A Stiff and Super Clean Look is What You Get From the Overrated Director John Sturgess Once Again. The Man Wouldn't Know Grit if it Covered the Bottom of His Elevator Boots. The Strong Acting from Kirk Douglas and Anthony Quinn with the Radiant Beauty of Carolyn Jones Cannot Save Another Clunker from Sturges and His Bland Direction.There is Some Tension from the Script, Borrowed from and Almost Identical to Other Recent Movies of the Era, the Shallow and By the Numbers Style of So Many Fifties Westerns Renders the Suspense Somewhat Anemic.The First Act is the Best and it All Goes Down (Gun) Hill From There. The Cinematography is Lusciously Competent but Nothing Different from a Thousand Other Professionals, and the Dimitri Tiomkin Score is Intrusive and Overdone Frequently.Worth a Watch with Low Expectations but for Those Looking for One of the Better Westerns from the Many in the Decade of "The Western", Need Look Elsewhere.

Kirk Douglas plays Marshal Matt Morgan, whose wife is attacked and murdered by Rick Belden(Earl Holliman) who turns out to be the son of an old friend(played by Anthony Quinn) Rick had left his distinctive saddle behind, and Matt goes to visit the senior Belden, who is happy to see him, until he learns the reason for the visit. Though sympathetic for his loss, and furious with his son, he outright refuses to allow his son Rick to be extradited. Being a rich cattleman now, he practically owns the town, and after Matt arrests Rick, takes measures to prevent his son being tried and likely hanged, no matter the cost...Exciting and well-acted film also has first-rate direction from John Sturges, and a good supporting performance from Carolyn Jones as Linda, the sympathetic(and cynical) woman who is also fed up with the corrupt Belden family. Her quote "The human race stinks!", still resonates...

Last Train from Gun Hill is about a man whose wife is raped and murdered by two men. He, of course, has to find and bring back the two men. The movie is extremely similar to 3:10 to Yuma, but it isn't very compelling. 3:10 to Yuma is extremely suspenseful: one is almost always on the edge of his seat. This movie isn't really suspenseful at all, though. When John Sturges could build up intense scenes, he switches the scene to Carolyn Jones' part of the story. The story is not original at all: it was simple and seems to be almost directly taken from 3:10 to Yuma. The score was somewhat distracting at times, but the acting was pretty good. Kirk Douglas was pretty good as the marshal, and Anthony Quinn played his role excellently, especially when his character was supposed to be nervous and hiding something. Carolyn Jones also played her role well. The dialog was decent, but Rick Belden's lines to the marshal were somewhat unrealistic. There were some bright spots, such as when Kirk Douglas says "I am the law!"Overall, this movie is very mediocre: it doesn't shine, but it isn't really poor either. Basically, I advise you to watch 3:10 to Yuma or Shane instead.

OK, if you just want to waste your time on a movie that makes NO sense at all, this is it. Oh it has great actors, and they play their part very well, but I know they must have been laughing all the way to the bank. OK, so you have this town Marshal (Kirk Douglas) who's wife is raped and killed, so he goes after the bad guy's who it turns out that one of them is the son of he best friend (Anthony Quinn) from year gone by that he hasn't seen in a long time. So far so good. Should be a great story right, well, you haven't heard the punch line yet.I will just cut to the chase and tell you, it's all about Douglas getting Quinn's son on a train back to the marshals town to stand trial. The problem is they go through all this crazy stuff to stop Douglas from getting to the train and taking off, WHEN ALL THEY HAD TO DO WAS STOP THE TRAIN FROM LEAVING!!!!! If the train doesn't leave, guess what, Douglas and Quinn's son doesn't leave, end of story. How stupid could this ending be.Your watching this movie and about half way through it you realize what a waste of time you have spent on a movie that no one in it has the brains to just say, hey, let's just stop the train.So, if you like a western movie that makes no sense, then this movie and 3:10 to Yuma are for you, in both films all they have to do is stop the train.