The Last Challenge

The western showdown is as ritualistic as a bullfight which, in many respects, it resembles... The end is as quick, clean and emotionless as the dispatch of a brave fighting bull by the matador... The outcome is usually as predictable but the clash is a heightened moment of suspense that is as exciting as anything the cinema has ever produced...

Richard Thorpe, a reliable director of all genre, and one of MGM's most prolific filmmaker since 1935 directed and produced 'The Last Challenge'/'The Pistolero of Red River.'

Wanting a particular personal style, Thorpe never directed a great motion picture, but had a consistently acceptable batting average as a director of fine, unpretentious entertainment ranging from drama and polished adventure to comedy, musicals and westerns...

With a beautiful body and a timeless loveliness of a face, Angie Dickinson looks great in her black gown... She again figures effectively as the young lady, in love, who wants to stop the shootout... The movie has a Marshal (Glenn Ford) with a reputation as a legendary wild gunfighter, heading for a showdown with a dangerous good-looking challenger Chad Everett...

The John Sherry-Robert Emmett Ginna screenplay features Gary Merrill as a bushy-brow 'Five Card Stud' player, and Jack Elam as the hired killer with an evil leer...

This Western deals with an aging ex-gunslinger (Glenn Ford) become marshal and challenged to a duel by a rough young (Chad Everett). He is searching for peace and quiet but unable to avoid his reputation and the showdown-challenges it invites .

This is a mature , humourless Hollywood Western with Ford as the gunman turned sheriff attempting and inevitably failing to runaway from his past . It carries a surprising feeling of authenticity for a Western of this twilight period . The filmmaker is good at staging some action sequences , however is slow-moving and developed with dry sense of entertainment . The picture is produced in medium budget by Metro Goldwyn Mayer where the director Richard Thorpe spent 33 years in the same studio and he was to become the longest-servicing filmmaker in their story . In time he became known as the studio's ¨one take¨ because of his rapid shooting schedules . The flick relies heavily on tiring relationship between Glenn Ford and Angie Dickinson who plays a Saloon owner , formerly call-girl . There are good supporting portrayals from Gary Merrill as tough cardsharp , Royal Dano as drunk Indian chief and Jack Elam in his usual role as outlaw .

The picture is professionally directed by Richard Thorpe , though with no originality . Richard liked making escapist movies and many of them have rousing action scenes , handled with great confidence . He directed lesser Western and thrillers when he moved into features in 1924 and did little of note before joining MGM in 1935 . Thorpe made routine studio fare until 1950s when he was given more major assignment . He then made various big-budget productions financed by Pando S Bergman among his best known films are all the MGM Tarzans following his arrival at the studio in 1935 and a series of swashbuckling adventures in the early 1950s featuring Robert Taylor , the most successful of these were three swashbucklers made in England as ¨Knights of Round Table , Ivanhoe and Quentin Durward¨ . Thorpe was an expert on all kind of genres as Western as ¨Vengeance valley , Wild horse , Under Montana skies and Last challenge¨ but his specialty resulted to be adventures as ¨Prisoner of Zenda , The prodigal , Challenge to Lassie , Malaya , Tarzan's secret treasure ,Tarzan escapes , Tarzan finds a son¨ and Musicals as ¨Fun in Acapulco , Rainbow over Broadway , The prince student¨ and his biggest money-maker to date was ¨The great Caruso¨ and his last big box-office hit was ¨Presley' Jailhouse Rock¨ . He also worked briefly in television before retiring in 1968 , his last film was ¨The last challenge', also titled ¨The Pistolero of Red River ¨.

The basic premise of this movie is quite simple: a young man with no particular talent but a quick draw (Chad Everett) wants to feel important by out drawing the fastest draw around -- an experienced marshall played by Glenn Ford. As the movie progresses, a bond of mutual affection develops between the young gunfighter and the old marshall. The marshall tries every way he can to avoid the inevitable gunfight which he know he will win. This movie is essentially about relationships and the differences between youth and maturity rather than just another gunfight. It's one of my top ten westerns.

Glenn ford, chad everett in a very late western. Angie dickinson, a couple years before police woman. Blaine was a bad boy gone straight, now he's the marshall. Young buck mcguire wants to challenge him, but doesn't want to kill the town marshall. They will meet again. Angie's hairdo's get bigger and sillier as the tale goes on. Some beautiful scenery of arizona. More secrets come out. Final showdown. It's okay. Directed by richard thorpe. His very last film. Based on the novel by john sherry. This seems to be his only work made into film.

Richard Thorpe's "The Last Challenge" aka. "The Pistolero of Red River" of 1967 is an entertaining standard American Western with a good cast. Even though in no way outstanding, this is a solid film that is well worth watching for genre-fans.

Dan Blaine (Glen Ford), the Marshal of a small town in the West, has the reputation of being the fastest and most precise shot around. Since he has been sheriff, the formerly dangerous area has become calm. Blaine, whose beautiful and rich girlfriend (Angie Dickinson) owns a local saloon, is therefore highly respected in his community. One day, however, a young gunslinger named Lot McGuire (Chad Everett) comes to town, with the intention to challenge Blaine in a duel. While he wishes to duel with the sheriff, McGuire is an otherwise friendly and likable guy. Blaine therefore wants to dissuade the young man from his wish...

Glen Ford is very good in the lead, and Chad Everett also delivers a solid performance as the young gunslinger. Beautiful Angie Dickinson is, as always, great in the female lead. The supporting cast includes the great genre actor Jack Elam, who also fits in his role very well. The film is overall entertaining and definitely worth the time. When it comes to Westerns from the late 60s, however, the Italian Westerns are usually incomparably better than those from the United States. While everybody is a bastard in Italian Westerns of the time, all characters are kinda good in this film, which makes it less interesting to me. "The Last Challenge" sure is a solid and entertaining little western, but it also confirmed what I already knew - American Westerns from the late sixties can not compete with their Italian counterparts, as the Spaghetti Westerns beat them in all respects. Nevertheless, a decent film. 6/10