The Last Wagon

Plot synopsis:
Sheriff Bull Harper (George Mathews) is taking "Comanche" Todd (Richard Widmark), a white man who has lived most of his life among the Indians, to be tried for the murder of Harper's three brothers. The pair join a wagon train led by Colonel Normand (Douglas Kennedy). Harper's brutal treatment of Todd causes friction with some members of the wagon train. When the sheriff beats a lad for giving Todd a pipe to smoke, Todd takes advantage of the distraction to kill his tormentor with a dropped axe.
Then, while some of the young people sneak away for a late night swim, the Apaches kill everyone else. Todd miraculously survives a fall when the wagon to which he is tied is thrown off a cliff. The Apaches are gathering to avenge the massacre of their own women and children by the whites. It is up to Todd to lead the six other survivors to safety, despite the distrust of some of them. Along the way, he and Jenny (Felicia Farr) fall in love.
Despite saving a small U.S. cavalry detachment from an ambush, Todd is recognized and brought to trial. He reveals that all four Harpers raped and murdered his Comanche wife and killed his two young boys. General Howard takes pity5 on him and places him in the permanent "custody" of Jenny.

Tags: revenge, murder

Review:
This story chronicles the trials of a fugitive half-breed and the survivors of an Indian attack on a wagon train.
The plot is basically one of survival and redemption and the picture fleshes out Widmark's character in dramatic fashion, first as an abused prisoner, then as a trail savvy outsider who must bring to safety folks who dislike him because of his reputation.
The film has fine action scenes but tends to dwell on the attitudes of the young whites who resent being dependent on Widmark, yet realize they need him to pull them out of harm's way.
Felicia Farr is good as the woman who falls for Widmark in spite of his troubled past, as are Susan Kohner and Stephanie Griffin, the latter as a high-strung lass with a quick temper.
From the moment Richard Widmark shot the first bad guy even before the opening credits and the enveloping overture, I was hooked on him, the western scenery, the action, the anthropological dramatization of Comanche vs.
Richard Widmark plays Commanche Todd perfectly, displaying ruthlessness, kindness, charm and craggy reliability, in equal measure.The Widmark easy grin trademark is evident, which only he can switch on, lending light relief to a grim story.But for me the film is notable for a love scene that compares easily with that of the famous train meeting between Cary Grant and Eve Marie Saint in North by Northwest.
The sheriff (along with Widmark) soon meets up with a wagon train and tags along with them until he can get his prisoner back to town for a proper hanging.
As for why Widmark did all these nasty murders, he is supposedly part Comanche (he sure doesn't look it--that's because he was a white orphan raised by the tribe) and has a total disregard for society--and somehow this entitles him to kill with abandon.Problems soon develop with the settlers.
They are devout people and can't stand the way the sheriff takes pleasure in tormenting Widmark (who is now handcuffed to a wagon wheel).
Subtle its message ain't and the one young lady in particular plays a character too unlikable and annoying to be real--the one and only real deficit in an otherwise good film.Unfortunately for the wagon train, the land they eventually enter is Indian land.
At this point, the tables are turned and it's up to the cold-blooded killer, Widmark, to save the day--escorting the survivors to safety and teaching them to live off the land like natives.By the way, as you watch Widmark chained to the wagon wheel and doing some stunts as well while connected to the wheel, you are impressed by how much he was willing to do for this role.
It was great viewing this 1956 film and enjoying the great acting of a very young Richard Widmark,(Comanchi Todd), "Garden of Evil",'54, where he plays a very well experienced man who can deal with almost any situation and understands the Native Americans like a book.
Susan Kohner,(Jolie Normand), gave a great supporting role along with Nick Adams,(Ridge), both these characters had their own feels toward Comanchi Todd and some doubted if he was man enough to get them out of many death threatening situations.
If you are a fan of Richard Widmark, you will greatly enjoy this film which he made into a great Western Classic..
After his capture by Sheriff Bull Harper, Todd and his captor run into a wagon train of Christian settlers who suffer an attack by the Apache.
Severely depleted and ill equipped to deal with the terrain and threat of further attacks, the remaining settlers must put their trust in Todd to hopefully steer them all to safety.The Last Wagon is one in a long line of Westerns that feature a similar plot, but this Delmer Daves {Dark Passage & 3:10 to Yuma} picture is a touch above many of the others due to having a few things in its favour.
As a character study of a group of people under duress, Daves and his co writer, James Edward Grant, have excelled and broken away from maudlin tendencies so rife in films of this ilk.
Virtues and vices come under the microscope, as does the art of being humanitarian, regardless of circumstance and being armed with basic facts or foolishly acting on hearsay.Also containing some beautiful location work at the afore mentioned Oak Creek Canyon, Arizona {filmed in Cinemascope and Technicolor}, it's most certainly looking like a film that has apparently been forgotten outside of the Widmark and Western purists.
the scenery was beautiful also.All the young actors gave wonderful performances.please do yourself a favor and enjoy one of the great stories of all time..
As with most westerns, it has not aged well, although it is clear that the major story line isn't really about the "Indians" but instead is about "good" white people versus "bad" white people.
Seeing it again last night, I'm happy to report that this 1956 Western holds up well despite the dated score.THE STORY: Richard Widmark stars as Comanche Todd, a white man raised by Comanches and under arrest for murder.
First of all, this film is gorgeous to look at -- shot on location in Sedona, Arizona, at the mouth of Oak Creek Canyon.Secondly, not only is the plot excellent, so are the characters, cast and everything else.
The film successfully takes you back to the late 1800s and gives a good glimpse of what it must have been like to travel out West during that time.Felicia Farr and Susan Kohner stand out in the supporting cast; both are incredibly beautiful.
Not to mention, the Indians are portrayed realistically, unlike many 50's Westerns where you just roll your eyes at their silly depiction.Aside from the dated score (which isn't bad, just dated), the only negative I can cite would be the way in which the conflict with the Apaches is concluded.
We had guests at the time and took them to the site to see some of the filming.The guests were polite and remained out of the way, however Richard Widmark was rude and crude and used language that was extremely shocking to a 13 year old boy.The movie was better than fair (although I saw it more than 40 years ago).
What reaches you is the hysterical mood , Widmark being dragged by a horse, chained to a wagon wheel, the brutal killings , all this blended to an impressive scenery.
The love relationship between Fecicia Farr and Widmark has a sensuality not at all common at those times, specially in westerns..
Richard Widmark's costume does indeed show evidence of Comanche Todd being shot in the shoulder at the beginning of the movie: a tear and powder burn.
A half-breed (Richard Widmark) wanted for multiple murders is hunted down and captured by a vicious sheriff (George Matthews) who, as he's dragging him back to civilization to be tried and then hung, coincidentally meets up with a wagon train of devout Christians.
The situation as they join the train is the best part of the film, as Richard Widmark as the half-breed being convincingly mistreated by the sheriff (Matthews is pretty believable) wins the sympathy of a sizable proportion of those in the wagon train, which includes attractive Felicia Farr, Stephanie Griffin and Susan Kohner.
are well enough done, and the action builds fairly well with Widmark being chained to a wagon wheel, who manages to get one hand free enough to kill Matthews by skilfully throwing a hatchet at him.
That, unfortunately is the high point of the film, for when they return they find that everyone in the train has been killed by Apaches except Widmark who somehow escapes even though he's still chained to the wagon wheel.
The rest of the film is Widmark, half-breed, who's lived with Commanches for most of his life, now saving the young and attractive females along with Nick Adams and Tommy Rettig as he leads them to a town, where he faces a trial that is one of the more inane court scenes you are likely ever to see..
Richard Widmark is very sexy in his role as a white man who has been raised by the Comanches.
It seems that the director of this film, Delmer Daves, wanted to analyze the behavior of each person in the film, which has the context of a western with 'thirsty' Indian Apaches around.
The hero is a white man (Richard Widmark) raised in a Comanche area, who has lost his Comanche wife and two sons in a fight.
'Thirsty' Apaches came one night and killed nearly everyone of settlers except Widmark, who immediately organized the getaway of survivors, he also saved their lives  and even of a platoon they found in their run away from the Indians.
Teens on the Run. Comanche Todd (Widmark) must lead a small band of teenage survivors through hostile Apache territory, despite suspicions about his Indian background.It's a great shot when the wheel with Todd shackled to it gets pulled up the rock overhang, with the spectacular Technicolor scenery behind it.
Richard Widmark - sporting the colourful name of Comanche Todd - plays a wrongly accused outlaw guiding a group of teenagers across hostile Indian country after their folks have been massacred by Apaches.
George Mathews as the unsavoury and brutish sheriff, Douglas Kennedy as the upright Wagonmaster, the beautiful Susan Kohner (whatever happened to?),as his half breed daughter, Stephenie Griffin as her bigoted sister, Ray Stricklyn, the ill-fated Nick Adams and Tommy Rettig as the young brother of the film's leading lady the lovely Felicia Farr.
Plot-wise the film is quite enthralling, and it's interesting to note the change in attitude of the people with time towards Widmark, from suspicion and hate towards gratitude and love by the end.
The other actors give reasonable performances but of course in this film, Widmark steals the show, just as he did in "No Way Out".
When I saw the film initially, I was fearing some ghastly sad ending, thinking that Widmark would inevitably come a cropper, but fortunately, love rules OK and all turns out right !
After he is tracked, caught and chained to a wagon train for killing, in cold blood, three brothers in revenge for the murder of three people closest to him, his wife and his two boys, Comanche Todd (Richard Widmark), leads a wagon to safety through Apache country...It is an intense drama because Col. Normand's train was massacred by the savages and six young survivors were left on his hands, putting their trust in a renegade murderer to bring them out of the wildernessDelmer Daves tries to paint the West as a perfect artist proving himself as a talented director of the Western movies...
As in "Broken Arrow," "Drum Beat," "3:l0 to Yuma," and "The Hanging Tree," this great director gives us, in his exciting Western, a study of several characters as individuals and as representatives of virtues, vices, and other abstract qualities...Richard Widmark gives a great performance as a man who took the Comanche law to avenge his people For him there was no "white man's law" for hundreds of miles!
For her Widmark could have saved himself He could have gone and she urged him to go Susan Kohner tells her sister Valinda (Stephanie Griffin) that she acts so clean but she thinks so dirty And when she says "Indian-lover" and she makes it sound so filthy Tommy Rettiga lot more man than a boy is the most effective member of the cast, sincere in his emotional feelings and highly amusing...Nick Adams saw those falls this morning but refuses to notice that the kid could get swept over them George Mathews plays Sheriff Bull Harper with a killer he's bringing to justice He explained to the Christians 'not to be fooled by the color of his eyes and his skin.
He may be white, but inside he's all Comanche.' Col. William Normand (Douglas Kennedy) asks the Sheriff to secure the prisoner but to stop his brutality Filmed in Technicolor and CinemaScope, the picture has plenty of action, good exterior photography including splendid picturesque shots of the "Canyon of death", the rocks, plains and rivers....
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.
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.
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.
In Commanche Todd Richard Widmark gives us one of his most likable and unforgettable characters in what could easily have become a throwaway performance in a "B" movie.
He begins the movie on the run from a posse of four and the audience don't know why, as we watch the action unfold he manages to kill three deputies before the sheriff finally gets the better on him.
Widmark and his captor fall in with a wagon train of devout Christians heading west looking for a clean start after the horror of the civil war.
I will not say anything about the end of this good movie, except that it doesn't "fit" with the rest of it, and it's sort of a sudden downturn.Richard Widmark is great, George Matthew's character last less than 20 minutes and you do think that was more than enough, the survivors are a solid and heterogenous group of characters, albeit a little stereotyped (Daddy's little girl, Daddy's Other little girl, etc) and even the Indians (Apaches if I'm correct) had their reasons (instead of the usual 'let's kill the palefaces because we do exist for that').But the end of the movie do seems to be imposed by a VIP of the studio who didn't cared about a more logic, honest and dramatic finale and had his own version of 'Happy End' imposed on the story.Anyway, the tale of a group of teenagers having to trust a renegade 'indian lover' wanted for three murders (and after he had committed a brutal fourth under their noses) is well delivered, and is a good entertainer..
Richard Widmark is Comanche Todd, captured by a brutal sheriff.
Apaches attack and slaughter all the passengers except Widmark and a handful of women and kids, including Felicia Farr, Susan Kohner, and Nick Adams.
He was raised by Indians, as so many other Western characters have been, from "Hombre" to "Hondo." He's stoic, knows nature, brims with common sense, and is tough as hell.Farr and the rest represent culture.
He snaps out orders and helps them shed their winsome civilian ways, as a Widmark character put it in another movie.No, Widmark doesn't sound much like an Indian.
There is, but we have to wait til the final reel which sees Comanche Todd (Widmark) on trial for murder to discover that three brothers raped his Comanche wife then killed her and his two sons.
For his trouble in the opening scene Widmark is 'captured' by brutal 'sheriff' Bull Harper (George Matthews) and winds up tied to a wagon wheel, part of a wagon train of pioneers heading West, yet is still able to bury an axe in Harper's head.
When a group of the younger people sneak off for a midnight swim they return to find that Apaches have killed everyone except Widmark who is halfway down a cliff still tied to the wagon.
There's really only one way for the story to go from here; Widmark must lead the survivors to safety through Apache territory and they are evenly divided between those who like him and those who hate him.
It's watchable because it revolves around Widmark but there isn't half as much chemistry as there should be between him and leading lady Felicia Farr (on the other hand that was the year she married Jack Lemmon so maybe she had other things on her mind) and of the three prominent females Susan Kohner walks away with the acting honours..
99 minutes.SYNOPSIS: Set in the Arizona territory in 1875, the story tells what happens to a small group of people, mostly teenagers, who, quite by accident, survive an Apache attack on their wagon train and endure terrible hardships in the long trek to safety.NOTES: Fox's 62nd CinemaScope feature.
Richard Widmark's character, Comanche Todd, is everything a man should be in the Wild West – brave, resourceful, resilient, stoical, astute, firm but fair with children, tender with women, able to lead and command, not violent by nature but able and willing to use violence to protect or avenge.
As the story progresses and he has to save the young people who survive the massacre of a wagon train, he is freed by gradual stages, as they come to trust him.
But it is satisfying, nevertheless, as it ties up the character arc of each of the young people, their growth measured by their relationship with Todd, who embodies the best qualities of both the Indians and the settlers..
Arrested for killing the men who murdered his wife and sons, "Comanche" Todd survives being chained to a wagon wheel when Apache ambush the wagon train leaving only 6 young people as well as Todd: it falls to him to lead them to safety through hostile territory.Richard Widmark has a meaty action hero leading role as Todd in this 1956 western.
The other characters are an interesting bunch, with Nick Adams in the thankless role of aggressive ass, Tommy Rettig as substitute son, and Felicia Farr as tasty young thing who could easily adapt to frontier wife.The action is good, the music is typical western fare, and the scenery is wonderful.