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Remember this Alamo
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The Last Command, no relation to Josef von Sternberg’s 1928 Russian Revolution silent movie, was Republic’s mid-1950s take on the Alamo. On one level it’s just another lesser-studio lowish-budget Western with Sterling Hayden in the lead but on another it’s rather more than that, and a milestone on the road that told the Alamo tale.
If roads can tell tales. I guess they can.
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By no means the worst version
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And as soon as we see the titles we guess that we might be in for something better than a run-of-the-mill B-movie. The cast for one thing: Arthur Hunnicutt as Davy Crockett, J Carrol Naish as Santa Ana, Ernest Borgnine, John Russell, Slim Pickens and Jim Davis among the defenders, and Russell Simpson as a parson (obviously).
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Then we have music by Max Steiner. It was shot in Republic’s Trucolor. Direction is by Frank Lloyd, only semi-stellar perhaps but more than competent; he had started directing those silent Zane Grey Westerns with William Farnum for Fox, including the 1918 Riders of the Purple Sage, and in 1937 he made Wells Fargo with Joel McCrea for Paramount. The Last Command was his last command too, his last Western and indeed last movie. Cast, production and direction (though not really the script) all add up to something a cut above the ordinary.
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Sterling Hayden as Bowie
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Arthur Hunnicutt as Crockett
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Richard Carlson as Travis
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Of course Hollywood liked the Alamo. One thinks in particular of the big 1960 version (see our review) but film tellings went right back to DW Griffith and Christy Cabanne’s silent movie of 1915, Martyrs of the Alamo (also reviewed). Glenn Ford had also been The Man from the Alamo in 1953. It’s still happening: there was an Alamo in 2004. So one way or another there have been quite a few celluloid Jim Bowies, Davy Crocketts and William B Travises. This one can hold its head up alright. .
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Back in the late 1940s Wayne made some serious efforts to sell his The Alamo to Republic but studio boss Herb Yates, whom Wayne called a son of a bitch who knew nothing about making films, shied away from such a costly project and kept stalling. Finally Wayne and Yates got into a shouting match. Wayne left Republic and said he would never make another picture with the studio, though he had been there since the studio was born. Then Yates did something frankly reprehensible: he took the idea, commissioned a new screenplay and produced a knockoff which plugged into the Crockett-mania then raging because of Disney’s Fess Parker shows. Actually, I don’t mind The Last Command but you can imagine what Wayne thought of it. He never spoke to Yates again...
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Brave defenders
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A voiceover intro gives the picture a faux-historical feel (not that actual history ever really troubled Hollywood Alamos much). Sterling Hayden as Jim Bowie arrives early and dominates the picture. He is the undoubted hero of the Alamo and Travis, Crockett & Co. slightly fade into the background when he is around. Quite a bit of the backstory is filled in, with Governor Juan Bradburn (Morris Ankrum) getting Travis released. Jim is at first cautious about independence but he gives it to Santa Ana straight and Santa Ana replies, “I do not wish to be a dictator.” Sam Houston (Hugh Sanders) and Stephen F Austin (Otto Kruger) make appearances – Jim duly gets Austin released from prison, where incarceration has turned him into a fighter for independence.
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He says he does not wish to be a dictator, but…
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Well, you know how it all pans out. No need to retell the story here. Suffice to say there are loads of noble heroics as the brave defenders battle it out in the old mission. The Warren Duff screenplay from a Sy Bartlett story does rather ride roughshod over such details as historical fact, but since when did we watch Western movies for a history lesson? The final battle scene is well done. Most Alamo stories suffer dramatically from too long a lead-up to an outcome we already know, but then I guess you could say that of Hamlet…
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Ernest is a Texas landowner…
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…and Russell is a parson, naturally
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Hayden does a good job (as always) as the down-to-earth Bowie. Ernie Borgnine is also enjoyable as Mike Radin, a stocky landowner who gets into a knife fight with Jim (a dangerous undertaking, one would have thought) but then they fight side by side. There’s a sole survivor to tell the story for posterity, the youth Jeb (Ben Cooper), who is sent from the Alamo rather like Glenn Ford in ’53.Ironic, really, that this much smaller production turned out to be a better film than John Wayne’s bloated The Alamo five years later.
Give it a go!
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To the death
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13 Responses
It is a little surprising to see Crockett with a beard. It would probably be more surprising to see Arthur Hunnicutt clean shaven.
Richard
It's true that Crockett is shown without a beard in his portraits, though dime novel covers gave him a mustache. And Fess Parker didn't have facial hair, so it must be true. Still, I suppose Davy could have been bearded at the Alamo. Hunnicutt had the coonskin cap, though, that's the main thing.
Jeff
For some reason the version I watched didn’t have the knife fight between
Hayden and Borgnine. I had to find it elsewhere.
I have a real soft spot for ‘The Last Command’ since seeing it as a youngster. It’s a bit like Fuller in ‘The Big Red One’ putting on D Day with a cast of 10s – actually it might be single figures – but it has something (for me) that at least makes me smile thinking about it. What’s the word – charm?
The Blu has an excellent commentary by Frank Thompson THE expert on Alamo movies.
Nominated for The Worst Performance By An Actress In An Otherwise Good Movie.
Dang, Paul, I always respect your opinion, and I’ll concede that she’s not the best actress, but Anna Maria Alberghetti is just too winsome for me to second your nomination. Still, vive la différence!
Hello Bud. It’s that sad look she puts on in the wagon when the women are being evacuated. It’s laid on with a trowel – too much for me. Do you have a nomination for this award? Get up to 5 and we could vote for the winner.
She’s no Bette Davis, for sure, unless you compare her to Joanne Dru in Red River. Man, that was some bad acting. Pretty much sabotaged the film.
If that’s number 3 then nominated for number 4 Karen Steele (was it her) in Ride Lonesome. The weakest cast and most anachronistic looking female lead in the Scott/Boeticher pictures.
Second nomination for The Worst Performance By An Actress In An Otherwise Good Movie:
Joan Collins in The Bravados.
Overall, I thought this was a pretty good film. As is the case in quite a few Westerns, the luvvy-duvvy stuff is laid on a bit thick, and the lyrics of the title track are pretty heavy on corn and cheese, but on the whole it’s a dam’ solid effort. Sterling Hayden makes for a very believable Jim Bowie, it’s always good to see Slim and Jim, and Arthur Hunnicutt is his usual entertaining self. The battle scenes were not exactly gruesome, but they were graphic, and that was the most you could get away with in 1955. (Perhaps that was all for the better, by the by.)
Interesting, also that Santa Anna was actually portrayed somewhat favorably. It’s rare in filmmaking that the antagonists get a fair shake. Much easier to simply portray the opposition as monsters.
Hardly more faithful to history than John Wayne’s film (I like it very much though…), Last Command is however far less manichean. The first part takes the time to explain each side point of view : both sides are shown with their own humanity, having the right to speak, their goals more or less noble, with some sincere arguments, clearly outlining the ins and outs of the conflict, the political stakes and motivations without forgetting their pettiness and meanness.
Mexicans are far less ridiculed than as usual and even taken seriously.
The fact that Bowie is a mexican citizen, married to a mexican aristocrat (both historic facts and converted to Catholicism by law in the real life too) and friend of Santa Anna (pure fantasy but interesting story-wise and J. Carrol Naish gives him – for once – a true stature of statesman) makes the plot more ambiguous with a buffeted if not torn apart Bowie (as Sterling Hayden, again physically so impressive, was so often in his roles – and maybe in his life -) who has to choose between 2 countries.
In the meantime, Texians initially do not trust him at all because of his mexican connections.
The second part is focused on the siege and the final battle. Very nicely done with a certain magnitude but without with the same epic dimension of Duke’s Alamo.
Nevertheless both films have so much in common that Last Command can almost be considered as plagiarism before the time. Easy to understand Wayne’s anger.
Among many familiar actors, the film reunites Hayden, Borgnine (Rolling his eyes as usual), Cooper a few months after Johnny Guitar.
Not entirely convinced by Hunnicutt portrait of Crockett, existing only thanks to his glibness, but who else?!
Jeff has written a huge and very detailed contribution (10 chapters !) on Celluloïd Alamos (see the index) extending the text posted here in episode 6.