IT CAME FROM THE BOTTOM SHELF!

As a kid, whenever my Cousin Denny and I would get together, we would watch movies, especially John Wayne movies, which were Denny’s favorite.  One afternoon, we caught a television showing of The Alamo (1960), and despite the fact that it was a cropped pan-and-scan version with commercials, broadcast on a cathoid-ray tube TV with bad reception, it captured our imagination.  From that point on, whenever we went to grab the blocks and army men, it was always to build a replica of the Alamo.  Since then, the John Wayne epic has held a soft spot in my heart.  What I didn’t realize until recently was that it was not the first Alamo-related project to which Wayne had been attached.

John Wayne was fascinated with the Alamo and hoped to make a film version of the story his first foray into directing.  Originally, Wayne planned to co-direct with John Ford after they completed Three Godfathers (1948), but he didn’t like the script written by Ford’s son, Patrick.  Later, after completing The Quiet Man (1952), Wayne planned to direct a re-worked script without Ford’s assistance, but he clashed with studio head Herbert Yates over the proposed budget and other preproduction issues.  Due to arguments with Yates, John Wayne left Republic Studios, and set up his own production company, while Yates decided to go forward with a lower budget Alamo project.  The resulting film, The Last Command, was probably pushed forward to recoup preproduction costs from the Wayne version, but there was probably also a motive of revenge on Yates’ part, in order to annoy his former star.

The Last Command focuses on famous frontiersman Jim Bowie.  After a horrible earworm of an opening theme, where Gordon Macrae poses the musical question, “Wouldn’t you want to do like Jim Bowie?,” we see the subject of the song (Sterling Hayden) return to Texas after a long absence.  He finds the territory greatly changed, with the settlers suffering under the despotic rule of Mexican President, General Santa Anna (J. Carrol Naish).  While initially hesitant to take up arms against the government, Bowie eventually sides with a resistance group, led by Colonel William Travis (Richard Carlson).  With support of a small group of volunteers led by former Congressman and frontiersman from Tennessee, Davy Crockett (Arthur Hunnicutt), the Texans fortify a San Antonio mission, the Alamo, to take a last stand against superior forces.

As a movie, The Last Command is fairly weak sauce.  It suffers from being an Alamo movie that doesn’t spend enough time in the Alamo.  While the script is more accurate than most Alamo screenplays in detailing the factors that led up to the battle, it also spends too much time on a sappy romantic subplot and a fictional strained friendship between Bowie and Santa Anna.  The movie doesn’t really start to cook until the final third, when the volunteers begin to fortify the mission.

The cast is made up of seasoned pros, including the aforementioned Hayden, Carlson, Hunnicutt, and Naish.  The picture also benefits from colorful support from character actors, including Ernest Borgnine and Slim Pickens, who would go on to bigger things.  Unfortunately, the dialogue is mediocre at best and Frank Lloyd’s direction is pedestrian.  That said, the action scenes at the end of the film are well staged and exciting.  The spectacle should satisfy most Alamo buffs.

Of course, the experience leading up to the filming of The Last Command had a huge impact on the career of John Wayne.  Wayne never made another film at Republic, and he mounted his own Alamo film in 1960 (which is overdue for a Blu-ray release).  That epic Roadshow picture was indeed Wayne’s first directorial effort, and most of the films that he made thereafter (except when working for John Ford or Howard Hawks) were co-directed by the star, even though he usually did not take screen credit.

US/C-110m./Dir: Frank Lloyd/Wr: Warren Duff/Cast: Sterling Hayden, Richard Carlson, Arthur Hunnicutt, Ernest Borgnine, J. Carrol Naish, Anna Maria Alberghetti, Ben Cooper, John Russell, Virginia Grey, Slim Pickens

For Fans of: Alamo history buffs and those interested in this interlude in John Wayne’s career will want to check out The Last Command.  Of course, if you are a fan of John Wayne’s The Alamo, you may want to compare the two films.

Video: Kino Lorber Studio Classics has released a Blu-ray of the The Last Command from a new HD master from a 4K scan of the original 35mm negative.  The image may take a little getting used to for some viewers.  The film was produced in Trucolor, Republic Studios’ proprietary process, which was inferior to Technicolor.  Consequently, the color palette tends toward the yellow and brown, but it is accurate to the original theatrical presentation.  Also, the negative itself is unrestored, so there are a few scenes with assorted scratches but nothing that distracts greatly from the viewing experience.  The scan itself is sharp and the grain structure is intact, so despite a few scratches, the overall effect is that of screening of a film print in your living room.

Special features:

• Audio Commentary by Alamo historian Frank Thompson, the author of ‘Alamo Movies’ and ‘The Alamo: A Cultural History’ — While the movie was a bit lacking story-wise, there is still a strong reason to purchase the new Kino Lorber Studio Classics disc.  The audio commentary by film historian and Alamo expert Frank Thompson is excellent; and frankly, it is more entertaining than the film itself.  Frank Thompson, who used to host the sorely missed classic movie podcast, The Commentary Track, is a delightful guide to the backstory behind John Wayne’s involvement, the production of the final film, Alamo history, and the historical inaccuracies within the movie.  The discussion is relaxed, informative, and humorous.  In short, it is a pleasure to be in Frank’s company for the 110 minute running time.
• KLSC Trailers

Streaming: At the time of writing, The Last Command was unavailable on any of the standard streaming services.

More to Explore:  The Last Command was the last film in the career of Frank Lloyd, which began in the silent era.  He directed several other adventure films, including the classics Mutiny on the Bounty (1935), Under Two Flags (1936), and If I Were King (1938).

Trivia: Sterling Hayden had briefly been a member of the Communist Party in 1946.  He admitted that one of the reasons he took the role of Jim Bowie was to display his American patriotism during the Red Scare of the Fifties.

For More Info: There is a fountain of knowledge available within Frank Thompson’s five books on the Alamo, including Alamo Movies and The Alamo: A Cultural History.