Never Grow Old (2018)

In 1849, the good folks in the town of Garlow on the California Trail have banned gambling, booze and whores. That’s filled the church on Sundays, but left some local businesses hurting.

Then Dutch Albert (John Cusack) arrives with his two sidekicks, looking to collect a bounty on an old acquaintance named Ben Crabtree.

They don’t find Crabtree, but they do find an out-of-business saloon they can buy cheap and a town they can take over. And they set about doing just that.

Caught in the middle is Patrick Tate (Emile Hirsch), a carpenter and coffin-maker who’s worried about how he will keep bread on the table for his pretty young wife and two young children if business doesn’t pick up.

Dutch solves that problem. With all the gunplay and violence at his saloon, the body count is rising in Garlow. And Dutch pays well, especially for private burials he wants no one else to know about.

But Patrick’s newfound wealth comes with a sense of growing guilt. And it also strains his relationship with his wife Aubrey (Deborah Francois), who begins to wonder what’s happened to the gentle man she married.

Review:

How often has the coffin-maker played a minor role in Westerns?

Here, he’s the main character, and Emile Hirsch does a fine job as a man who can’t — or won’t risk — standing up to Dutch Albert. But he certainly isn’t turning down Dutch’s money.

John Cusack, meanwhile, makes for a ominous, soft-spoken villain, a man without mercy, a man who immediately senses that Patrick Tate is someone he can bend to his will.

Add convincing sets, a strong supporting cast and mud-caked streets that add to the film’s gloomy mood and you’ve got a solid Western.

Not that it’s likely to make anyone’s Top 10 list. But it’s much, much better than most of the low-budget Westerns being made these days.

Directed by:
Ivan Kavanagh

Cast:
Emile Hirsch … Patrick Tate
John Cusack … Dutch Albert
Deborah Francois … Audrey Tate
Molly McCann … Emma Tate
Quinn Topper Marcus … Thomas Tate
Sam Louwyck … Dumb-Dumb
Camille Pistone … Sicily
Danny Webb … Preacher Pike
Tim Ahern … Sheriff Parker
Blake Berris … Fred
Nickel Bosenberg … Jim Emmet
Sean Gormley … Pete
Paul Reid … Ed
Antonia Campbell-Hughes … Maria Pike
Anne Coesens … Mrs. Crabtree
Manon Capelle … Emily Crabtree

Runtime: 100 min.

Memorable lines:

Dutch Albert to Mrs. Crabtree: “Sometimes, I think the whole world is strung together by lies. But I’m not gonna lie to you, ma’am. I’m gonna kill your husband. I’m gonna get up real close. And, if I get a good shot, I’m gonna blow his head clean off.”

Dutch Albert to Patrick Tate: “Do you think a decent guy like you with honest hands could be friends with a guy like me?”
Patrick: “I really don’t know.”
Dutch Albert: “Will you, Patrick Tate, take me, Albert Dutch, to be your friend?”
Patrick: “Sure.”
Dutch: “Life’s a riddle. We kill two old friends, and straight away, we make another.”

Dutch Albert, trying to convince Mrs. Crabtree to whore out her daughter as well as herself to feed her hungry family: “You a religious woman.”
Mrs. Crabtree: “Yes. I love the Lord.”
Dutch: “Good. Just keep your faith in the Lord. Go home. Go to sleep. Starve to death. When you wake up, you’ll be in paradise.”

Patrick Tate to Dutch Albert, about Dumb-Dumb and his wife: “You keep that tongue-less son-of-a-bitch away from her.”
Dutch Albert: “He goes his own way, Pat.”
Patrick: “If he goes near her again, I’ll fuckin’ kill him.”

Preacher Pike to the sheriff, at the hanging of Emily Crabtree: “You’re killing an innocent child while there are murderers in our midst.”

Dutch Albert to Patrick Tate: “I look in your eyes, all I see is fear.”