Good dramatic Western with nice acting and spectacular lanscapes from Red Rock Crossing , Sedona, Arizona . Pretty tough Western with great acting and masterfully made , it stars Richard Widmark as the primitive Commanche Todd whom the others believe to be a murderer but they are forced to accept him as a leader . Todd (Richard Widmark) is son of a white missionary whose family was killed and brought up by Comanches , he exacts vendetta on the four brothers who raped and murdered his Indian wife and children . Widmark deals with the more or less racist members of a wagon train and is left with the survivors on his hands after an Indian attack . They entrust the sheriff's (George Matthews) prisoner, who is captured and dragged to trial . As they must put their lives into the hands of the scout Comanche Todd . Todd who has charismatic qualities of leadership , as he could be defined as a two-fisted hero , as he emerges from the dust to stop vengeful Indians and later on , the young settlers atttempt to escape to freedom through rugged Indian territory. While Todd falls for a drippy colonist , (Felicia Farr) . Along the way hundreds of vengeful Apaches track them down, thirsting for blood . Nothing could stop the last wagon from coming through! .To save their lives, he'll have to risk his own.

This movie has a formidable combination of fine performances, intense drama and spectacular outdoors . Director Delmer Daves aims for psychological realism with a contemporary treatment and about an innocent and harassed man who becomes leader of a group of youthful people . The plot is plain and simple some settlers result to be ambushed and massacred by the Indians whose families were slaughtered by the whites, then a few survivors trust on an expert scout despite his wanted-for-murder status. A blending of talent actors with great leading players of whom Richard Widmark holds the best character as a brave frontiersman . The hothouse plot drives mercilessly forward with action , thrills , attacks and turns . The tale is strong one and the yarn is wonderfully located against a background of Arizona mountains . Very good main cast , standiing out Richard Widmark as the white man who has lived with the Comanches most of his life and is wanted for the murder of three men , he is the great hero dysplaying an inflexible sense of purpose , contriving some complexity about his role , including a certain riveting ambiguity . From his successful beginning with Kiss of death , Street with no name , Panic in the streets , Widmark has developed a brilliant and fruitful career , specially in Western genre that include : Broken Lance , The law and Jake Wade , Warlock , The Alamo , Two rode together , How the West was won , Cheyenne Autumn , Alvarez Kelly , The way west , Death of a gunfighter , Mr Horn , When the legends die and his last one : Texas Guns . Support cast is frankly well such as : Nick Adams , Susan Kohner , Tommy Rettig , George Mathews , Douglas Kennedy ,James Drury , Ken Clark , Carl Benton Reid, Timothy Carey , Bob Reeves , Abel Fernández , among others . The literate storyline sustains interest thanks to the relationships among the misfit characters and enhanced by cinemascope cinematography by cameraman Wilford Cline . Containing gorgeous outdoors exteriors from Oak Creek Canyon, Boynton Canyon,Sedona, Red Rock Crossing, Bell Rock, Sedona, Schnebly Hill, Arizona . Being well accompanied by a sensitive and moving musical score by Lionel Newman .

This red-blooded Western was compelling and stylishly directed by Delmer Daves and superbly filmed on location . Being made in the middle of his best period-all Western- . Daves was a fine , first-rate filmmaker who mingled moral or ethic analysis , documentary , lyrism , and large open spaces . Daves made some Western masterpieces , he was one of the greatest directors . As he was a western expert, including titles as ¨Broken arrow¨, the first pro-Indian western with James Stewart , ¨Drum beat¨ with Charles Bronson, ¨The last wagon¨ with Richard Widmark , ¨The badlanders¨ with Alan Ladd and Borgnine, ¨3:10 to Yuma¨ with Glenn Ford, ¨Cowboy¨ with Jack Lemmon, ¨The return of the Texan¨ with Dale Robertson , and ¨The hanging tree¨ with Gary Cooper , among others . Rating 7/10. Better than average

The Last Wagon is a film with some good intentions and some very good moments, but it could have been a whole lot better.

A really brutal sheriff played by George Matthews brings a prisoner in to a small wagon train. By his manner he puts off a whole lot of the wagon train member. They start having some sympathy with prisoner Richard Widmark.

When some of the young people of the train go off and frolic in a midnight swim, they return and find the Apaches have massacred the train except for one survivor. Widmark survived by a fluke I won't reveal.

Widmark's a white man who lived with the Comanches and he's the only one who might insure the survival of the rest. Reluctantly they trust him and the adventure begins.

Widmark's is the only really developed character in The Last Wagon, the rest have some strange motivations and attitudes that are not fully explained. Still their are some exciting sequences in the film and it can be enjoyed on that level.

Richard Widmark is Comanche Todd, captured by a brutal sheriff. The two stumble upon a few covered wagons with mostly women and children. Apaches attack and slaughter all the passengers except Widmark and a handful of women and kids, including Felicia Farr, Susan Kohner, and Nick Adams. Widmark, freed of his manacles, leads the others to freedom through Apache country.

Nothing much new here in the way of plot. Widmark represents nature. He wears a buckskin outfit and moccasins. He was raised by Indians, as so many other Western characters have been, from "Hombre" to "Hondo." He's stoic, knows nature, brims with common sense, and is tough as hell.

Farr and the rest represent culture. They speak elegantly, observe civilized customs, and are stupid. But they don't have to worry about survival in the wild as long as Widmark is around to teach them the skills required by adaptation to a hostile environment.

As a matter of fact, once freed of his shackles, Widmark doesn't sound much like an Indian. He sounds more like the sergeant leading the lost patrol through the wilderness. He snaps out orders and helps them shed their winsome civilian ways, as a Widmark character put it in another movie.

No, Widmark doesn't sound much like an Indian. He talks too much for one thing. If the people of the Circum-Mediterranean -- the Greeks, Jews, and Arabs -- are operatic in their speech and body language, the Plains Indians and those of the American Southwest are the opposite.

Widmark doesn't look the part, somehow, either, although I don't know that anyone could be convincing in the role. Felicia Farr, his romantic interest, is an attractive women who looks and sounds as if she'd have been far more at home in the Russian Tea Room than on horseback. This weakness in casting doesn't seem remarkable since no one else has more than modest acting talent either.

Yet it's an engaging movie. We know from the outset that Widmark is fundamentally good. The passengers he adopts are varied, as they must be in such a story. There is the dumb, callow braggart Nick Adams. There is the humane and loving Farr. There is the half-Navaho Susan Kohner who must rediscover the pride in her heritage. There is the Indian-hating Stephanie Griffin who grows up quickly.

When Widmark is finally brought to trial before General Howard, he presents a defense full of sophistry, but the people he's saved testify to his self-sacrificial deeds and the general lets him off with a light sentence, marriage to Farr.

The photography of Oak Creek Canyon and the environs of Sedona, Arizona, are outstanding. You can almost smell the Juniper.

The enemies here, aside from civilization itself, are the Apaches. They were tough customers historically. They deboned their captives beginning with the distal phalanx of one of the fingers. I've only known one Apache personally. He and I managed to come by the ingredients for a soup of fish heads and rice on the waterfront in Juneau. The meal turned out to be something of a mess because he was a little drunk when he made it, but I didn't mind because I was too.