This is another fine John Sturges film (to add to Gunfight At the O.K. Corral just to name one) about a marshal that goes into a town controlled by a cattle baron to apprehend two men who raped and killed his wife. And just to makes things interesting, one of the two men is the son of the powerful cattle baron. Kirk Douglas gives a strong performance as the widower marshal that will risk making his own son an orphan in order to bring the murdering rapists of his wife to justice.
Some traditional themes play out in this western film such as the arrival of a train at an appointed time. This familiar theme occurs in High Noon (1952) where the bad guy is coming on the noon train, as well as in 3:10 to Yuma (1957) when they have to get the bad guy on the train in Contention City before it leaves. In Last Train From Gun Hill marshal Matt Morgan must get the rapist to the train that leaves at 9:00pm. The difficulty lies in the some 20 odd armed men that work for the rapist’s father.
Everyone in the town of Gun Hill is scared of rich cattle baron Craig Belden, played convincingly by Anthony Quinn. He runs the town and owns the sheriff. No one will go against his wishes. Craig is an old friend of Matt Morgan, but Craig chooses to protect his son Rick when he realizes that Matt is there to arrest Rick. Craig had to raise his boy Rick without a mother since she passed away, and now thanks to Rick’s murdering, Matt will have to raise his son Petey without a mother. The closing line in Craig’s death scene re-emphasizes the suffering an ill-raised child can bring on a parent, “Matt, raise your son right.”
Matt Morgan faces seemingly insurmountable odds to bring the men to justice. He is holed up in a hotel with the prisoner Rick Belden, as Craig’s men open fire. No other townspeople will help, not even the sheriff. Sheriff Bartlett gives a good speech about taking ‘the long view’ as he calls it. ‘The long view’ is summed up as going along to get along even if that means compromising your morals. The sheriff tells Matt that the weeds on his grave will grow just as good as on Matt’s grave, and no one will know that he was a coward years from now. Matt tends to think a man must do the right thing regardless if it will be forgotten years after his death. Morgan also takes a stance against vigilante justice. He operates within the law and fights his desire to kill Rick Belden, waiting for him to be prosecuted and hanged.
Craig’s girlfriend Linda, played by Carolyn Jones, is just out of the hospital where she was recuperating from the beating Craig gave her 10 days earlier. I found this to be a poor choice for the movie to take as it makes Craig definitely look like a despicable character. I think it would have been better for Craig to be viewed as a decent man that was opposing the law only because he was trying to save his son. But for what it’s worth, Carolyn Jones did a fine job. She recognized that Craig was just a man, and condemned everyone for fearing him like he was a god. This attitude of the townspeople disgusted her, and she was drawn to help Matt Morgan, in spite of the fact that she still had feelings for Craig. Morgan’s desire to uphold the law even when it was inconvenient to do so was like a shining beacon in that town, and I think it serves as a good example for how people should live today.
Last Train From Gun Hill is a fine western film. It has a lot of themes running through it, from a man upholding the law against all odds to a father that is disappointed in how his son has turned out but will do anything to protect him. Kirk Douglass does an excellent job as the tough hero that will not back down in the face of evil. It’s inspiring. See this film.