L'assedio di Fort Point

The magical combination of the cool, yet tough handsome hero, Ronald Reagan, and the incredibly beautiful and seductive Rhonda Fleming makes a great foundation for a classic movie. Reagan and Fleming show a believable attraction to one another that lures the imagination of a starry love.

The Last Outpost has plenty of action and the right amount of romance to keep the tone warm. The saber fighting, flaming arrows and fists fights are exciting and fast paced. The characters are memorable and there are lots of catchy lines worth memorizing.

The Last Outpost is a classic movie that should be included in every movie connoisseur's library.

This isn't one of those "researched" cavalry Westerns. This is just a fun fest. It's everything that is cool in a film. It is Raiders of the Lost Ark, only it's an old fashioned Western.

First, we have the "cool" Robin Hood style hero, this time in the guise of a Confederate officer, along with his cool merry men, particularly the affable Noah Beery.

Then we have his old sweetheart married to a sneaky bad guy.

Then we have the older brother as a more officious officer on the Union side. Naturally, they clash.

Then we have the noble native American chiefs. This is middle of the road in treatment of the Indian. The Indians are treated with great dignity and respect, and like most old Hollywood Westerns, they are never bad, but misled by evil white men.

However, as many note, this is almost like two different movies from the first two thirds to the last third. In the end, although the evil guys are a pair of white men, the Indians get the brunt of the assault.

The other major problem is that the main bad guy is killed almost immediately, and we're left without a villain, until a towns-person takes the role, but it looks like an afterthought, as though there was a contract dispute with an actor somewhere. It is a novel idea, but not dramatic, and certainly not Hollywood.

However, this is an Indiana Jones style adventure, filled with humor and pathos along the way. We know a few good men will die. We aren't sure who, but there are clues that give us good ideas.

This isn't a "look for reality" movie, nor does it pretend to be. It is a barroom brawl fun-house film, made to be cool. And it succeeds.

That's one of the several westerns that director Lewis R Foster made, besides THE EAGLE AND THE HAWK, PASSAGE WEST, EL PASO; DAKOTA INCIDENT, all excellent material, pulled by good directing, flawless casts, and this one makes no exception, despite a predictable scheme and ending too. But beware, back in 1935, Paramount Pictures also produced another LAST OUTPOST, taking place in Kurdistan, starring Cary Grant, and it seems to be no connection at all between those two. After all, it could have been a link, because the same studio was in the matter. But no...Anyway, this western is worth watching, providing an exciting, powerful finale.

Ronald Reagan in his first western is the biggest hit for Pine-Thomas Productions. Technicolor must have been invented for Rhonda Fleming's beauty and stunning auburn hair. She's married to a crooked trading post operator. What kind of man is McQuade (John Ridgely) wanting to stir up the Indians? "There no money in it for him in peaceful Indians they're not a good market for the guns and rot gut whisky he sells them." Reagan learns that not only his brother and fellow Baltimorean, Col. Jeb Britton (Bruce Bennett) is now stationed at Ft. Gil, but that his ex-fiance is there also. Noah Beery, the most beloved character actor in the business brings a needed ebullience to the part of Sgt. Calhoun. Other great parts were by Bill "Willie" Williams, Peter Hansen, Lloyd Corrigan and TV's all time favorite dad Hugh Beaumont.

Ronald Reagan's first starring western occurred in 1951 when he did this horse opera for the Pine-Thomas Paramount B picture unit. Reagan was always a good rider and would have loved to do more westerns in his career. But according to the Citadel Film series book on The Films of Ronald Reagan the real clincher for him okaying the Pine-Thomas deal was a chance to ride his own horse in the film. So Reagan's horse which was named Tarbaby got some screen immortality.

The Last Outpost casts Reagan and Bruce Bennett who are brothers and who have split their loyalties during the Civil War. Fate has brought them together in the west with Bennett taking command of a Federal outpost in Arizona territory to deal with a band of pesky Confederate raiders. Little does Bennett know that Reagan is commanding those raiders and little does Reagan know that the girl he left behind played by Rhonda Fleming is out west and unhappily married to trading post owner John Ridgely.

Ridgely gets killed early on in the film, but not before he sets in motion a plan whereby he will be legally allowed to sell whiskey and arms to the Apaches in exchange for them just taking out the men in gray. In fact Lloyd Corrigan has come east as a member of the government to implement said plan. Reagan refers to him as 'the expediter' and he's the kind of government bureaucrat Reagan would make fun of when he later got into politics.

Bennett is the solid dependable brother, but Reagan invests his part with a certain dash and rakish charm which if you didn't know better you would swear was coming from Errol Flynn. But the most interesting role came from actor Charles Evans playing Apache Chief Grey Cloud who is a disgraced former American general who left the army because his society wouldn't accept the Apache woman he married. Evans really makes his few scenes count and I wish we had seen more of him.

The Last Outpost is a solidly entertaining western with the cast giving fitted performances in the roles they are doing.