Last of the Wild Horses (1948) Reviews

• "You Rarely See A Good Facial Whipping In The Movies These Days"

  lemon_magic2012-07-06

  OK, I admit I saw the MST3K version of this movie instead of the "straight" theatrical release, but as a longtime MST3K vet I know how to disengage the wisecracks from the "front row" and judge the movie on its own merits, whatever they may be. (And even in the lineup of movies covered by MST3K, LOTWH is one of the more competent efforts.) In the movie's favor: Pretty good scenery, sets and costumes - the viewer really does get a sense of vast countryside, rugged men of action, and wild horses abounding. Although the robots make fun of Albert Glasser's score, it really is one of his best efforts and does its job nicely. No one in the cast really sucks - everyone seems to know what their part requires and the actors inhabit their characters quite comfortably. Also, a nice rousing fight scene during the opening credits gets things off to a reasonably exciting start. Against? Well, the plot doesn't make a whole lot of sense, and certain events require a whole lot of suspension of disbelief. You've never seen so many coincidental meetings and dropping/finding of critical plot MacGuffins - brandings irons, bandanna, letters, envelopes - in your life. The chief bad guy's machinations wouldn't get him elected to 9th grade class president in real life and they only work here because the plot requires it. And aside from a couple of chases and shootouts, the movie just mosies along for most of its length, which would be OK if it had a John Wayne or a Gary Cooper to carry it...but what it's got is a bunch of competent actors who were born to play spear carriers. I'm not a big fan of Westerns, although I've got "Rio Bravo", "Rough Night In Jericho", "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valace" and "Silverado" in my DVD collection. But there's at least 100 Western movies I can think of that I'd watch before I'd watch "Last Of The Wild Horses" again. And I seriously doubt anyone will ever see this movie for its own sake ever again...it's simply forgettable and run of the mill. But it's not "bad" the way a truly incompetent movie is "bad".

• I'm from Oregon and I still didn't like it.

  jimevarts2006-09-18

  This movie starts out weak and then gradually just sort of wanders off. It has potential, story-wise. A large rancher, Cooper, is pressured by his daughter and the other small ranchers to stop rounding up the wild horses in the area. His lead man has other plans and gets himself and the other Cooper employees deputized so they can frame the small ranchers and confiscate their horses. Cooper finds out about it and confronts his lead man, who kills him and frames Barnum, the "hero." Barnum is the weak link. He seems like the laziest, least intelligent, yet most charming guy in the area. He pushes people's buttons for fun and can't decide whether he's crooked or good. They all work hard and he just rides around seeming guilty of crimes or at least thinking about committing crimes. But chicks dig him. He mostly just appears here and there, acts cocky, irritates someone, and then rides off to rendezvous with a girl. And yet somehow you really just don't care what he does. You might doze off and wake to a scene that seems almost identical to the previous one. Whatever.

• Why didn't someone rustle this movie?

  Sterno-21999-10-20

  When my dad was young, Grandpa would take him to the drive-in to see westerns. They always parked in the front row so that, as Grandpa said, "So we could smell the horse manure." One does not need to get too close to smell the fumes coming from this movie. The hero's name is Duke (could they have been trying to cash in on John Wayne?) Anyway, Duke is a robber-cum-rancher the filmmaker couldn't decide if he was a good guy (white hat) or a bad guy (blank bandana). They also couldn't decide if he was going to have a romantic relationship or not. He had the attention of two lady cowboys (cowgirls? cowbabes? cowchicks? cowladies?), both of whom seek his attention. Maybe they want to have his children, maybe they want to share him as part of a harem...who knows? That angle (among many) is never fully developed. The big fuss seems to be about stealing all of the mares from the wild horses running free and minding their own business near the quaint town of Jacksonville. A couple of bad guys at the Double C ranch want all the horses for themselves, eventually setting the stage for Duke's sham trial for the murder of the head of the Double C. Watch this on MST3K, since they do a hilarious send up of the original Star Trek's "parallel universe" episode ("Mr. Crow -- your agonizer, please!!" "Oh, goody, someone left us an agony booth!") Otherwise, Sterno says brand this cow a loser.

• Last of the Mild Westerns

  Oosterhartbabe2005-11-23

  This might not have been a bad western if it could have figured out where it was going, what it was doing when it got there, and where they buried the plot under the prairie. The main character is a guy named Duke, who apparently decided that robbery wasn't paying(at least not the way he did it, anyway), and so took a job at a local ranch run by a really annoying old guy who fancies himself a learned medical man, his huge goofy sidekick who walks around in an apron a lot, and the old guy's clichéd tomboy granddaughter, who immediately takes a liking to the 'hero'. The main hinge on which the thin plot revolves is the fact that many of the local ranchers are rounding up wild horses to breed and tame, to the point where there might not be any wild ones left. The worst of the offenders is another old guy, this one in a wheelchair(probably because he let the other old guy treat him for something). His daughter also takes a shine to Duke, although I figure they were both bound to be disappointed, since Duke showed little interest in either and was probably gay. The wheelchair old guy makes a pact with the other ranchers not to round up any more wild horses for awhile, but the straight out of prison ranch foreman has other ideas. He intends to get himself deputized, along with his thugs, so he can kill and steal land with impunity. Since the only person who can stand against him is Duke, he stand a pretty good chance of succeeding. He even manages to frame Duke for murder, so that he has to flee town as a fugitive, hide out, and get shot by the wheelchair guy's daughter. As a hero, Duke is pretty ineffective. Actually, it's the medical old guy who figures out the scheme, using a conveniently dropped letter. There are several conveniently dropped bits of evidence, which is a cheap way to advance a plot. The bad guy shoots the old guy, but only manages to give him a scratch in spite of the fact that he was no more than fifty yards away and the old guy was going really, really slow because he was in the middle of a river. Okay, so he can't shoot. But he's pretty efficient about everything else, so we can forgive him that. Duke and the local sheriff(who finally grew a spine) arrest the evil foreman, and the movie peters out to its slow end. Nothing is really resolved, and the effeminate hero ignores both of the attractive and drooling women(probably in favor of the big, apron wearing sidekick). The horses were by far the best actors, which is fairly sad.

• Not bad, considering it's age

  bux2003-08-25

  When one reviews a picture, it's important to consider the time frame in which it was produced. In years gone by, we had more simple times, hence more simple plots and so forth. This picture is of interest mainly because it is the only one ever directed by B-movie mogul and theater owner Robert L. Lippert. A few years later, Lippert's company would release "Little Big Horn"(1951) and "Tall Texan"(1953), now considered B-movie classics. This one shows how it all began for Lippert. Sure the story is routine, however it is somewhat redeemed by the fight scene at the conclusion, which was very advanced for it's time. I guess today, if a movie doesn't have a budget of ten gazillion bucks, has so many explosions it gives you shell shock, and enough sex and nudity to turn your gut, it isn't any good, eh? Don't beam me up Scotty, just send me back to the '50s!!