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I was listening to one of my favorite Goldsmith albums the other day 'The Last Run' , and it occured to me that as I heard the cue titled 'The Spanish Coast', that I'd never seen the film. Don't know why that cue prompted me to want to see it, but it did. Not available on Netflix. Not even listed in George C. Scott's list of films he made. Any idea what happened to it?
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The Last Run seems like a good candidate for one of the "DVD on Demand" programs.
I agree, even though I've never seen it. When I checked Amazon, they have another film made around 2004 called 'the last run', but it's a comedy I think. Turner also lists 'The Last Run', but featuring this comedy instead of the George C. Scott film. Oh well, I'll just wait.
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Posted: |
Feb 2, 2011 - 2:20 PM
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By: |
Richard-W
(Member)
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TCM airs a nice clean widescreen print of THE LAST RUN once every three or four years. Put in a request on their website. I've taped it a couple of times. It was not a successful film, apparently, for MGM, but it is a very fine, well-written (by Alan Sharp whose writing you'll recognize from Ulzana's Raid, Billy Two-Hats, and Night Moves) and well-crafted neo-noir. It boasts one of George C. Scott's best performances of the 1970s, which is saying a lot. That moment when the music, the car's engine, and Scott's heart all STOP beating in unison is memorable.
Richard
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The Last Run is now on Warner Archives, since October 4th 2011.
There's a review up on DVDTalk.com by DVDSavant dated Nov.5th.
Finally, a decent widescreen edition of a rare film
Thanks so much Valiant65. I went to Amazon on your advice and found it and put it in my cart. I read the synopsis by Amazon as well as the single review by an admirer. I didn't know that Richard Fleischer replaced John Huston as the Director on the film. I also didn't know that Ingmar Bergman's master lenser, Sven Nykvist, shot the film. Very good news!
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The Last Run is now on Warner Archives, since October 4th 2011.
There's a review up on DVDTalk.com by DVDSavant dated Nov.5th.
Finally, a decent widescreen edition of a rare film
You did good, Valiant65! Many, many thanks for the info!
Finally THE LAST RUN can be rescued from oblivion for all of us who are fond of not just Jerry Goldsmith's wonderfully haunting melody and driving odd-meter chase cues, but the movie itself, which, like so many others, got lost in the shuffle.
You can get it from barnesandnoble.com for less than $17 bucks with a discount coupon! Mine's ordered!
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"The Last Run" was one of three Richard Fleischer-directed films to open in 1971. The other two were "10 Rillington Place" (score by John Dankworth) and "See No Evil" (score by Elmer Bernstein).
For "The Last Run," Fleischer was actually a replacement director. According to a Hollywood Reporter article, John Boorman was originally set to produce and direct the film. A Variety news item reported the casting of Tina Aumont, daughter of French film star Jean-Pierre Aumont and Italian actress Marisa Pavan, in the role of "Claudie," but that role was played by Trish Van Devere in the released film. An article in Time magazine indicated that star George C. Scott requested John Huston, for whom he had worked in the 1963 Universal production "The List of Adrian Messenger" and the Twentieth Century-Fox 1966 production "The Bible," to direct. "The Last Run" began shooting in Spain in early January 1971 with Huston at the helm, but three weeks later, a Variety news item noted that Huston had quit the production after arguments with Scott over re-writes and the performance of Aumont. The Time article stated that Huston and Aumont and, reportedly, several crew members withdrew from the production and when filming resumed, Huston was replaced by Richard Fleischer and Trish Van Devere replaced Aumont.
A biography of Huston states that problems began when Huston's son Tony and longtime Huston associate Gladys Hill joined the director in re-writing the entire first third of Alan Sharp's script. Scott disagreed with the direction the script took and threatened to quit. When Huston refused to return to Sharp's script, producer Carter De Haven III threatened to fire the director, who voluntarily withdrew from the project. It is unclear how much, if any, of the released film was directed by Huston. "The Last Run" was Sharp’s first produced script.
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Posted: |
Nov 7, 2011 - 3:37 AM
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By: |
Richard-W
(Member)
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Heath, I never thought of that, but your insight into the score is right on the money, me thinks. It's a fine listen, however, even apart from the film.
Bob DiMucci, thanks for that history of The Last Run. The conflicts were a bit more complicated than I realized. Van Devere's performance is a weakness in the film. She's too classy and not needy enough. Perhaps one of the disputed points of the script is the definite suggestion of s/m between Musante and VanDevere -- "I didn't like it that way before I met you" and so on. The love scenes are awkwardly shot. I think she chickens out on the set and the director has to go with what he has. Tina Aumont would have mined that suggestion for everything its worth. The screenplay credited to Alan Sharp is obtainable. I'll have to get it. The finished film seems internally consistent with Sharp's other films of the time, thematically and dramatically.
The promotional line "In the tradition of Hemingway and Bogart" is appropriate but I think it hurt the film at the box-office in 1971. They should have taken that line off the posters and out of the trailers. It pigeonholes. The photo of George C. Scott on the poster tells us that anyhow. The Bogart revival was in full swing in the early 1970s and it had legs. His old films were being re-released in repertory theaters and shown on college campuses. I distinctly remember going to see the double-feature The Maltese Falcon (1941) and Key Largo (1948), both directed by Huston, at a local theater that year. Nobody wanted to see an imitation when they could see the real thing. But of course, The Last Run is not an imitation.
I bet Hemingway would have liked the film.
Richard
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Heath, I never thought of that, but your insight into the score is right on the money, me thinks. It's a fine listen, however, even apart from the film.
. Van Devere's performance is a weakness in the film. She's too classy and not needy enough.
very perceptve comment, RW!
bruc
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Has anyone else caught the small bit of editing that occured in the film since it first weeks in release?
In the scene following the chase and shootout with the two guns-for-hire following Scott and company there was originally a scene where Musante gives the two gunman a coup de grace shot through the windshield right after he walks up to the wrecked car. This scene was cut when it went to second run and is the version that now runs on TCM. (I'm puzzled why--if they were trying to soften the Musante character, they failed as he is still an arrogant a-hole in the film as it stands.)
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