The Last Challenge (1967)

The Last Challenge (1967)


Plot Summary

In this western, a town marshal (Ford) contends with his reputation as the "fastest gun in the West." When a young gunslinger (Everett) calls him out for a showdown, the sheriff is struck by the fellow's resemblance to himself and unsuccessfully attempts to talk him out of his foolish career choice.

 This was a very interesting and introspective western as there's not much action but rather it was a character study of the two main characters marshal Dan Blaine and the young cocksure gunslinger Lot McGuire. There is a lot to like about this film but it's by far a perfect one. The motif was a familiar one for Ford who did a movie where he was the fastest gun in the west a little over a decade earlier called The Fastest Gun Alive (1957) though the circumstances were quite different as Ford was younger then and he played a guy trying to escape that life only to have the beans spilled on him and a gang leader wanting to go toe to toe with him. This movie however, portrays an older Ford who has made some peace in his life as the marshal of a tiny southwestern town who is challenged by a young buck who thinks he can make a name for himself by gunning Ford down.

That's where the quietness and introspection of this film comes in, Ford's depiction of Blaine is one of a man seemingly lives a quiet life with his lover Lisa Denton (Angie Dickinson) who just happens to be the owner of the saloon in town and is also a whore house madam on the side. Blaine is generally accepted as a good guy and it seems that he's a man of simplicity with a love for fishing, drinking and his woman not particularly in that order. You dig deeper though, and you find a man who's tired of having to uphold the law and being the fastest gun around. He won't wear his badge unless he's doing official business and tries for a peaceful solution to things.

Blaine goes out fishing early in the movie and runs across a gunned down man who's still barely alive and it turns out to be an old acquaintance of his from his criminal days. Blaine reluctantly allows this guy to go into town for a couple days. Blaine then goes off to fish and meets up with a young man who seems like a real swell fellow. In fact, the scene of Blaine and this young fellow who turns out to be McGuire is one of the best scenes in the whole film. In fact, every interaction between Ford and Everett is gold IMO. They get into a good conversation about where the kid's from and how his father was in the Civil War. McGuire then tells Blaine what he's there for unbeknownst to him that he's talking to Blaine himself. Once that's revealed things cool off substantially between the two and they part ways.

I have to give credit to Chad Everett here as the young, cocksure "I want to prove myself" character type is one that can be VERY annoying but he handles it with aplomb. In fact, there's a charm and niceness to his character except when the topic of wanting to prove himself by dueling with Blaine comes up. The director (Richard Thorpe in his last film) was a guy who was very mechanical with his direction only filming until an actor flubs his lines or the scene is done was actually beneficial to the script with this rote style as it allowed the actors to deliver their lines in a refreshingly realistic manner. This is most evident in the scene by the lake. This style also worked well in allowing the actors to project their characters in a physical manner. Everett walked around like he owned the place and had the demeanor of a "young man in a hurry" while Ford had a more deliberate gait and you can feel the weariness of his character.

The lynchpin for the arc of the film came in a scene after McGuire kills a poker player who was cheating in the game. Blaine talks to McGuire in his office trying to persuade him to stop the foolishness of living his life through the use and proficiency with a gun and exhorting that living that way doesn't give a man a job, a homestead or a wife and family but McGuire won't listen despite Blaine EXPLICITLY telling him that he made a mistake in his life by living the life of a "pistolero". McGuire would have none of it and makes it known that he thinks Blaine is scared. Blaine tells him that he knows McGuire is fast with a gun and that he can kill and that's why Blaine will have to kill him because he would only injure someone who isn't even in his class but in the case of a sharpshooter like McGuire he might and if push comes to shove WILL kill him. It's a great scene in that Ford is trying to lay down advice in a stern almost fatherly way but as he's being pushed he doesn't give any quarter in return.

So the themes are pretty evident, the old gunslinger who sees himself in the youthful gunslinger who wants to make a name for himself and it works wonderfully however there's a plot element that puts a monkey wrench into the whole character study of the two men. Dickinson's character Lisa is there when McGuire kills the crooked poker player but she goes into hysterical behavior mode. Now this would make sense if McGuire was as cold blooded and ruthless as she made it out to be but as the scene was portrayed McGuire was within his right to shoot down the gambler. In fact, if he hadn't he'd have been killed himself. Lisa reacts to all this with a lot of hand wringing about how she thinks McGuire will kill Blaine despite him being sure that he can come out of it alive. He doesn't want things to come to a head that way but he will do it if need be. Lisa completely misreads her lover's reluctance as lack of confidence and she even tries to have McGuire killed.

The rather offputting behavior and lack of faith in Blaine is such that that whole subplot is a bit of a contrivance to spice the movie up a bit. I know they needed SOMETHING for Dickinson to do but it was a rather thankless role.

One last thing if you ever do watch this movie, (It's available here) check out the behavior and actions of Blaine and McGuire before the face off at the end of the movie. The very behavior of the two show how completely different in maturity and confidence that they have in themselves heading up to that fateful moment.

I give this **1/2 stars out of *****