"The Last Outpost" is a strange film because the first portion is quite good and the second so god-awful. As a result, I really don't recommend you watch it unless you are a die-hard Cary Grant fan and want to see everything he made...which is why I watched it in the first place.
The story is set during WWI. Michael (Grant) is taken prisoner by Turkish troops backed by local Kurds. Many of the prisoners are murdered but Michael is spirited to safety by a secret agent posing as a Turkish officer. John (Claude Rains) saves Michael and they become friends.
While Michael is convalescing in the hospital, he falls in love with his nurse. However, he later finds out she's already married....but they are both hopelessly in love. When John finds out, he swears to kill Michael...but an uprising by the Sudanese locals* interrupts his plans.
So, although millions of folks were mobilized for the war, Michael just happens to fall in love with the wife of his new best friend. What are the odds???? This is utterly ridiculous...as is what follows. Instead of creating a good ending, the movie re-uses old footage and outfits lots of black extras with Buckwheat wigs...which just seems weird and anachronistic...and bad. Overall, a dopey ending to a film that had, at least for a while, held my attention.
*Why do these Hollywood films glamorize colonialism so much?? After all, the British weren't exactly humanitarians here. Also, why would a guy fighting near the Indian border at the beginning of the film find himself fighting in the Sudan later? It's not like this is a hop, skip and jump away! That's at least 4000 kilometers away and seemed silly. I honestly think they just wrote this into the script so they could re-use this old footage...logical or not.
The story is set during WWI. Michael (Grant) is taken prisoner by Turkish troops backed by local Kurds. Many of the prisoners are murdered but Michael is spirited to safety by a secret agent posing as a Turkish officer. John (Claude Rains) saves Michael and they become friends.
While Michael is convalescing in the hospital, he falls in love with his nurse. However, he later finds out she's already married....but they are both hopelessly in love. When John finds out, he swears to kill Michael...but an uprising by the Sudanese locals* interrupts his plans.
So, although millions of folks were mobilized for the war, Michael just happens to fall in love with the wife of his new best friend. What are the odds???? This is utterly ridiculous...as is what follows. Instead of creating a good ending, the movie re-uses old footage and outfits lots of black extras with Buckwheat wigs...which just seems weird and anachronistic...and bad. Overall, a dopey ending to a film that had, at least for a while, held my attention.
*Why do these Hollywood films glamorize colonialism so much?? After all, the British weren't exactly humanitarians here. Also, why would a guy fighting near the Indian border at the beginning of the film find himself fighting in the Sudan later? It's not like this is a hop, skip and jump away! That's at least 4000 kilometers away and seemed silly. I honestly think they just wrote this into the script so they could re-use this old footage...logical or not.