbia Pictures, story tells of how a returning posse on the trail of outlaw robbers, return to Roswell, New Mexico, minus their leader and with their accompanying sheriff critically wounded.Much better than its B movie origins, The Last Posse is strong in characterisations, visually smart and being structured as it is, primarily in flashback, also getting a bit of unusual intrigue tossed into the Oatmeal. It's also very well acted, with Crawford and Bickford making for a nice gruff opposing pair, and the support cast is filled with solid performers like Henry Hull, Warner Anderson and Skip Homeier. Director Werker (He Walked By Night) does a good job of keeping the story nicely paced, dotting the plot with some well staged action along the way, and the finale, thankfully not telegraphed, doesn't disappoint at all. But in the main it's the writing and Guffey's photography that lifts it above average. The various members of the posse are either troubled or driven by motive, making for a good psychological mix, and this in turn is well realised by Guffey's crisp black and white photography of the Lone Pine, Alabama Hills landscapes. The numerous boulders and odd shaped rocks impose on the characters and the desert flats make a grim stage for the unfolding story. Easily recommended to the Western movie fan. 7/10

This dusty western is directed by Alfred L. Werker. After winning the Oscar for Best Actor in 1949's ALL THE KING'S MEN, Broderick Crawford was afforded very little in comparison in the remainder of his contract with Columbia. The fair to middling western THE LAST POSSE is a little noticed sagebrush saga. Sheriff John Frazier(Crawford)collects a posse made up of honest respected citizens of Roswell, New Mexico to track down the desperadoes that robbed a prominent cattle baron. Something in the arid heat causes a few of the posse to plot keeping the stolen loot for themselves. Greed ignites the proverbial shootout and the surviving posse members limp back into town with heads hung low and severely wounded Sheriff Frazier in tow. The cast also includes: John Derek, Charles Bickford, Henry Hull, Will Wright, James Bell and Wanda Hendrix.

Alfred Werker directed many westerns, I remember "Three Hours To Kill" which was quite a good film. "The Last Posse" went by unnoticed when originally released in 1953. I remember seeing it as a young boy and not really liking it. But somehow it got stuck in my memory. Seeing it recently I have quite a different opinion. This is a remarkable western that departs from the conventional, it uses flashbacks in a very effective way, it makes a strong criticism about people in a small town and never lets you know what to expect. At the beginning a posse returns with one man missing Sampson Drune (Charles Bickford) and the sheriff John Frazier(Broderick Crawford) seriously wounded. All the members of the posse act in a strange way, and the film uses flashbacks to explain what happened. John Derek is Jed Clayton an orphan that was adopted by Drune who totally dominates him. Jed is in love with Deborah (Wanda Hendrix) who resents Drune. Drune also bought cattle from the Romers when there was a drought and now sells it for ten times the price he paid. The Romers want some kind of compensation and when Drune denies, they steal the money and run away. The posse goes after them. Frazier is the sheriff who cleaned the town in the past, but started drinking heavily. He does not care for the town leaders and lost their respect because of his drinking. Even without being invited, he joins the posse. What is curious is that instead of being a fictitious place where the film happens, which is usual, the town mentioned is Roswell, New Mexico.