To the Last Man (1933)

The film itself is an unusual Randolph Scott western which deals with a feud born in the hills of Kentucky that follows a family trying to settle in Nevada. Much of the story and dialog is typical of the standard westerns of the day, but there were a few aspects of the film which made it quite interesting, namely:Esther Ralston playing the love interest. I can't recall seeing Esther in a film before, but here she is wonderful as a backwoods girl who doesn't take guff from any man. It's rather amazing to see such a strong female character who can ride a horse without a saddle and is willing to literally fight the bad guys right along with the men.The violence from the bad guys is more realistically portrayed and was somewhat shocking to see for a film of this era. Sometimes you can become numb to standard Western action, but in this film the more realistic portrayal of the violence brings home the consequences of their actions.Overall I enjoyed the film very much. There was also some very nice outdoor scenery shots. This is supposed to be Nevada but I'm not sure where it was actually filmed. The restored print that Turner Classic Films showed looked very good.

This movie is in the Shirley Temple collection. She is only in a for a few minutes and uncredited. The film was under the title, Law of Vengeance, instead of the Last Man. It must have been her film debut. The film is dark in subject matter as there is plenty of violence. The cast is excellent with Randolph Scott and Esther Ralston and others. The film shows the dangers of gun violence and vengeance between warring families in the Wild West. In 1933, the film industry was just getting started. I feel though this film was misplaced in the collection. The ending appeared abrupt and left in doubt about the ending too!

After spending fifteen years in prison for killing the patriarch of a rival clan, Noah Beery heads west to continue the family feud that turned him into a murderer. While he attempts to goad his rivals into another round of killing, Beery's daughter falls for Randolph Scott, who as a boy watched him murder his grandfather.Another decent entry in Paramount's Zane Grey series, this features early performances from Scott and Buster Crabbe, as well as an early directing job for the great Henry Hathaway.It's also fairly interesting in it's use of the old silent film trick of introducing each cast member as they appear, via a subtitle and a little bit of precode skinny dipping.Speaking of precode, this appears to be pre-common-sense as well, when in one scene a young Shirley Temple is sitting outside and a hidden bad guy shoots her doll in the head, which is only a few feet away. This might not seem very alarming today, but this was before the invention of modern special effects, when film studios employed actual sharpshooters for these types of scenes, a practice that was abandoned when James Cagney refused to do another film that involved him being shot at.In other words, A LIVE ROUND WAS FIRED PAST SHIRLEY'S HEAD!!

The Haydens and Colbys are two mountain families who've had such a long term feud, everyone's forgotten what it started over. Never mind when Pop Colby (Noah Beery, Sr.) shoots Grandpa down in cold blood, Dad Hayden takes an unorthodox and cowardly approach in some eyes, he calls in the law. The Haydens move west and Colby when he gets out of the joint takes the family and moves to where the Haydens are to take up where they left off. Along the way he has an ally, Jack LaRue, who has an agenda all his own.Of course in Romeo&Juliet fashion, the Hayden son (Randolph Scott) and the Colby daughter(Esther Ralston} meet and flip for each other. If anything that throws gasoline on the feud fire.This is one of the weakest of Randolph Scott's earlier westerns. I'm not sure if I'm seeing the complete film as a budget video company put out a re-release that looks like it was choppily edited. There are a lot of plot gaps and things that don't make sense.This is also one of the earliest films of Shirley Temple who's big scene is when one of the Colbys shoots the head off of her doll. It wasn't for sadistic purposes but to get the Haydens to chase them. Still it's an earlier weepy for Shirley. She later did two more films withRandolph Scott, Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm and Susannah of the Mounties and with her name above his at that point.Also at the very end, the fadeout is Esther and Randy in what looks like a photograph of later domestic bliss. And the soundtrack was blaring the Bing Crosby hit Please. Kind of out of place, but since Paramount had the rights to it, they figured they had to use it.