Review of 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.