Of Mann Westerns, A Most Obscure ...

Scope-Wide Explore of The Last Frontier (1956)

The fifties Anthony Mann western no one bothers much about, firstly as there aren't stars major enough, secondly because it's admittedly punk beside dynamos with Jim Stewart. For my coming to The Last Frontier late, and watching mainly for HD and scope on the Sony Movie Channel, what emerged was diamonds in the rough; at no point could I outguess a quirky and nice-paced script. Victor Mature is a trapper unschooled in civilized ways, James Whitmore his fur-gather sidekick. They're both excellent, as is Robert Preston as a martinet colonel. Old saw of redskins ringing the fort is helped by Mexican locations and offbeat situations not common even to higher profile Mann westerns where stronger producers and big gorilla stars left palm prints on finished product. The Last Frontier works well because it had less to lose than these, domestic rentals of $1.1 million reflecting comparative modesty of the enterprise. This one comes a closest to unpredictable spirit of "B" pics Mann directed before he was lured into bigger studios.