THE LAST CHALLENGE (THE PISTOLERO OF RED RIVER)

US, 1967, 105 minutes, Colour.
Glenn Ford, Angie Dickenson, Chad Everett, Gary Merrill, Jack Elam.
Directed by Richard Thorpe.

The Last Challenge (The Pistolero of Red River), is a routine western but nevertheless enjoyable. Glenn Ford made numerous films in the fifties and sixties before moving into television work. This is the kind of western that he was making frequently at this time. He is well matched by Angie Dickenson as the leading lady. Direction is by Richard Thorpe who made many good genre films at M.G.M. over the forties and fifties including Ivanhoe and Quentin Durwood and many films with Robert Taylor. The film has the usual western themes.

1. How successful a Western? Interesting, entertaining, Western themes?

2. What conventions of the Western did it use and how well, the retired gunman upholding the law, the way of life in a Western town, the young gunman who wants to be the champion? The goodtime girl in the town? Violence, gambling, confrontation?

3. Panavision, colour, western locations, atmosphere, music?

4. How interesting was the plot, how human? Useful for the western purposes?

5. The focus on the character of Blaine and its being his last challenge? Glenn Ford's style? His work in the town challenging the gunfighter at the beginning, the gambler, his relationship with Lisa? The opinion of the town? Squint? His death? Ernest and his being kept alive by Blaine and being loyal to him? Confrontation with Maguire? Liking him? The inevitable confrontation? His reaction to Lisa's corrupting of Maguire? Of hiring Ernest to kill him? His decision to leave the town after Maguire's death? How interesting a portrait of a gunman of the west?

6. The character of Lisa and the goodtime girl, her love of Blaine, her bribing Ernest? The reaction of Maguire? Her losing Blaine?

7. The character of Maguire, his ambitions, his brashness, the initial encounter with Blaine and his boasting? What he did in the town, his reaction to Lisa, the killing of Ernest? The inevitability of his death?

8. The minor characters and the western gallery?

9. Themes of law and order, respectability, affection? Success and wanting to be at the top? Cruelty, anger? The age gap? Masculinity and proving oneself? How much insight into the American west, its ethos and heritage?