La maschera nera di Cedar Pass

The Last Stagecoach West is directed by Joe Kane and written by Barry Shipman. It stars Jim Davis, Mary Castle, Victor Jory, Lee Van Cleef, Grant Withers, Roy Barcroft, John Alderson and Glenn Strange. Music is by Gerald Roberts and cinematography by Jack Marta.

Out of Republic Pictures and filmed in "Naturama", The Last Stagecoach West is a brisk black and whiter that may be routine but none the less crams as much as it can into its slim running time.

Plot is essentially about how the coming of the railroad to Cedar City spells the end of the stagecoach as the government gives the mail contract to the far faster mode of transport. The film actually begins with a race-off between a train and a stage! Angered by losing his stageline business, Rand McCord (Jory) fronts an outlaw gang who continually rob the railroad. The Railroad Protective Agency send their main man Bill Cameron (Davis) in undercover to crack the case.

What unfolds is a series of shoot-outs, duplicitous behaviour, chases, machismo, blossoming romance, family strife and the expected yeehaw ending. In spite of the low budget it's a nice and airy production, thought to be filmed on location in Towsley Canyon, Newhall, California, the scenery plays a nice part in proceedings. The acting is mostly formula fodder, but it's always nice to see Van Cleef in one of his shifty roles and Jory is good value as a working man gone bad.

It looks out of place as a Western released in 1957, and it's undeniably routine, but it's honest and full of vigour and never outstays its welcome. 6/10

The coming of the railroad spells the end of Rand McCord (Victory Jory)'s stagecoach line in Cedar City, as the government gives the mail contract to the fastest means of delivery. McCord only has enough money left to buy a ranch and some cattle, but comes on the idea of hiring outlaws to wreck trains, rob express offices and steal cattle. The railroads send special agent Bill Cameron (Jim Davis) on an undercover mission to end this reign of violence, and Cameron falls in with McCord's daughter (Mary Castle), who is unaware of her father's activities.

The coming of the railroad heralds a problem for a stage-line in this brisk and efficient B western from Replubic pictures. Jim Davis is the railroad detective out to stop the outlaw robbing stagecoaches and Victor Jory and Lee Van Cleef are the opposition. Mary Castle is the love interest for Davis.

This western is reminiscent of the more straightforward shoot em up of the 40's and late fifties - it's routine, yet decently distracting with its penchant of chases and shootouts.

This western is speaking of the rivalry between railroad and the stage lines. A subject often talked about in the western history, as the cattle barons against the homesteaders, sheriff vs outlaws or Indians vs the cavalry. This one saves no surprise, only a good time waster pulled by a surprising Jim Davis as the good guy, he who I have always more or less confounded with Lloyd Bridges, in more or less the same roles. It is never boring, with some good action sequences which Republic Pictures had the secrets about; the serial legacy I suppose. Lee Van Cleef is quite good, as usual in the villain role, Victor Jory's henchman..But Vic Jory is not the ruthless villain as we could guess, just a man seeking revenge against the rail road that threatened him to bankruptcy.