Last Outlaw

Buddy Hale, "a happy go-lucky son of the range", finds himself with some downtime after escorting a shipment of cattle east. Always on the lookout for pretty girls, he saves Janet Lane from a runaway horse. He then accompanies her back to Steer City, where Janet's brother Ward has just been accused of shooting the sheriff. Buddy suspects that the sheriff and Justice Bert Wagner are rustling cattle in Steer City and Janet's brother is merely an unlucky patsy. Complicating matters, Wagner appoints Buddy the new sheriff and orders him to bring the man who supposedly shot his predecessor to justice. Caught between duty and love, Buddy must prove his suspicions about Justice Wagner and clear Ward's name - even if it costs him his sheriff's star.

Gary Cooper got his start as an extra in Western films in 1925, so it's no surprise that he ended up starring in many of the same kind of "shoot 'em up" cowboy pictures as Ken Maynard and Hoot Gibson before the silent era came to a close. Fortunately, movies like A Farewell to Arms (1932), Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936) and Meet John Doe (1941) established "Coop" as much more than just a good-looking cowboy once sound came around. Playing Cooper's leading lady in The Last Outlaw is Betty Jewel, a former Ziegfeld girl who was discovered by D.W. Griffith. The legendary director would call her his "Third Orphan of the Storm" (of course referencing his classic Orphans of the Storm (1921); the other two were Dorothy and Lillian Gish.) Jewel also appeared in The Silent Command (1923), Bela Lugosi's first American film. Director Arthur Rosson was a reliable workhorse who never really distinguished himself as a director while making "B" Westerns like Boots of Destiny (1937) and Trailin' Trouble (1937). His credits as a second-unit director are much more impressive however, including Gone With the Wind (1939) and The Ten Commandments (1956). He also directed a good deal of the Western classic Red River (1948), though Howard Hawks took all the credit, as was the director's wont at the time. (1927)

Upplagd i sortimentet: 27 december, 2024