A Última Etapa

Even though this film had a great set of actors and character development that was quite interesting, the pace of this story was so slow that it took away from the entire project.

The movie begins as we see four bank robbers that was attempting to outrun a posse that was following them. Plus you throw-in a sexy looking female that was also along for the ride and you can see that this is a unique set of people. Anyway, they shake the cops and end up in an old abandon town. And now, nearly through the entire picture, the writer starts to show all the distinct personalities of each character. The only bad thing is that the introduction of the characters takes so long that viewers begin to lose interest in the movie.

The first forty minutes of the movie is uneventful. You have pleasant conversation, people watering the horses and some wandering where they should go to split-up the money. The only hint of trouble comes when one of the characters stumbles on a Indian war stick that might just lead to some excitement.

The last half of the movie was so much better. There were actually action on the screen to break the tedious dialog that viewers were suffering. And if viewers were still watching and not turned off by the dull first half, then you saw a story that was actually interesting.

John Larch, Fred MacMurray, Dorothy Malone and Michael Ansara all did an outstanding job with their character. The problem is that it took so long developing the characters that it was easy to get bored and turn to another form of entertainment. This was a hard watch but the ending made the long tiresome viewing a bit more enjoyable.

An offbeat and claustrophobic Western in limited budget with too much talking and a little bit boring, until a thrilling finale in which eventually the Apache Indians attack and pursue the thieves. Several bandits head for Mexican frontier decide to carry out a stopover and arriving in a ruined village in the middle of desert, called Quantez . They are the following ones : A unexperienced and green but eager newcomer gunslinger : John Gavin, a white man who was raised by Indians : Sydney Chaplin, a nasty and ambitous pistolero : John Larch, a beautiful woman with a dark past : Dororhy Malone, and the veteran and wise gunfighter : Fred MacMurray. Shortly after, there arrives a minstrel : James Barton who reluctantly joins the motley group of thieves . The cutthroats start to accuse and confront each other concerning the stolen loot and soon the gunplay and killing begins. Meanwhile, Apache Indians led by Michael Ansara are lurking around and about to attack. They rode to Quantez town.. Half-way to freedom but all the way to hell!!!

A classic and traditional Western in psychological trendy of the 50s in the wake of Yellow Sky or High Noon. Developed almost entirely at a lonely location in a desert, as it has much in common with a theatre play. The limited budget shows, and the whole psychologist thrill that you depend on the interior sets and relationship among them, the subsequent confrontation, as well as the excessive dialogues are not built up well enough. It is an offbeat Western which doen't work too well but has its moments of interest here and there . Stars Fred McMurray who gives a good acting as a good thief. This is one of a clutch of acceptable horse operas Fred made in the Forties , in the late of 50s and early Sixties, such as : A gun for coward, Good day for a hanging, Texas Rangers, The trail of the Lonesome Pine, At gunpoint, and this Quantez. Although he also played other genres as drama, adventure, warlike, Children fiilms as The happiest millionaire, The shaggie dog, Son of the flubber, The absent-minded professor, The princess come across, The Caine mutiny, Dive bomber, Above suspicion, The miracle of the bells, among others. He is finely accompanied by a fine cast as the recently deceased Dorothy Malone, the usual villian John Larch, the Charles Chaplin's brother, Sydney Chaplin and a fresh John Gavin, next to take a long career as a main star.

It contains colorful and brilliant cinematography in Technicolor by Carl Guthrie. As well as attractive and agreeable musical score by Herman Stein, Universal's regular , including enjoyable songs. As the song The Lonely One is sung by James Barton behind the credits, and the song True Love sung by Dorothy Malone. The motion picture produced by Universal Pictures along with Gordon Kay was professionally directed by Harry Keller. Harry was a good craftsman who directed a lot of Westerns and several episodes of TV series.

A western that has way too much talk, but the talk does draw some deeply etched characters is Quantez. Had they pumped it up with a bit more action this could have been a classic. That is despite Fred MacMurray who really never felt right in westerns. He does all right by this one however.

The hot tempered John Larch leads a gang of outlaws fresh from a bank robbery takes his three men fleeing a posse. His henchmen are Fred MacMurray an experienced outlaw who doesn't talk much about himself, a young fast draw in John Gavin who is from the east and Sydney Chaplin a man raised among the Apaches in whose country they have to pass through. And he also brings his main squeeze Dorothy Malone for those cold desert nights.

The outlaws arrive in the freshly deserted town of Quantez, deserted because the Apaches under Michael Ansara have made it most uncomfortable to live. What to do, but take stock of the situation and formulate a plan to get across the desert.

So while they're stuck there, the true character of all comes forth. All of them are chafing under the leadership of Larch who once again is playing a rather arrogant, loudmouth individual who is a fast gun, but has little else to recommend them. And of course there's the presence of Malone who just by being there is giving them all an itch that Larch won't them scratch.

Only one other speaking part is in this film that of James Barton who plays a wandering painter and who has an extra horse they might need to make it across the desert. It would be smart if they all stuck together until the Indian crisis is passed or they're all dead, but Larch won't let that happen.

It's plain that MacMurray should be the gang leader, but he has reasons why he's not and for that you see Quantez for.

Quantez is a bit verbose, but the characters are interesting to say the least.

I'm going to go against the positive few reviews so far posted here. I was very disappointed, and found it the poorest of "gang in a ghost town" Westerns that I've seen. Pity, because the cast was reasonably strong. About the only interesting thing in it was what I thought was John Larch's resemblance to Gary Cooper.

None of the characters is at all likable and most of the could be a stage play, with so much action confined to one room. These aren't necessarily bad things for a film, but all the talking and no action was tedious, as were the white characters turning on each other and the inevitable interaction between Chaney and each of the four gangsters.

I nearly turned off my recording of the film but struggled through to the ending, which was OK.

I have seen two of Harry Keller's films; this one and ' The Unguarded Moment ' where he superbly directed Esther Williams in a thriller without a swimming pool in sight. In ' Quantez ' he directs Dorothy Malone, and elicits from her an equally fine performance. He also gets performances to remember from Fred MacMurray, John Larch and from a young John Gavin, and the latter despite his working with Douglas Sirk never did better. So what of the plot, and giving as few spoilers as possible ? It reminded me of the group holed up in an hotel in ' Key Largo '. It is equally claustrophobic and yes, just as in ' Key Largo ' there is a lot of dialogue as well as brutal action. The way Dorothy Malone is made to sing and fails reminded me of Claire Trevor, and just as good, and instead of a hurricane to face in ' Key Largo ' it is Native Americans out to kill at dawn in ' Quantez '. Appropriately here it is a deserted town in the back of nowhere and ostensibly there is no place to run. John Larch gives a good and mean performance as a controlling thug of a cowboy that reminded me of Edward G. Robinson and just as nuanced. I have no idea if the script had a semi-remake of ' Key Largo ' in mind, but if they did not, then it is a minor miracle of coincidence. Other than a few scenes with rugged landscapes the film is set mainly in a deserted saloon and the tortured dialogue is savage and well worth hearing and when the brutality kicks in it kicks in even harder. A seemingly lost adult Western this should be better known as it beats many other Westerns which have been overrated. A uniformly good cast, and all of them give of their best. My only criticism is a few cardboard exterior scenes by night, and reluctantly I have reduced a 10 rating to 8. Not quite a masterpiece of its genre, but it almost is, and is way above the standard of other lesser, but more well known films.