To the Last Man (1933)

To the Last Man (1933)

Plot Summary

In Kentucky just after the Civil War, the Hayden-Colby feud leads to Jed Colby (Noah Beery) being sent to prison for 15 years for murder. The Haydens head for Nevada and when Colby gets out of prison he heads there also seeking revenge. Mark Hayden, (Egon Brecher) The head of the Hayden family tries to avoid more killing but the inevitable showdown has to occur, complicated by Lynn Hayden (Randolph Scott) and Ellen Colby's (Esther Ralston) plans to marry.

First of all, WOW! Now this is a good movie! This one film rejuvenated my enthusiasm for the Randolph Scott Film Survey as the previous films have varied in quality quite a bit but this one is legitimately good stuff. The summary above is a slight over simplification which i'll fill the holes on in a bit. This movie owes a lot to the legend of the Hatfield/McCoy feud and thus it lends itself to more nuance and depth. Unlike the Hatfield/McCoy dynamic the head of the family Mark Hayden has come back from the Civil War with a distaste for killing and wants nothing to do with the blood feud with the Colbys. Unfortunately, the feud is re-ignited as his father-in-law and Lynn find themselves in trouble as Gramps bites it from the gun of Jed Colby. Grandma wants Mark to pay back Colby in blood but he just won't do it, preferring to use the law to his advantage. So Colby is thrown in the slammer for 15 years by which point the Hayden's have moved stakes to Nevada.

When getting out of jail Colby is met by his daughter Ellen and his former prison buddy Jim Daggs (Jack LaRue in a great villainous role) and they plan to go off to Nevada to seek revenge. This is where the nuance of the movie comes in. In all these other B Westerns with Randolph Scott that i've seen with Noah Beery as the heavy he's been the mustache twirling muahahahaha bad guy but in this movie there's more of a silent, calculated rage within him in his plans for revenge. The more stereotypical villainy is saved for the Daggs character to the point that Colby has to be the more reasonable one typified by the scene when the two families are in a shootout and Daggs nearly kills one of the Hayden children only to be stopped by Colby.

Colby is stealing the Hayden's stock of horses and cattle slowly but surely whereas Daggs wants to go for it all in one shot and take down the entire Hayden clan in cold blood. Colby of course, wants to drag it out just as he feels Hayden did by having him in jail for 15 years. So there's definitely a bit of tension between the two.

As for the Hayden's the clan has grown since the very beginning of the movie as Mark is now a grandpa. His daughter and other son Bill have married off and are all living together with a big family. Lynn stayed behind in Kentucky to be with grandma but when she dies he goes to meet the clan. This would be a fateful moment as Lynn notices Daggs harassing Colby's daughter Ellen and he rescues her.

Ellen is a backwards, tomboyish girl with a huge chip on her shoulder but there's an immediate attraction. She resists Lynn at almost every opportunity but she softens to him and actually falls in love. Unfortunately that would be short lived as they finally introduce themselves after a night together at his camp. She immediately recoils as Lynn tries to convince her that it's not their fight. Eventually things patch up between the two just as the Hayden/Colby feud explodes again.....

I'll leave the actual plot stuff alone here. This movie is pretty gritty and is very unsentimental about the proceedings. There's a brutality both physically and emotionally to this film that gives it an edge that would disappear from Westerns (with few exceptions) for the next decade. The rawness of the plot is something that makes this movie go. There's a scene near the end where after being yelled at in a righteous indignation from his daughter in law that forces Mark Hayden's hand and indeed he breaks his code of ethics.

The theme of ethics and right behavior is one that simmers beneath the surface throughout the movie. Not just the ethics of fighting back and giving the aggressor satisfaction but the ethics of aligning oneself with people who may be worse than you are in the case of the Colby/Daggs dynamic. There's even the idea that even the most rough around the edges people have a softness to them that's waiting to be explored with the right person in how Lynn and Ellen interact.

The acting in this movie is pitch perfect and even the more stereotypical baddie aspect of the Jim Daggs character isn't out of line with the movie. Randolph Scott has a pleasant yet strong demeanor. He truly was one of the "good guys" in his portrayal here. Ellen Ralston is a revelation as Ellen. She has a tough and rough exterior to her and there's definitely a chip on her shoulder that feels very real and not put on. It helps that she wasn't classically beautiful but rather the beauty stems more from her body language than anything else. The rest of the cast is uniformly good and it's nice to see Noah Beery being something other than a cackling villain. The movie also bears a couple uncredited performances from a pre-mega star Shirley Temple and John Carradine in a bit role.

It's a shame that the only print available of this movie is so ragged and rough but it is what it is. I give this my most heartfelt recommendations and a *** star rating.