The Last Command
This rousing 1955 version of the events surrounding Texas' fight for independence from Mexico ticks all the boxes. A ruggedly attractive hero, a touching romance, and a stirring score by Max Steiner. Sterling Hayden is ideally suited to play Jim Bowie, ably supported by Richard Carlson as Travis. Arthur Hunnicutt is perhaps a bit too homespun as Davy Crockett (he was a Congressman, after all!). Anna Maria Alberghetti is lovely as the naïve young girl who falls in love with Bowie, with Ben Cooper as her would-be suitor. Virginia Grey is good as Susanna Dickinson, the wife of one of the Alamo's defenders, as is Otto Kruger as Stephen Austin. Hugh Sanders is highly effective in a small role as Sam Houston, at the end of the film.
While The Last Command contains inaccuracies most films based on famous historical events do this in the interest of telling a good story and creating dramatic effect, then and now. It is perhaps a bit sentimental in places, and the romance is undoubtedly fictional. But on the whole it is very moving and a worthy tribute to the men who died at the Alamo.
This rousing 1955 version of the events surrounding Texas' fight for independence from Mexico ticks all the boxes. A ruggedly attractive hero, a touching romance, and a stirring score by Max Steiner. Sterling Hayden is ideally suited to play Jim Bowie, ably supported by Richard Carlson as Travis. Arthur Hunnicutt is perhaps a bit too homespun as Davy Crockett (he was a Congressman, after all!). Anna Maria Alberghetti is lovely as the naïve young girl who falls in love with Bowie, with Ben Cooper as her would-be suitor. Virginia Grey is good as Susanna Dickinson, the wife of one of the Alamo's defenders, as is Otto Kruger as Stephen Austin. Hugh Sanders is highly effective in a small role as Sam Houston, at the end of the film.
While The Last Command contains inaccuracies most films based on famous historical events do this in the interest of telling a good story and creating dramatic effect, then and now. It is perhaps a bit sentimental in places, and the romance is undoubtedly fictional. But on the whole it is very moving and a worthy tribute to the men who died at the Alamo.