Compelling yet creepy is a phrase not often associated with Westerns, but we all agreed it fit THE LAST SUNSET (1961), Sheila Ellis’s choice for this session. It’s a tale of revenge wrapped in a soap opera of bent romances with a side of twisted creepiness. Still, there’s a compelling curiosity about it that strangely holds your interest.

Kirk Douglas plays the villain accused of murder. Rock Hudson, the vengeance-seeking lawman. Dorothy Malone is the unhappy wife of drunken cattleman Joseph Cotton, and Carol Lynley plays her young teenage daughter, yearning for love.

Based on book SUNDOWN AT CRAZY HORSE by Howard Rigsby, the screenplay was written by Dalton Trumbo. Blacklisted, Trumbo had written SPARTACUS which Douglas both produced and starred in that had been released the year before. Douglas’s hiring of him effectively broke the blacklist.

Director Robert Aldrich (VERA CRUZ, KISS ME DEADLY) said he did THE LAST SUNSET at a time when he was “dead broke” and needed the job. But there were serious problems. Aldrich said Douglas “knew the screenplay wasn’t right … but it was too late to save it” as Trumbo had left to go work on EXODUS for Otto Premeinger. Aldrich called making the film a “very unpleasant experience. … The whole thing started badly, went on badly, ended badly.” Of course, Aldrich hadn’t helped things when he brought several other writers to the Northern Mexico location to work on new projects for him. Aldrich said that when Douglas found out, “he went berserk.” Reports state that Douglas booted the writers back to Hollywood and the incident set star/producer and director against each other.

With a running time of 1 hour and 52 minutes, THE LAST SUNSET is currently available on Starz and on Blu-ray.

Along with Sheila, our group includes Johnny D. Boggs, record ten-time Spur Award-winning author and Owen Wister Award winner whose work includes his latest BLOODY NEWTON, Kirk Ellis, Emmy winning screenwriter and producer, as well as author of the upcoming book THEY KILL PEOPLE about the making of BONNIE AND CLYDE due out in February, David Morrell, award-winning author and New York Times best-selling author of FIRST BLOOD that introduced the character Rambo, and Robert Nott, award-winning journalist and author of several books on Western films, including his most recent RIDE THE HIGH COUNTRY that examines the production, themes and legacy of the film that launched Sam Peckinpah’s career.

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