User Reviews

****SPOILERS**** With the news that the next to last US military, North or South, survivor Tom Riggins of the Civil War just passed away the last man standing the grumpy Joel Bentham, Harry Davenport, is to get a $50,000.00 bonus, that's $840,000.00 in 2015 inflated dollars, for that notable, in staying alive, achievement. Having no use for the people in his home town of Cloverdale in how greedy selfish as well as just plain rotten they are Joel decides to keep the cash all for himself and live it up until woman hobo Meg, Dorothea Kent,while being chased by the railroad police literally drops into his lap or life. Seeing what a hard life Meg's living, in the very depths of the Great Depression, and how sweet and kind she is, in not taking advantage of the old fellow, he decides to leave most of his new found fortune to her who, now liking the life she's now living, gracefully refuses it. That's after giving $5,000.00 to his in house maid Kathy, Mary Treen, who was paid a meager minimum wages, that's all the dirt poor Joel could afford, salary.

It's just about that time that the late Tom Riggins grandson Ray, Robert Wilcox, shows up to attend his grandpa's funeral and learns that Joel is now a very wealthy man and plans to, by sucking up to him, relive him of some if not all of his money. It's Meg who decided to stay at Joel's place with his faithful farmhand Benjie, Clem Bevans, who soon convinces Ray by her unselfish actions that being a good person is far better then being a bad and greedy one and before you know it he falls in love with her.

***SPOILERS*** It's Ray's gangsters friends who found out about Joel's good fortune who then slithered, like a bunch of vipers, into town in order to rip him off and if necessary whack him together with Meg & Benjie if they resist. Joel playing dumb and acting as if he suffering from Alzheimer's Disease strings the band of crooks, that by then Ray disassociated himself from, along until the calvary or townspeople, who are out looking for him in him being the keynote speaker on this Memorial Day, arrive. Joel takes a few good whacks from Ray's former gangster friends but in no time at all hundreds of townspeople with torches pitchforks and baseball bats, as well as Springfield rifles, show up having them take off and run for their lives. Only to have Joel get out his rusty and trusty Civil War rifle, that he hadn't fire in some 50 years, and shoot out their car tire causing them to be captured as well as tar and feathered and driven out of town on a rail by the local townspeople. Now not only giving the keynote speech to the town of Colverdale on this Memorial Day Joel is to travel first class by train to Chicago to spend some time sipping beer and telling war stories with the President of the United Sates FDR, or Franklyn Deleno Roosevelt, as well!

P.S As history showed the last survivor of the Civil War Albert Woolson was to pass away some 18 years after the movie "Young Fugitives", about the last survivor of that war, was released in 1956 at the age of 109.

In this case, the old man on the throne is Harry Davenport, the oldest survivor of the civil war, given a prize of $50,000, and basically telling off the entire community home he realizes expects him to kick the bucket at any minute and leave the money to them. other than the kindly Mary treen, the made in the boarding house he lives in, nobody gets a dime, and he moves in with old pal Clem equally cynical, and determined to help Davenport avoid swindlers and con artists. Along come Robert Kent and Dorothy Wilcox, Kent the grandson of a long-time survivor of the civil War who just passed away, and Wilcox, a tough talking broad who jumped off a train and into Bevans' car for protection from the railroad police. Davenport convinces beavens to allow Wilcox to stay and help them redecorate the house, and Kent remains as an old pal of theirs grandson. They discover that Davenport has $50,000 stashed somewhere and decide to be kindly to him in order to take the money and run, unaware that he is setting them up to do exactly that. it takes Wilcox, a softie on the inside, to realize how kindly Davenport has been to her, but when a local mob finds out about the money, they step in to grab it for themselves.

I enjoyed this film on many levels, particularly for the commaradarie between Davenport and Beavans, two great character actors who showed many times that you could have snow on the roof yet still have fire in the furnace. We are supposed to believe that Davenport is in at least his late 80s, and I allowed myself to get past that implausibility. This deals with the issue of elder abuse, subtly play through comedy and pathos, get a serious issue on its own. It's obvious that the young people are out to take advantage of someone that they think is frail and on the verge of death anyway, and Davenport indeed gets the last laugh while retaining his dignity. Kent and Wilcox get the top billing, and are fine, but you can't steal a scene from an old scene-stealer, and in this case they have two of them to deal with. The situation may not be 100% believable, but I allowed myself to suspend my cynicism and just went with the ideals of patriotism, loyalty, honor and literally dying with your boots on, and fortunately, this provides a happy ending that may even require the use of a Kleenex.