The Last Frontier

Allegorical awakenings at Fort Shallan.

The Last Frontier (AKA: Savage Wilderness) is directed by Anthony Mann and adapted to screenplay by Philip Yordan and Russell Hughes from the novel, The Gilded Rooster, written by Richard Emery Roberts. It stars Victor Mature, Guy Madison, Robert Preston, James Whitmore and Anne Bancroft. Music is by Leigh Harline and cinematography by William Mellor.

When Chief Red Cloud (Manuel Dondé) - who has had enough of the army's incursions onto his land - evicts three mountain men from the region. Led by untamed Jed Cooper (Mature), the men head to Fort Shallan and take employment as army scouts...

By the time that The Last Frontier appeared on the great Anthony Mann's CV, he had established himself ...

"Jed" (Victor Mature) and his two trapping pals happen upon an army fort in Oregon where the captain (Guy Madison) offers them jobs as scouts. They can't have a Blue-coat, but "Jed" has a hankering to settle down and get married - and this seems like an idea place to start. Thing is though, he aims just a little too high with his aspirations - the wife of the colonel (Anne Bancroft) who has just arrived from his own HQ that has been reduced to ashes by some Sioux led by the fearsome "Red Cloud". Now we soon cotton on that this colonel (Robert Preston) is a bit out of his depth - not just with matters of the heart, but with fighting these natives who know a great deal more about skirmishing tactics than him. "Jed" and the captain try to make...