source: The Last Posse

Thought provoking and quaintly moralising western which will be unfamiliar to many. Related almost entirely in flashback with several characters contributing, the story concerns a weary posse returning to Roswell with mortally wounded sheriff Frazier. They have failed in their goal to recover stolen money; the robbers have escaped and the victim has been killed. The dead man, Sampson Drune, is a local rancher who took advantage of the Romer family when they fell on hard times. The Romers steal one hundred and five thousand dollars from Drune and go on the run. Drune along with his adopted son Jed Clayton organises a posse but, the Citizens Committee insist on going along since they feel that Drune simply wants to kill the Romers. When drunken sheriff Frazier is summoned from his bed to swear in the posse, he too insists on going with them. The Romers are cornered and the now sober Frazier gets them to surrender. However, as they hand over their weapons they are gunned down by Drune. Frazier confronts Drune and tells Jed that Drune was simply looking for an excuse to kill the Romers since they had seen him kill Jed's father in cold blood. Drune shoots Frazier and Jed shoots Drune, killing him. The Citizens Committee approach. They run their fingers longingly through the wads of banknotes and, propose a plan.......... For a B movie this film wastes a lot of talent. Charles Bickford is used best as the unlikeable Drune and Broderick Crawford amply fills the role as Frazier. However, John Derek as Jed Clayton and reliable bad boy Skip Homier seem to do little apart from stand around waiting to deliver their cued lines. Likewise Wanda Hendrix as Jed's shoed-in love interest, is entirely superfluous , as is Henry Hull as Stokely whose only purpose appears to be linking scenes by walking from one location to another. The audience is also subjected to the familiar B western trait of extended chase and trekking sequences across varying landscapes in order to pad out the running time. Ignoring these shortcomings, the final denouement is handled very well when Frazier refuses to die until the truth comes out.

Broderick Crawford gives one of his usual solid performances playing a worn-out alcoholic sheriff struggling through life. The storyline keeps the viewer interested and the chase through New Mexico takes us into great scenery. The actions scenes aren't particularly convincing though but the film does good service to the Western genre by clearly defining the Bad guys from the Good guys. Very watchable.

Add me to the list of those wondering why this was made in black and white. Crawford and bickford were pretty big names, back in the day. Maybe because its a period piece in the old west, to give it authenticity? When a rancher pays dirt low prices for cattle, the family takes the money back and makes a run for it. Out in the brutally hot desert, with not much food... (where did they plan on going??) When the posse returns without the wanted men, the town is anxious to find out what happened. As the film goes along, the facts come out in small bits and pieces. It's not bad. Stars broderick crawford, charles bickford, and a twenty seven year old john derek. Directed by al werker. Story by seymour and connie bennett. Filmed in the fun alabama hills and in yuma. Showing on the roku channel.

It's noirish credentials burnished by being framed within a flashback. This tough little western short on action but long on moody menace is shot by Burnett Guffey so that it in places even resembles a silent film. The climax takes against a backdrop of oppressively sun-bleached rockland and it has a neat ending.

This dusty western is directed by Alfred L. Werker. After winning the Oscar for Best Actor in 1949's ALL THE KING'S MEN, Broderick Crawford was afforded very little in comparison in the remainder of his contract with Columbia. The fair to middling western THE LAST POSSE is a little noticed sagebrush saga. Sheriff John Frazier(Crawford)collects a posse made up of honest respected citizens of Roswell, New Mexico to track down the desperadoes that robbed a prominent cattle baron. Something in the arid heat causes a few of the posse to plot keeping the stolen loot for themselves. Greed ignites the proverbial shootout and the surviving posse members limp back into town with heads hung low and severely wounded Sheriff Frazier in tow. The cast also includes: John Derek, Charles Bickford, Henry Hull, Will Wright, James Bell and Wanda Hendrix.

This film is not just your ordinary Western mainly because the film starts out with flashbacks from the very beginning to the end. Broderick Crawford, (Sheriff John Frazer) is a burned out sheriff who was well respected and decided to hit the bottle and drift off to retirement. Charles Pickford, (Sampson Drune) plays the role of a cattle baron who is ruthless and cruel and treats other cattlemen poorly and cheats them out of their money when they are facing hard luck and about to lose their ranches. John Derek, (Jed Clayton) is a son to Sampson and thinks the world of his father, however, Sheriff Frazer knows some very dark secrets about Sampson and the two have no use for each other. Wanda Hendrix, (Deborah) is a young gal who is very interested in Jed Clayton and has hopes to settling down with him someday. Sampson Drune is robbed of a Hundred and Five Thousand dollars and a posse is organized and even Sheriff Frazer manages to ride along with them. Charles Pickford gave a great supporting role along with John Derek.

If you love Westerns, you'll love The Last Posse. I had never heard of it before TCM tossed it into their Broderick Crawford Day of movies. Great cast too! Not only Crawford but Henry Hull, Charles Bickford as well as Harry Hayden, an always uncredited character actor who I've come to notice. Much of the film takes place in the desert among some absolutely remarkable rock formations as the backdrop. Anyway, all Western Lovers should have this one on their list. I thought I'd seen just about every Western at least once so this really came as a wonderful surprise. Watch for it and enjoy! At less than 90 minutes long, it doesn't wear out its welcome like this overlong review! Unfortunately the IMDb insists on ten lines whether or not you have something to say. OK, it finally says I wrote enough lines!

For those of you who like discovering unknown sleeper westerns than The Last Posse is for you. No cowboy heroes in this one just an honest sheriff doing his job and a young man who let's his better side take over rather than live with a lie. A posse comes in from the hunt with the bodies of the men they were hunting, the man whom these people robbed and a badly wounded Broderick Crawford who is the town sheriff. Some of the town's leading citizens like Will Wright, Warner Anderson, Raymond Greenleaf and Tom Powers are with the posse along with the adopted son of the robbery victim Charles Bickford. It's the son played by John Derek on whom the responsibility for the truth lies. We hear some of the truth in flashback from the posse members. Bickford owns the local Ponderosa and he's not a benevolent type like Ben Cartwright. In fact he's pushed another rancher James Bell far enough. Bell and sons Guy Wilkerson and Skip Homeier rob him as he's making a deposit of six figures. It's Bickford who pulls a posse together and doesn't want the sheriff along, but Crawford goes anyway. The desert trip brings out the truth about a lot of things and Derek has to face up to a different version about his past than he's been told. It's not a pretty picture. The film is in stark black and white and plays for much of the time like a noir thriller. But this B film from Columbia is a real sleeper and not to be missed by either noir or western fans.

The Last Posse is directed by Alfred L. Werker and co-written by Seymour Bennett, Connie Bennett and Kenneth Gamet. It stars Broderick Crawford, Charles Bickford, John Derek and Wanda Hendrix. Primary location used for the shoot is Lone Pine, Alabama Hills, California, with Burnett Guffey on photography duties. Out of Columbia Pictures, story tells of how a returning posse on the trail of outlaw robbers, return to Roswell, New Mexico, minus their leader and with their accompanying sheriff critically wounded. Much better than its B movie origins, The Last Posse is strong in characterisations, visually smart and being structured as it is, primarily in flashback, also getting a bit of unusual intrigue tossed into the Oatmeal. It's also very well acted, with Crawford and Bickford making for a nice gruff opposing pair, and the support cast is filled with solid performers like Henry Hull, Warner Anderson and Skip Homeier. Director Werker (He Walked By Night) does a good job of keeping the story nicely paced, dotting the plot with some well staged action along the way, and the finale, thankfully not telegraphed, doesn't disappoint at all. But in the main it's the writing and Guffey's photography that lifts it above average. The various members of the posse are either troubled or driven by motive, making for a good psychological mix, and this in turn is well realised by Guffey's crisp black and white photography of the Lone Pine, Alabama Hills landscapes. The numerous boulders and odd shaped rocks impose on the characters and the desert flats make a grim stage for the unfolding story. Easily recommended to the Western movie fan. 7/10