In town, Morgan encounters a hostile community with no one willing to cooperate with him or help him find Rick. One person, Belden’s former lover, Linda ([[Carolyn Jones]]),decides to help Morgan and tells him where he is likely to find Rick. Morgan manages to take Rick prisoner, holding him at the hotel despite resistance from the hotelkeeper.
In town, Morgan encounters a hostile community with no one willing to cooperate with him or help him find Rick. One person, Belden’s former lover, Linda ([[Carolyn Jones]]),decides to help Morgan and tells him where he is likely to find Rick. Morgan manages to take Rick prisoner, holding him at the hotel despite resistance from the hotelkeeper.
In the meantime, Craig Belden sets out for town with his men. Along the way, he is informed that Morgan has taken Rick prisoner, and he now quickens his pace. Belden arrives in town to discover that Rick is handcuffed to the bed of a hotel room. After a short negotiation between Craig Belden and Morgan, a shootout ensues, but Morgan manages to hold off Belden’s shooters. In the meantime, Linda sneaks a shotgun to his hotel room. The second rapist, Lee, sets fire to the hotel to flush out Morgan.
In the meantime, Craig Belden sets out for town with his men. Along the way, he is informed that Morgan has taken Rick prisoner, and he now quickens his pace. Belden in town to discover that Rick is handcuffed to the bed of a hotel room. After a short negotiation between Craig Belden and Morgan, a shootout Morgan manages to hold off Belden’s shooters. In the meantime, Linda sneaks a shotgun to his hotel room. The second rapist, Lee, sets fire to the hotel to flush out Morgan.
Morgan presses the shotgun to Rick’s chin on the way to the train depot, threatening to pull the trigger if anyone attempts to stop him. Lee tries to kill Morgan but shoots Rick instead. Morgan then kills Lee with the shotgun. As the train prepares to leave, a devastated Belden confronts Morgan in a final showdown and is gunned down.
Morgan presses the shotgun to Rick’s chin on the way to the train depot, threatening to pull the trigger if anyone attempts to stop him. Lee tries to kill Morgan but shoots Rick instead. Morgan then kills Lee with the shotgun. As the train prepares to leave, a devastated Belden confronts Morgan in a final showdown and is gunned down.
1959 film by John Sturges
Last Train from Gun Hill is a 1959 American Western film in VistaVision and Technicolor, directed by John Sturges. It stars Kirk Douglas, Anthony Quinn and Earl Holliman. Douglas and Holliman had previously appeared together in Sturges’ Gunfight at the O.K. Corral (1957), which used much of the same crew.
Two old friends, Matt Morgan (Kirk Douglas) and Craig Belden (Anthony Quinn), now find themselves on opposite sides of the law. Belden, a rich cattle baron, is the de facto ruler of the town of Gun Hill. Morgan is a U.S. Marshal living in another town with his Cherokee wife (played by Ziva Rodann) and young son, Petey.
Two young drunken cowboys rape and murder Morgan’s wife while she is returning with their son from a visit to her father. She succeeds in inflicting a deep and identifying whip wound on the cheek of one of her attackers. While the attackers are preoccupied, the boy escapes on one of the killers’ horses which bears a distinctive, fancy saddle.
Morgan sets off to find the killer. One clue is the saddle, which he recognizes as belonging to Belden. Assuming it was stolen from his old friend, Morgan travels to Gun Hill to pick up the trail. Morgan goes to Belden’s ranch to return the saddle and get information. Once there, he quickly realizes that Belden’s son Rick (Earl Holliman) is the killer.
Belden refuses to turn over his son, forcing Morgan to go against the entire town. Morgan vows to capture Rick and get him on that night’s last train from Gun Hill.
In town, Morgan encounters a hostile community with no one willing to cooperate with him or help him find Rick. One person, Belden’s former lover, Linda (Carolyn Jones),decides to help Morgan and tells him where he is likely to find Rick. Morgan manages to take Rick prisoner, holding him at the hotel despite resistance from the hotelkeeper.
In the meantime, Craig Belden sets out for town with his men. Along the way, he is informed that Morgan has taken Rick prisoner, and he now quickens his pace. Belden and his men arrive in town to discover that Rick is handcuffed to the bed of a hotel room. After a short negotiation between Craig Belden and Morgan, a shootout begins. Morgan manages to hold off Belden’s shooters, followed by a standoff. In the meantime, Linda sneaks a shotgun to his hotel room. The second rapist, Lee, sets fire to the hotel to flush out Morgan.
Morgan presses the shotgun to Rick’s chin on the way to the train depot, threatening to pull the trigger if anyone attempts to stop him. Lee tries to kill Morgan but shoots Rick instead. Morgan then kills Lee with the shotgun. As the train prepares to leave, a devastated Belden confronts Morgan in a final showdown and is gunned down.
The movie was filmed in and around Old Tucson Studios outside of Tucson, Arizona, Sonoita, Arizona, as well as at Paramount Studios and their back lot in Los Angeles, California.
A key theme of the film is the tragic opposition between natural law and manmade law, originally drawn in Sophocles‘ Antigone.
The backstory of the principal characters sees them operating as partner outlaws in the wilds – an effective state of nature. Subsequently, Morgan and Belden part ways each choosing to settle down and in their own way exemplify a lawful mode of life.
Belden is an exemplar of the natural law. This is partly conveyed in the manner of Plato‘s Gorgias, with Belden a natural leader of men who has built his own private fiefdom at Gun Hill. He displays Gorgias’ virtues in his martial courage, justice and wisdom, though each of these, as with Gorgias, largely serve Belden’s own ends: this is the justice of the victor and wisdom of the political operator. To this, crucially, is added that view of natural law which begins at home and with one’s own (see Stoicism). The plot turns on Belden regarding his obligation to protect his son as overriding the positive law of the state.
For his part, Morgan is a courageous, dutiful marshall of manmade positive law (Kelsen), indeed declaring at one point “I am the law.” Morgan attempts to maintain due process throughout, for example seeking approval of his warrants from the corrupt local sheriff, attempting to see the accused, Rick, to a courthouse, and refusing to initiate violence against Belden. Yet as Morgan proceeds to enforce the law, he struggles to differentiate his own personal stake in the outcome of his actions, perhaps driving him to overcompensate by even stricter application of the law. Compare the “long view” of the corrupt local sheriff, to Morgan’s tragic adherence to legal formalism. In slavishly holding to process rather than seeking an unofficial resolution, the suggestion is that much greater damage is done to all involved.
The dynamic is seen in Linda’s character arc: describing herself early on as someone who never gave much attention to rules, she finds in Morgan a hero lawman who could save Gun Hill from Belden’s abusive control, but in the denouement she surveys the results of Morgan’s law enforcement and turns her eyes from him in disappointment.
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