FILM REVIEW OF ''LAST OF THE BAD MEN" (1957)

This half-baked horse opera about a gang of murderous villains that spring wanted men from hoosegows and then use them as front men when they commit crimes short-changes a clever premise and a solid cast of western veterans. The first fellow that they liberate from a frontier lock-up turns out to be a Chandler Detective Agency operative posing as a notorious outlaw. Such is their obsession with maintaining secrecy about their identities that these dastards display no qualms about killing either the jailers or anybody for that matter who may later recognize them. When this well-organized gang of thieves and killers stage their robberies, they wear bandannas over their faces, but they force their front men to appear barefaced, so the bounty on their heads escalates with each offense. When the bounty reaches an arbitrary dollar figure, the treacherous villains gun him down and collect the reward. Not only does the Chicago-based Chandler Detective Agency want to avenge the murder of one of their own agents, but they also plan to learn the identity of the criminal mastermind who keeps his identity a closely guarded secret from most of his accomplices.

Squared-jawed George Montgomery of "The Riders of the Purple Sage" is appropriately clean-shaven and virile as intrepid hero Dan Barton who risks life and limb to infiltrate and smash the gang as well as smoke out the criminal genius behind their wickedness. When Allied Artists released "Last of the Bad Men" in 1957, many urban crime thrillers of the late 1940s and the 1950s had relied on the gimmick of a voice-over narrator to enhance the authenticity of the action by supplying audiences with many facts that the filmmakers had previously depicted on screen. The elaborately detailed and wholly superfluous narrator in "Last of the Bad Men" sounds like a sports commentator. Virtually everything that he comments about is self-explanatory. Essentially, "Last of the Bad Men" has a "Dragnet" quality with its overabundance of facts. Unfortunately, while the narrator may bolster the so-called realism, he becomes extremely annoying at the same time. "MST3K" could have had a field day with this standard-issue oater.

Scenarists David T. Chantler and David B. Ullman penned the formulaic screenplay and it gets off to a decent enough start, but the plot unravels in the third act after the gang has broken out yet another jailbird, Kramer (Michael Ansara), a genuine owl-hoot unlike either Barton or his unfortunate predecessor. Chantler and Ullman were writing partners who specialized in television, but they collaborated on "Face of a Fugitive" (1959) a Frank MacMurray western. Principally, things go awry when the suspicious desperados try to flush out our hero after they have captured another Chandler Detective Agency operative, Roberts (Keith Larsen of "War Paint"), who had been keeping tabs on our cool-headed protagonist while the villains are holed up between jobs on a ranch behaving as if they were law-abiding cowboys. Once the wily outlaw gang takes Barton as their quasi-prisoner, they keep him on a short leash. He isn't allowed to retain his revolver after a crime. Meaning, he cannot go anywhere without arousing their suspicions. Barton tries to contact a fellow Chandler Detective one evening and is nearly caught. Meanwhile, he sets about cultivating a friendship with another gang member who the others have come to regard as their weakest link. James Best of "The Dukes of Hazzard" stands out as a hapless cowboy-gone-bad by poor economic conditions that prompted him to turn to rustling cattle. Why the bad guys recruited him as a member of their elite gang is never sufficiently explained, just another of the flaws in the Chantler & Ullman screenplay. Meanwhile, director Paul Landres tries to generate suspense as the price on Barton's head rises while the gang frees yet another felon from jail. Indeed, as Barton's fate hangs in the balance, the Chandler Detective Agency grows even more alarmed. Nevertheless, we know there isn't chance Barton will bite the dust. Eventually, the bad guys discover Roberts is a Chandler Detective, and they offer Barton a chance to prove that he isn't a detective himself if he will gun down Roberts in cold blood. Suffice to say Barton wiggles out of this corner far too easily. A variety of veteran western character actors flesh out of the cast, among them Douglas Kennedy, John Doucette, Robert Foulk, Willis Bouchey, and Michael Ansara, later of TV's "The Westerners." Decked out in a pink dance-hall dress, Meg Randall is the only female in sight, and she is strictly a supporting cast member.Squared-jawed George Montgomery of "The Riders of the Purple Sage" is appropriately clean-shaven and virile as intrepid hero Dan Barton who risks life and limb to infiltrate and smash the gang as well as smoke out the criminal genius behind their wickedness. When Allied Artists released "Last of the Bad Men" in 1957, many urban crime thrillers of the late 1940s and the 1950s had relied on the gimmick of a voice-over narrator to enhance the authenticity of the action by supplying audiences with many facts that the filmmakers had previously depicted on screen. The elaborately detailed and wholly superfluous narrator in "Last of the Bad Men" sounds like a sports commentator. Virtually everything that he comments about is self-explanatory. Essentially, "Last of the Bad Men" has a "Dragnet" quality with its overabundance of facts. Unfortunately, while the narrator may bolster the so-called realism, he becomes extremely annoying at the same time. "MST3K" could have had a field day with this standard-issue oater.

Scenarists David T. Chantler and David B. Ullman penned the formulaic screenplay and it gets off to a decent enough start, but the plot unravels in the third act after the gang has broken out yet another jailbird, Kramer (Michael Ansara), a genuine owl-hoot unlike either Barton or his unfortunate predecessor. Chantler and Ullman were writing partners who specialized in television, but they collaborated on "Face of a Fugitive" (1959) a Frank MacMurray western. Principally, things go awry when the suspicious desperados try to flush out our hero after they have captured another Chandler Detective Agency operative, Roberts (Keith Larsen of "War Paint"), who had been keeping tabs on our cool-headed protagonist while the villains are holed up between jobs on a ranch behaving as if they were law-abiding cowboys. Once the wily outlaw gang takes Barton as their quasi-prisoner, they keep him on a short leash. He isn't allowed to retain his revolver after a crime. Meaning, he cannot go anywhere without arousing their suspicions. Barton tries to contact a fellow Chandler Detective one evening and is nearly caught. Meanwhile, he sets about cultivating a friendship with another gang member who the others have come to regard as their weakest link. James Best of "The Dukes of Hazzard" stands out as a hapless cowboy-gone-bad by poor economic conditions that prompted him to turn to rustling cattle. Why the bad guys recruited him as a member of their elite gang is never sufficiently explained, just another of the flaws in the Chantler & Ullman screenplay. Meanwhile, director Paul Landres tries to generate suspense as the price on Barton's head rises while the gang frees yet another felon from jail. Indeed, as Barton's fate hangs in the balance, the Chandler Detective Agency grows even more alarmed. Nevertheless, we know there isn't chance Barton will bite the dust. Eventually, the bad guys discover Roberts is a Chandler Detective, and they offer Barton a chance to prove that he isn't a detective himself if he will gun down Roberts in cold blood. Suffice to say Barton wiggles out of this corner far too easily. A variety of veteran western character actors flesh out of the cast, among them Douglas Kennedy, John Doucette, Robert Foulk, Willis Bouchey, and Michael Ansara, later of TV's "The Westerners." Decked out in a pink dance-hall dress, Meg Randall is the only female in sight, and she is strictly a supporting cast member.
Veteran TV director Paul Landres keeps the action moving along swiftly enough (it's only 79 minutes) with the inevitable western town shoot-out at the end that reveals the identity of the chief villain. If the earlier scene where Barton got out of a tough spot weren't mediocre, the ending where the bad guy gets revealed is unintentionally awful. Anybody in their right mind would have cleared out of town long before he got caught in a lie by his fellow townspeople. At least, Chantler and Ullman plant a minor red herring, but savvy moviegoers will spot the dead giveaway moment long before the chief villain receives his comeuppance. "Last of the Bad Men" is at best fair as westerns go, but inferior as a mystery. Ellsworth Fredericks' Deluxe Color, widescreen Cinemascope photography makes this drab dustraiser look better than it really should have. Fredericks' credits include the original "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" and "Seven Days in May."