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Sorry, this movie sucks

Sadly Over-hyped

How wonderful it is to see this fine actress carry a film and carry it so beautifully.

It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

A tired man dressed black finds your old lover to redeem for left her in the past,this man is Bren o'Malley played by Kirk Douglas and the woman is Belle played by Dorothy Malone who already married and has a young girl named Missy and now lives in somewhere in Mexico with a drunk husband,now O'Malley is chased by Dana Stribling who seeks for revenge and he planned to bring back to be tried in Texas....a long journey back showing to O'Malley that Belle is another person and no longer loves him,so has something between Missy and him which he cann't explain,maybe for she looks like a young girl in yellow dress which he left behind...all this under the Santelmo's fire....Forggoten classic from Robert Aldrich!!!Resume: First watch: 2007 / How many: 2 / Source: Cable TV-DVD / Rating: 8

As perversely fascinating a Freudian western as "Johnny Guitar" or "Duel in the Sun," Robert Aldrich's "The Last Sunset" deserves to be a lot better known than it is. Special mention to James Westmoreland (an actor I was completely unfamiliar with) as The Julesburg Kid. He's terrific (and crazy hot!). Puzzled as to why he didn't become a star--or at least enjoy steady employment in movies or television during the 1960's and beyond. Was amused thinking of Rock Hudson and Dorothy Malone discussing their experiences working with Douglas Sirk during their lunch breaks.

Brendan O'Malley (Kirk Douglas) arrives at a small Mexican ranch owned by John Breckenridge (Joseph Cotten) ready to work a cattle drive to Texas. Brendan's actual goal is to get back his former love John's wife Belle (Dorothy Malone). Belle and John have 15 year old daughter Missy (Carol Lynley). Sheriff Dana Stribling (Rock Hudson) has a warrant for Brendan's arrest from Texas for his brother-in-law's murder. He joins the cattle drive intent on arresting him upon crossing the Rio Grande.There are lots of crazy stuff going on in this movie. Kirk Douglas is choking out a dog with his bare hands. There is Carol Lynley with her puppy love that is awkward with possible incest. It's not something hidden and seems obvious with that possibility from the very start. Brendan should do better arithmetic. I'm fine with all the cowboy soaps but the Greek tragedy incest bothered me a bit too much.

The Last Sunset (1961)Wow, what a cast for a Robert Aldrich movie--Joseph Cotten, Rock Hudson, and Kirk Douglas. And the themes in this big Western are big ones, from Civil War loyalty years after the fact to love and cattle ranching. There are shootouts and rivalries, there is a good guy and a bad guy and a confusing between the two, and there is the endless feeling of having to move on, on and on, like the cattle themselves.This is pretty late for a Western, which is to say it's late for an original Western. And so the themes here are either well worn or worn out. What keeps it going is some good acting, some pretty scenery (like the night stuff, especially), and maybe a elegiac sense, nothing poetic but relaxed and appreciative. But there is filler, some sentimental stuff, some girl stuff where the guys ogle the girls, some Mexican stereotypes, and a gratuitous fistfight or two (Rock Hudson and Kirk Douglas really rolling around and duking it out). So as much as there are characters you sympathize with, and a lifestyle out on the open desert, it's sometimes slow going. But then, if it's not slow, it's filled with action, though sometimes mindless action.The title? Maybe a nod to the end of an era. The next big Westerns in the 1960s were the great Italian ones, like "The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly," where the archetypes become references, something to exaggerate and make more important than the plot. In "The Last Sunset" there is no self-awareness, no acknowledgement that the themes here are clichés, right down to the last duel past the tracks. It might have been daring in 1938, but for 1961 it's just well made familiarity.