“Civilization is creepin’ up on us…”
There’s a similar sentiment, and indeed similar words, expressed at the start of Raoul Walsh’s The Tall Men. Indeed it could be said that variations on this theme run all through the western genre. Can it be said then that the western is at heart an unfolding elegy? One would certainly be justified in applying that label to many of those movies made in the late 1960s and on into the following decade, what have come to be referred to as revisionist works. Yet the roots of that can be found in the classic era, the golden age of the genre in the 50s, when the spirit of celebration, of hope and redemption, were just beginning to be tinged with a hint of regret at the gradual drift away from an ideal. Even the title of Anthony Mann’s The Last Frontier (1955) catches a flavor of that crossing of the Rubicon. Granting that the notion of the Old West as some pastoral idyll was as much myth as reality, it seems fitting that the process which plays out before the viewer is not framed in terms of tragedy, although there are clearly tragic elements woven into it all, but is instead presented as a natural and perhaps desirable step towards the inevitable.
The opening of The Last Frontier presents an image of perfect wilderness, of a land largely untouched by man. Yet we see three men making their through the rocks and trees. This is Jed Cooper (Victor Mature) and his two companions Gus and Mungo (James Whitmore and Pat Hogan), and before long the earth around them seems to take on another form as an encircling band of Sioux rise up from the grass and scrub as though they were children of the soil itself. The thing is both groups, the trappers and the Sioux alike, give the impression of being just another natural extension of their environment. Nevertheless, the trappers are made aware of the fact they have come to represent the intruder, are promptly deprived of their weapons, horses and bearskins and warned to stay clear of the forests. Why? In brief, the arrival of the army and the construction of a fort has altered the way the Sioux now perceive them. Indignant and resigned yet still alive, Cooper makes for the fort in search of some form of compensation for the loss of a year’s worth of hides. What he gets, however, is the offer of employment as a scout under the young acting commander Captain Riordan (Guy Madison). Despite the reservations of his friends, Cooper is beguiled by the thought of a blue tunic with brass buttons and wonders if he might not get to wear one at some point. Thus he begins to fall under the spell of civilization, a feeling further enhanced when he makes the acquaintance (albeit in a drunken and rambunctious state) of Mrs Marston (Anne Bancroft), the wife of the absent senior officer. Colonel Marston (Robert Preston) is at that point on the other side of Red Cloud’s Sioux, which by Cooper’s calculation means he’s probably dead.
As it turns out he’s very much alive and Cooper’s efforts to guide him and what remains of his command back to the safety of the fort earn him little in the way of gratitude. Marston is far from being a well man, psychologically at least. He carries the scars of shame and defeat, haunted by the ghosts of the 1500 souls he led to their graves at Shiloh. The western is full of men in desperate need of redemption, though as often as not the wounds they seek to heal are neither so deep nor so raw as those which afflict Marston. His goal is to excise the pain of defeat through victory over Red Cloud. Unwittingly, Cooper’s growing need to embrace civilization and all he perceives it as offering leaves him pinned at the center of both an emotional and military crisis that Marston is hell bent on engineering. Ultimately, all the elements will be drawn together in a swirling maelstrom of dust and death.
The westerns of Anthony Mann are among the greatest of the classic era. They typically feature driven and obsessive heroes, and of course the concept of redemption is never far from the surface. That sense of redemption, of restoring oneself spiritually, of paying one’s debts and regaining one’s rightful path in life is a powerful one and Mann spent a decade exploring it. In The Last Frontier the character most noticeably driven is Marston, a man who has hounded himself to the brink of sanity and even of humanity. He is not the hero of the piece, though one could say that if he doesn’t quite redeem himself he does get to earn his peace, although it comes at a considerable cost to others. Cooper is the undoubted hero, a crude and unfinished product of nature, one who doesn’t need redemption in the sense of making atonement but rather one who has reached a critical point in life and requires guidance. I guess there’s something ironic in the figure of the pathfinder in the wilderness threshing around at the gates of civilization and needing help to regain his course. Yet that is what happens.
I think that the message of this movie is that no state or situation is to be sought in itself, that the myth of the free and open west is only sustainable and valid if it’s viewed as a stage in a process, an attractive stage in many ways but not a permanent destination. Marston’s relentless drive toward confrontation comes to the only end that it can, and of course history leaves us in no doubt that the staunch resistance to change of Red Cloud was similarly doomed. So what then of the other options? There is a strong feeling that the settler can only go so far till the siren call of civilization drowns out the pull of the untamed land. There is a pivotal moment late on when Mature, having abandoned the fort in the wake of one of those brutal fights so typical of a Mann film, must confront the fact that he can go no further. His journey is going to have to continue along a different path, one which leads back to civilization or whatever form of it he cares to shape for himself. Mungo, the native, is not restrained in the same way and is thus free to proceed on his own trek, one which is expressed in Mann’s characteristic cinematic language as a journey forever upwards, always ascending and always seeking to attain some higher place. Maybe both are heading for the same destination, just taking different routes to get there?
I haven’t given a lot of attention to the performances in this movie, which is a bit of a departure from my usual formula. That’s mainly due to my choosing to focus more on the themes and ideas underpinning the movie, as well as the fact that all of the principals are uniformly excellent. However, I would like to single out some remarkable work from the often maligned Victor Mature – he really gets into the character of the unpolished trapper, investing the part with a passion and raw energy that is wholly convincing as he cannons back and forth between confusion, wonder and enthusiasm. I think it’s a terrific performance. A word too for the cinematography of William C Mellor, where he and Mann fashion a neat juxtaposition of dark and claustrophobic conditions within the (confining, civilizing or both?) walls of the fort and the bright, open airiness of the surrounding landscape. As far as I know, the only Blu-ray release of The Last Frontier is the German edition. It is a good if not great transfer, certainly a step up from the rather indifferent DVD but I must say I’m mystified why this interesting Anthony Mann film remains unreleased in the US or UK with the kind of supplementary material it surely warrants.
As an aside, and for what it’s worth, yesterday marked sixteen years to the day since my first uncertain blog entry.
Riding the High Country 
Not one I’m familiar with. Sounds a good cast.
congrats on 16 years👏🎉
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It isn’t as celebrated or as well known as some other Mann westerns but there’s plenty to admire in it.
And thanks for the congrats, although I’ve been giving some thought to maybe stepping back from stuff for a while. I don’t know if it’s anything related to WordPress or just me but traffic has been down a bit of late, and there are, as ever, lots of demands on my time. We’ll see what the new year brings.
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hope you continue ,even if less often.
I’m finding I like the extra time for watching favorite movies. When blogging, it took a lot of time researching and writing a post.
Also, the new editing functions on WordPress really put me off.
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Vienna, I feel the same re WordPress.
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WordPress used to be a lot more user friendly, both the point of view of those posting and creating content and those visiting and commenting. Certain changes that have been rolled out have not made the experience more enjoyable, quite the opposite in some instances.
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I still like blogging and interacting with other fans so I hope things allow me to keep going, although I don’t want to feel pressured into producing content to a rigid schedule.
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The great thing about a blog is that you make your own rules. You can post once a day, once a week, once a month, whatever you like. You don’t have deadlines! And you can write about whatever you want.
It puzzles me that blogging has gone so much out of fashion. It’s so depressing on social media where most people won’t go beyond “OMG I loved this movie!” Even writing a single sentence about why they liked the movie is too intimidating.
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Is blogging less fashionable? I know some blogs have ceased or paused, but my impression is that others are still popping up. Of course, I don’t keep track of everything and couldn’t say if sites or blogs are being replaced at the same rate.
Anyway, if it is indeed less popular, then I imagine it’s down to the age old problem of time. Producing content is time-consuming, and even reading it take time for the visitors. Lots of people simply won’t have that time and for those who do the fact is the material rewards are next to nothing. You won’t make money off blogging.
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Every blogger I speak to says the same thing – that traffic is steadily declining. It’s certainly true that a blog requires commitment and you’re certainly not going to get rich. I do think though that there’s a growing internet-wide problem that younger people just don’t want in-depth analysis or discussions.
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This site has always had an older readership, or that’s my impression anyway, so I can’t claim to be an expert on the preferences of younger readers. That said, I guess it’s fair to say social media platforms have encouraged briefer forms of expression overall.
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Yes, I think there’s a major generational divide online. Blogging as a whole now seems to be very much a thing for people in their 40s and older, with younger people interested only in social media.
It’s not just that younger people favour briefer forms of expression. To a large extent they cannot cope with the slightest disagreement (which they invariably describe as negativity). If you dare to suggest that the latest Hollywood blockbuster might not be a work of genius they become upset and enraged. They’re horrified by any expression of honest opinion.
And it’s very noticeable on social media that the people with whom it’s worth engaging are almost always over 45.
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Much thanks for acquainting me with practically all the westerns in my collection, before which there was only the otherwise excellent “Bad Day at Black Rock” (screened the BD edition last night). I now have all of Boetticher’s best Randolph Scott titles and two with Don Murray, “These Thousand Hills” and my special favorite “From Hell to Texas”. I will have to check out more films directed by Anthony Mann. Which titles did you find were among his best?
Meanwhile, along with wishing you a healthy 2024, if you haven’t already I would recommend checking out “Longmire”, a modern day detective series that ran six seasons. Of course, it’s television not cinema, so when sub plots get too hammy I just F.FWD past them. Happily, there’s very little of that happening on this show, which has excellent casting, spectacular New Mexican locations, lots of Fritz Lang-like surprises and exactly the kind of ending that I’d write for the show myself. The wiki link is full of spoilers, so I didn’t post it. But if you’re in North America, a nearby public library should have the DVD sets. And the BD edition is out now. Enjoy!
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Greg, I really appreciate hearing that I managed to get you more interested in westerns – that kind of thing makes the process enormously rewarding for me. Thanks for that.
What Mann westerns do I recommend? Well all of them I guess, but of the non-Stewart films I would encourage you to seek out Devil’s Doorway, a remarkable film in many respects. I’d a, lso urge you to try Man of the West, a very powerful piece of work.
All of his movies with James Stewart are excellent in my opinion, but The Naked Spur and The Man from Laramie are right up at the top of the heap alongside the best the genre itself had to offer. The others might come in a notch below those, but we really are talking mere degrees of excellence here.
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Congrats on 16 years, Colin – what a fine body of work you have created. Your reviews are the best in the business and never depart from a high standard. I haven’t seen THE LAST FRONTIER but I would like to after reading your review. One of the many strengths of Mann’s Westerns is his use of landscape and this sounds like it is no exception. I return to the Jimmie Stewart movies with Mann time and again – along with the Boetticher- Scott films, they are my favourite go tos.
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Nice of you to say, Steve – thanks.
Yes, do look out for this film. It gets a bit overlooked among Mann’s other westerns but I think it’s a worthwhile picture.
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People love the idea of freedom as long as it’s safely confined within mythology, but in practice we humans (the vast majority of us anyway) always choose the safety of conformity rather than freedom. We love saying that we believe in freedom and individuality but very very few people actually want to be free and very few people want to be individuals. The great Hollywood western cycle of the 1950s was a way of dealing with that contradiction.
The 50s was after all the decade that saw us embrace consumerism and mass media and saw us elevate democracy into a religious belief, all of which involve surrendering our individuality and our freedom.
The 50s was also the decade that saw the emergence of the counter-culture and the Beats, a kind of last-ditch resistance to the conformity of mass society. Two years after this movie was made Kerouac’s On the Road would be published. Also a kind of mythologising about freedom.
The 50s was such a fascinating and misunderstood era.
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I think most people are well aware that the concept of freedom and civilization cannot exist in tandem, that a trade off is necessary and that the wider benefits of the latter are always going to gain precedence over the former. The shift towards civilization is a dominant theme in classic westerns, and that shift alongside the growing awareness and acceptance in the hearts and minds of the protagonists of its ultimate desirability is always there. It’s no coincidence that the western’s finest period was the 1950s, a generation had come through the Depression and then the horror of WWII and the mayhem and destruction bred by unbridled demagoguery and the collapse of civilization was not just a myth but a chilling reality still very fresh in the memory. I sometimes wonder if we’re not due a revival of the genre these days.
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It is interesting that westerns during the 1950s Golden Age of the Western seemed to be such a radical rejection of the concept of Rugged Individualism.
I wonder if that’s one of the reasons westerns went out of fashion in the 60s. The message that civilisation means giving up freedom was no longer palatable. Freedom became fashionable again and remained fashionable until the 90s.
Today freedom is not merely unfashionable, it’s seen as evil and immoral. So yeah, 50s-style westerns could make a major comeback.
I don’t watch modern superhero movies but from what I’ve heard they’re not exactly pro-freedom. Maybe they’re a modern equivalent of golden age westerns?
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Has any film genre ever done anything other than look critically at or deconstruct the myth of “rugged individualism” though? At the end of the day, it’s a concept that, in its purest sense anyway, is essentially incompatible with human nature. If we accept film as a form of artistic expression, and art itself as a reflection of and comment on the human condition, then it’s unreasonable to expect it to embrace something which contradicts natural instinct. True individualism can only exist outside of or detached from society, but the fact remains that people are by nature social creatures and will gravitate towards other people. It would be hard if not impossible to sustain any form of mass art/entertainment that tried to deny that premise. So I don’t see the western’s decline in popularity was related to that. It was more a matter of overexposure and the consequent tiredness that inevitably creeps into any genre that has been around a long time.
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It’s all a matter of balance. Too much freedom and too little freedom are equally bad. It’s a bit depressing that Hollywood has so often come down on the side of as little freedom as possible.
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How do you feel about the revisionist westerns of the late 60s and the 70s in this context?
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Those films, in general, took an approach which explicitly rejected any sense of glamour or romanticism regarding the old west. Even there they don’t give me the impression that they were championing unrestrained individualism as those characters who were seen to follow that path were for the most part depicted as people left behind, excluded, or suffering in some way for their separation from civilization. We’re any determined individualists seen to be successful?
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I’ve never been a fan of the late 60/70s revisionist westerns. If you want a deconstruction of the myth of the Wild West then Ford’s The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance does it more thoroughly than any of the revisionist westerns. A movie that tells us that the legends of the Old West were probably based entirely on lies. That’s heavy-duty deconstructionism.
Civilisation is a fine thing but when it gets to the point where any manifestation of individualism gets crushed (which is where we’re at today) I start to lose enthusiasm for civilisation.
It’s interesting that Hollywood movies of the 30s and 40s often displayed a bit more sympathy for outsiders.
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Persoanl point of view, the western turn into a self-conscious progressive political event, sort of a social worker circus in the fifties, probably influenced by television programming. The Westerns I like and admire were still being made by John Ford, but after Liberty Valance, he was done. John Wayne persevered but only Big Jake and True Grit, imperfect as they are, captured the spiritual element. If this means The Big Country and Rio Bravo are off my table, so be it.
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I think to a large extent Hollywood in general turned into a self-conscious progressive political social worker circus in the fifties.
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I wouldn’t describe the decade in those terms myself. It’s easily my favorite period of filmmaking, for the heyday of the classic western, the intelligent and thought-provoking Sci-Fi, the compelling melodramas and much more besides. This began with the late-40s reassessment and readjustment stemming from the trauma of the war and was carried forward into the next decade. There was a degree of spite and malice due to the whole HUAC shambles, but even that forced filmmakers to focus on the values that actually mattered, to try to rise above that and ask questions about where society was at as well as looking at lessons that had been learnt the hard way. A fascinating period all told.
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One of the interesting things about movies in the 50s is the way the audience was starting to fragment. Drive-ins created a totally separate youth audience, with movies that only teenagers watched. And art-house cinemas started to appear, creating another totally separate audience.
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As you know, those are my sentiments, exactly.
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You have to tread your way carefully with westerns made after the mid-60s – realistically those made after The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance and Ride the High Country. There are some good ones of course but the peak had passed and the decline was sharp.
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I agree. 1962 marked a surprisingly clear-cut break. It really was the end of an era. I don’t think any of the great western directors of the 50s made a significant western after 1962.
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It’s worth mentioning that another film cycle running in tandem with the golden age westerns in the 50s was the juvenile delinquent film. The message was invariably that these crazy kids need to forget all about freedom and learn the joys of rigid social conformity.
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I despised those pictures in both execution and concept, as for the Westerns, they held me as a soap would, not at all. The timing was terrible, the competition on television with most of the crummy western shows was a turn-off. occasionally, something good, such as Stoney Burke went on, but sadly not for long.
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There were the low-budget exploitation juvenile delinquent movies and the major studio ones. Both were bad but the major studio ones were worse. Has there ever been a worse movie than Rebel Without a Cause?
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Bingo.
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I know from things you’ve said before that you are not a fan of Nicholas Ray’s work. Even bearing that in mind, I am mystified by that comment. I think it is a significant film, even if one doesn’t like or respond positively to the star or the director in general, the use of color, the framing, the sense of displacement of those coming of age in that post-war world are all fascinating for me. I just can’t relate to dismissing it in the terms you’ve used here, especially given the fact those terms imply some dreadfully derivative and exploitative fare that has been justifiably forgotten is actually better.
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For me a big problem with the 1950s major-studio productions dealing with the problems of youth is that they come across as being very much made by middle-aged guys who are simply bewildered by these crazy kids today.
You also have to bear in mind that I’m allergic to 1950s Social Problem Movies which always give the impression of having been made by people whose biggest social problem is whether they’ll have to tighten their belts and let some of the servants go.
So to me these movies always feel phoney.
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I have a certain fondness for exploitation movies because they were often prepared to go places that the major studios were afraid to go.
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Colin, it is a significant film, I just wish it would not be.
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Personally, I have no particular issues with the movie. I very much like Ray’s work, but I wouldn’t say it was one of my favorites among his titles. I would have been a teenager myself when I first saw the movie and I know I enjoyed it quite a bit, more than when I last saw it anyway. However, it’s been a while since that viewing and I should look at it again to see how I react now, especially as I have it on Blu-ray as part of a James Dean box.
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The 50s was a fascinating decade. A mixture of confidence and anxiety, of optimism and paranoia, of conformity and rebellion. A decade of moral panics. Society was getting more free in some ways and less free in other ways. It was the decade of Social Engineering.
Movies reflected these things in interesting ways. Hollywood was moving tentatively towards making more grown-up movies (which was a good thing) and was making lots of Social Problem Movies (which was a very bad thing). The Social Problem Movies were a reflection of the anxiety and moral panics and a symptom of the enthusiasm for Social Engineering.
Hollywood was also developing a taste for self-righteousness.
The end result was a mixture of very good movies and very bad movies.
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Victor Mature certainly has been much maligned. Some people seem to have a knee-jerk reaction to him. He made a lot of costume pictures so he can’t be a great actor. When you actually start watching his movies it’s obvious that he was a very fine actor indeed.
Maybe he’s just a star of the kind that is now unfashionable. People prefer actors who take themselves very seriously and see themselves as tortured artists and political oracles. Mature just collected his pay cheque and gave the best performances he was capable of giving. As far as I’m concerned that included some wonderful performances.
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I am with you completely on this.
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Mature was generally fine and sometime better. His own comments on his occupation, similar to the kind of public self-deprecation which Robert Mitchum liked to indulge in on occasion, surely had some effect on the way he was perceived.
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Colin
Wow, a Victor Mature film I have never seen. Considering that Mann is the director, that is a rare combo to have missed all these years. So needless to say that onto the top of the list it goes. Many thanks for the heads up on this one. I love this site!
Congrats as well on the 16 years. Well done!!!!!!!!
Gordon
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That’s great to know. It’s always a pleasure to bring something to your attention that has eluded you.
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Colin, congratulations on sixteen years of blogging, which is quite an achievement. I think you are an excellent writer and should continue with your RIDING THE HIGH COUNTRY blog. I realize that life can and does get in the way. The last three or four years have been very trying for most people. I would miss your well thought out write-ups. Whatever you decide I sincerely wish you all the best in the future.
I think you’ve given us an excellent thematic write-up of THE LAST FRONTIER(1955). I think this might be the least shown of Anthony Mann’s Western Movies. I don’t recall it being aired in my neck of the woods when I was a youngster. I finally caught up with it during the cable TV explosion of the 1980’s. I viewed it on the SuperStation WTBS Channel 17, Atlanta, Georgia in 1985. This movie was airing under the title SAVAGE WILDERNESS. If my memory serves me right, I enjoyed and liked the movie just fine, although I didn’t think it was as good as most of his other Westerns. I think that I would like to revisit the movie, because of your write-up.
Regarding Victor Mature, I’ve always been a fan and I think he is a really good actor, regardless of what the so-called critics of the time said.
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Thanks, we’ll see how things go.
The movie may not be quite as good as some of the other Mann titles, but that’s no shame as he set the bar pretty high. I do hope you get the chance to check it out again.
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Belated 16th Colin 👍 Keep up the good work chum. I have not seen this one. Will remedy this and get back to you.
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Thanks buddy. I get the impression a lot of people haven’t seen this film. Is it perhaps Mann’s least viewed western?
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I would argue that maybe Tall Target is more often unjustly neglected. But maybe it just turns up less often on TV?
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True, The Tall Target isn’t often talked about. I wouldn’t class it as a western though.
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I thought you might not 😆
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The time period kind of fits of course, but it’s really more of a noirish thriller.
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It feels like a truly transitional works as he shifts from one genre to the next, agreed.
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Yes, that’s a fair way to look at it.
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I guess I’ll have to add The Tall Target to my over-growing shopping list. Especially if there’s a controversy over whether it’s a western or not.
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It’s a great little movie whether you consider it a Western or a period thriller.
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Yes indeed. I’m not too concerned what labels we assign. Outside of marketing, these are as much for our own personal convenience as anything. It is a fine movie and worth viewing.
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The fact that it hasn’t had a US/UK Blu-Ray release suggests that an Anthony Mann western without James Stewart is still seen as not being a commercial proposition.
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There is that. However, I think here is also the matter of how the western, and even how a major director such as Mann, is perceived by critics and consequently by audiences in the UK and the US. This movie had been released on Blu-ray in both Germany and France, and I think there is some significance in that. The western and those closely associated with it is afforded much more respect in those countries and arguably across other parts of continental Europe, where it is seen as both entertainment but is also recognized for its cultural and artistic merits.
This is not the case in the UK, and I suspect the US takes a similar approach. The UK though takes a fairly narrow, conservative view of cinema. Outside of the major box-office attractions of the moment, it gets short shrift and is shunted off into three broad categories. First, there is the material regarded as art, and it all too often seems to have a self-imposed requirement for slow, grim and impenetrable filmmaking. Then there is there is the cult area, taking in superior horror and Sci-Fi but also vacuuming up a lot of trashy guerilla moviemaking efforts. Most of the rest is consigned to the miscellaneous “old stuff” dump bin that might not be denigrated but isn’t particularly celebrated or elevated either. The audience in the UK is not a large one and the result of this broadly defined approach is that distributors are hemmed in as to what is going to be commercially viable. The US may fare a bit better, not because the attitude to cinema overall is more generous or discerning, but due to the fact the market is so much larger.
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Another problem today, among younger movie fans, critics and (especially) younger online reviewers, is a denigrating dismissive attitude towards old movies, coupled with the assumption that old movies are “dated, offensive and problematic”. You also get the inevitable comments that “this movie is OK but it really needs a modern remake”.
I suspect that westerns are seen by such people as being even more likely to be “dated, offensive and problematic”. Which perhaps makes them seem to be risky commercial propositions for re-release.
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Congrats on your 16th year of Riding The High Country! Just as interesting and informative as ever. Saw this because of Mann and Victor. Remembered this did very badly on release here.
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Thanks. That’s interesting. I wonder if the casting (not having James Stewart in the lead) was responsible for the box office? Or was it something else?
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James Stewart could be more bankable. Somehow I was never fond of revionsionist. Shoot them up westerns n hero won in shoot outs like High Noon Shane n spaggetti attract wider audience.
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Not a western and it takes place entirely in the east.
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My comment is in reference to The Tall Target.
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Colin-Late to the show but congrats on your 16th-despite what you say long may you continue even if on a less regular basis occasional Colin is better than no Colin at all.
PLEASE RECONSIDER.
Always enjoy Mature especially in Noir-the actor hard to best in CRY OF THE CITY and KISS OF DEATH.
I too have the Explosive Blu of THE LAST FRONTIER the best version available thus far but a 4K restoration from the master neg would be enticing. The film is certainly not prime Mann and I agree the director’s top Westerns were THE NAKED SPUR and THE MAN FROM LARAMIE. I never “got” the improbable relationship between Mature’s swarthy mountain man and prissy officer’s wife Anne Bancroft-I’ve heard up market ladies like a “bit of rough” but this pairing beggars belief.
As you know my un favourite Mann Western is the wildly overrated MAN OF THE WEST with the star far too old for the part and Lee J Cobb overacting like never before. Film also sees Mann veering away from violence to sadism almost in a way that pre figures the Spaghetti’s. MAN OF THE WEST flopped just when Walter Mirisch needed a hit, having moved his operations from Allied Artists to United Artists. Never mind for Mirisch mega hits were just around the corner. I’ve recently been enjoying some of Mann’s early B Movies especially STRANGERS IN THE NIGHT and STRANGE IMPERSONATION. I’ve also caught up with,finally a couple of Mann’s I should have seen far earlier BORDER INCIDENT and SIDE STREET both excellent.
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John, I haven’t decided to wind things up just yet, although the new year may see me easing back – I’ll see how things go in general and take it from there.
I know you’re not a fan of Man of the West. I have to say i am, but I’ll leave it at that for now as I might even decide to put down some thoughts on it at some stage. I’d been away from Mann for some time but found myself watching more of his stuff over the last 12 months, and very much enjoying it too.
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Man of the West was a minor hit here in the Far East. It was release on the demise of Gary Cooper. I found the shoot out at the climax to be impressive.
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Congratulations on your blogging anniversary, Colin, and thank you for your consistently interesting and informative writing here.
Really enjoyed your new review of THE LAST FRONTIER, and I agree, Victor Mature is really excellent in a somewhat unusual role.
Best wishes,
Laura
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Thank you, Laura. I enjoyed revisiting it and putting a few thoughts on it out there.
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That’s another one added to my to watch list. Happy 16th Anniversary, Colin. Here’s to the next 16 years!
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Thank you very much. 16 years time? That’s an awful long time and, increasingly, I feel like Rick Blaine when Yvonne asked if she’d see him later that night: I never make plans that far ahead. 😀
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Brian Hannan has just reviewed The Heroes Of Telemark directed by Anthony Mann. This was very underrated and almost forgotten among movie buffs. It could stand out among the best of similar genre.
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Indeed he did. His piece on the movie is here.
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