The Last Frontier

• Directed by Anthony Mann
• December 7, 1955 (NYC)
• Based on the 1947 novel The Gilded Rooster by Richard Emery Roberts

A trapper and his two partners work as scouts for a remote army fort where they find an incompetent colonel sending his unseasoned small garrison against a sizable Sioux force.

Victor Mature as Jed Cooper is supposed to be the good guy/tough guy but he him comes off as a bit of a creep. There is just something about the character that is, well, icky. I am guessing whatever public image Mature had (or they thought he had) they were trying to play upon and that was a mistake. His portrayal swings from boyishly enthusiastic to toughly antiauthoritarian to drunk and dangerously horny.

For example when he goes to Corinna Marston’s (Anne Bancroft) residence there’s a feeling like he’s after something more than the whiskey he is talking about and maybe even will do whatever he wants to get it. He is also just downright cold when he tells the woman her husband is probably dead. A douchebag AND potential rapist!

Mature was no great actor usually. He had his moments but needed the right part. This was not it. He is meant to be by the climax a frontier hero but comes off more like Sylvester Stallone in one of his early forays into less serious material. You are just waiting for a joke to arrive and one never does. What a missed opportunity for Stallone and Mature to never play a father/son duo in a film. Getting offtrack…

Cooper is somehow inspired by Corinna to join the army. I guess. It starts off more as a joke but soon he appears motivated by the first (and only) woman he meets in the movie to actually join so he can get into the sack with her respectfully. Cooper is also the only one dealing openly with Marston’s incompetence. Riordan is quietly moving behind the scenes which really does not do much to help.

Aside from Victor Mature, we also have James ‘Miracle-Gro’ Whitmore as Jed’s friend Gus. Kinda weird that a guy with such a storied career is known as a product pitchman or for his one part in The Shawshank Redemption. Then there is Guy Madison as Captain Glenn Riordan and Robert ‘The Music Man/The Last Starfighter’ Preston as the incompetent Colonel Frank Marston who kinda bagged Corinna but kinda didn’t. Some good talent there.

Maybe it’s that I am used to Robert Preston, being a much nicer character or perhaps even a touch of a con artist, but he is very effective as the incompetent Union officer. I do not think the character of Marston is evil but his ego blinds him to his lack of skill that puts all in danger. It makes for an interesting villain portrayed by someone I do not associate with such. His precise relationship with Corinna is murky but she is certainly trapped.

While the antagonism is developed between Marston and Cooper, the bond between Cooper, Gus, and their Native American friend Mungo (Pat Hogan) just kinda is and it is as needed for the movie’s plot. Riordan and Cooper distrust each other yet by the end are pals (I think) because Cooper opposed on principle Marston.

The story takes place in hostile Indian territory. The problems are because the bluecoats, i.e. Union forces, have started to set up shop in the area and the local tribes have no desire for them to be there. In this film attempts to lament the change but doesn’t to do too good of a job coming down on one side or another. It is more “So sad. Anyway…”

While the Native Americans are tacitly portrayed as victims standing up to the US military, by the end they’re clearly the enemy with whatever pathos or messages that could’ve been portrayed completely jettisoned. Nothing needed to make it about anything but it looked like Anthony Mann was going for something kind of deep while trying to tell a good story but then decided against it.

Endings define a film. This defines the film as being about Cooper getting a blue jacket and not about getting Corinna or stopping Marston. The problem is that Cooper goes from this tough individualist that hangs out with two dudes on the frontier and in his final moment of the story he’s practically a spunky teenage kid happy to finally meet his goal. Way too happy!

A lot of this 100 something minute movie occurs at night. Either pay for some appropriately lighting for shooting at night or rewrite your scenes. Then there is the costuming which is rather generic when it comes to those not in military garb. Almost like they raided the costume department of Davey Crockett or Daniel Boone.

What saves The Last Frontier is a touch of action and the presence of Robert Preston. It just suffers from poor characterization and what feels like narrative jumps. Not a bad choice but far from Anthony Mann’s best.