The Last Sunset (1961)

Kirk Douglas is Brendan O’Malley, a fast gun who heads to Mexico in search of a long lost love (Dorothy Malone as Belle).

Hot on his trail is Dana Stribling (Rock Hudson), determined to take O’Malley back to Texas to hang for the murder of his brother-in-law.

O’Malley finds Belle married to a drunken coward named John Breckinridge (Joseph Cotton), who’s determined to drive a herd of cattle to Crazy Horse, Texas, on a trail frequented by bandits and hostile Indians.

So O’Malley offers to help, hoping to recapture Belle’s love in the process. He offers up Stribling’s services as trail boss.

After all, they’re bound for Texas, which is where Stribling wants to take him anyway.

Along the way, they deal with rustlers, Indians, quicksand and the death of John Breckinridge.

But his passing pushes Belle into the arms of Stribling, not O’Malley.

The aging gunman finds his solace in Belle’s daughter Missy (Carol Lynley), who has fallen for the much older man.

Missy reminds O’Mally of Belle when she was just 16; she even shows up at an end-of-trail-drive dance wearing her mother’s yellow dress.

But there’s a showdown looming in Crazy Horse, Texas, unless one of the woman can change their man’s mind.

Kirk Douglas as Brendan O’Malley, who tracks down a now-married former love, all while being sought for murder in The Last Sunset (1961)

Rock Hudson as Dana Stribling, tracking down Brendan O’Malley for the killing of his sister’s husband in The Last Sunset (1961)

Review:

Well done, with one of the finer endings you’ll find in a Western.

Hudson is solid as the man who feels bound by duty, even though he’s lost much of his hate for O’Malley over the course the cattle drive. And it isn’t only duty to the law; his sister committed suicide after her husband was gunned down.

Douglas turns in one of his best Western performances as the man who, in Belle’s words, has never lost “the wildness on the tip of” his tongue, but who carries his “own storm wherever he goes.”

And this marks a fitting final Western for Malone, who prettied up several less prestigious oaters in the 1950s. She’s still attractive, for sure, but comes across as much wiser in the ways of the world now that she’s aged a bit.

As for Carol Lynley? She was just 19 when this movie was released, but it already marked the sixth film of a blossoming career. She remained busy as an actress through the mid-1980s, posed for Playboy in 1965 and appeared in “Beware: The Blob” (1972), the sequel to the cult classic.

Dorothy Malone as Belle Breckenridge, a married woman whose life is thrown in turmoil when former lover Brendan O’Malley shows up in The Last Sunset (1961)

Caroly Lynley as Missy Breckenridge, the 15-year-old daughter of Belle, who falls for the much older Brendan O’Malley in The Last Sunset (1961)

Directed by:
Robert Aldrich

Cast:
Rock Hudson … Dana Stribling
Kirk Douglas … Brendan O’Malley
Dorothy Malone … Belle Breckenridge
Joseph Cotten … John Breckenridge
Carol Lynley … Missy Breckenridge
Neville Brand … Frank Hobbs
Jack Elam … Ed Hobbs
James Westmoreland … Julesburg Kid
Regis Toomey … Milton Wing
as Rad Fulton
Adam Williams … Calverton
John Shay … Bowman

Runtime: 112 min.

Joseph Cotton as John Breckenridge, Belle’s husband, humored by O’Malley’s announcement that he plans to steal Belle in The Last Sunset (1961)

Regis Toomey as MIlton Wing, foreman on the Breckenridge ranch in The Last Sunset (1961)

Memorable lines:

Missy Breckenridge: “I never really met an American cowboy.”
Brendan O’Malley: “You’d be disappointed.”
Missy: “What makes you think I’d be disappointed?”
O’Malley: “Well, you see, cowboys aren’t very bright. They’re always broke. Generally, they’re drunk.”

Dana Stribling: “Will you come voluntarily? Or will I have to take you?”
O’Malley: “Say, it just happens I’m headed for Texas right now. Crazy Horse. Course, it isn’t Frio County, but you’ll die a lot closer to home than if I had to kill you here.”

O’Malley to Stribling: “You still talking about that sister of yours. Like the truth? Here it is. Your sister put more horns on Jimmy Graham than a porcupine’s got quills. By the time he got himself killed, he wasn’t good for anything except maybe to stuff and hang over the fireplace. That sister of yours, Stribling, was just a free drink on the house. And nobody ever went home thirsty. I mean nobody.”

Jack Elam as Ed Hobbs and Neville Brand as his brother Frank, joining the cattle driver with not so honorable intentions in The Last Sunset (1961)

James Westmoreland as the Julesburg Kid, joining the cattle drive with an eye on the woman in The Last Sunset (1961)

Belle Breckenridge: “To me, it’s always seemed like the woman who keep on living. Men kill or get killed. Women bury them. We’re professional survivors.”

Brendan O’Mally: “Belle, look at me. I’m trying to tell you how much I love you.”
Belle Breckenridge: “No, Bren. You loved a 16-year-old girl. In another country. In another world almost. And you still think I’m that girl.”
O’Mally: “You are.”
Belle: “I’m not. The girl you remembered died a long, long time ago.”
O’Mally: “But the minute I look at you, she comes alive again.”

Brendan O’Mally, when Stribling returns with the Indians, who begin cutting out part of the herd as payment for crossing their land: “How many did you have to give?”
Dana Stribling: “One-fifth of the herd. O’Mally’s fifth.”
O’Mally: “Never did like cows much anyway.”

Kirk Douglas as Brendan O’Malley and Dorothy Malone as Belle Breckenridge, reunited after years apart in The Last Sunset (1961)

Kirk Douglas as Brendan O’Malley, showing Missy Breckenridge (Carol Lynley) a bird’s nest that was nearly trampled by the stock in The Last Sunset (1961)

Joseph Cotton as John Breckenridge, running into trouble in a saloon with a pair of former Confederate soldiers in The Last Sunset (1961)

Kirk Douglas as Brendan O’Malley, reacting to the return of a yellow dress from his past, worn by Missy Breckenridge (Carol Lynley) in The Last Sunset (1961)

Rock Hudson as Dana Stribling and Dorothy Malone as Belle Breckenridge, getting closer and watching Missy and O’Malley do the same in The Last Sunset (1961)

Dorothy Malone as Belle Breckenridge, having revealed a long-held secret to Brendan O’Malley (Kirk Douglas) in The Last Sunset (1961)