Victor Mature shines in his leading role as Jed Cooper, a rough, tough frontiersman who finds his whole world changing around him as he meets the Union officers of a fort in frontier territory, Colonel Marston (Robert Preston) and Captain Riordan
(Guy Madison). This is an adult western, with well developed characters that help the movie to avoid the usual good guys in white hats, bad guys in black hats storyline of most westerns, as the hard drinking and hard living Mature struggles to understand civilization. The title song is great, the photography is great, and so is the directing and acting.

Guy Madison--a former radio announcer--uses his voice extremely well to control his scenes, and Robert Preston is excellent as the obsessed military man. And Anne Bancroft is superb as Preston's military wife, as she is literally swept off her feet by the bold Mature.

Guy Williams--later of "Zorro," and "Lost in Space" has one of his many 1950s bit parts in movies with major stars, constantly in the background--but never seen in closeups--as Private Benton.

THE LAST FRONTIER is different from other westerns in almost every way, from its treatment of Indians to its portrayal of the military, to its development of the romance between an uncivlized frontiersman and a civilized married woman. SHANE had the romance with a married woman--suggested--but no Indians, and THE UNFORGIVEN had neither.

THE LAST FRONTIER IS ONE OF THE 3 BEST WESTERNS EVER MADE!!!

Chari Krishnan
RESEARCHKING