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I was in a library the other day and I thought that as long as I was there I would take a peek in Kirk Douglas' autobiography "The Ragpicker's Son" to see if he had anything interesting to say about THE LAST SUNSET. He did, about three or four pages' worth.

He confirmed that his character actually did have sex with the daughter.

He said that in the original script the Rock Hudson character didn't have as much to do as he did in the finished version. That was because once Universal cast Hudson in the role, he (Hudson) was automatically given top billing, and to justify it additional -- almost extraneous --scenes with Hudson had to be created and filmed. Even before I read this I had wondered about that billing because the Douglas character is clearly the main and central character in the film.

He also commented that Hudson didn't mingle with the rest of the cast during the shooting. He didn't make it sound as if Hudson was stand-offish or aloof or otherwise unpleasant in that way, just that he seemed to need to retreat into a fiercely-insular shell of his own creation.

And this: Douglas, who also produced the film through Universal, strongly, strongly wanted Lauren Bacall to play the role that eventually went to Dorothy Malone after Bacall repeatedly turned it down. Now that would have been interesting: Malone is good in this film, but I'm a bit of a Lauren Bacall fan.

And, on a humorous note, that the film was made in Mexico and apparently Joseph Cotten had the running shits throughout production.

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Have you ever seen Douglas and John Wayne in "The War Wagon"?

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Yes, Rayban, a couple of times. 40 years ago I would have said THE WAR WAGON was the better film, but not today. THE WAR WAGON is actually kind of a "caper" film set out West, a la TOPKAPI and RIFIFI and GRAND SLAM -- and I do like that kind of film -- but for me, now, I think THE WAR WAGON dwells a little too much on macho slapstick at the expense of the complex mechanics and suspense that usually go into the caper. I miss that.

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One that didn't was ONE-EYED JACKS which I saw on first release at age 6 or 7. Freudian western hell! I actually thought Malden's "Dad" Longworth was Brando's father!

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You're right, Props. Critics seem to play "monkey see, monkey do" with this film and universally pan it, but I enjoy the hell out of it. Like THE LAST SUNSET it has an unusually long running time and there is very little clich Western action, but I find it fascinating and, like you, did so even when I was young.

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Scenes and shots from that film stayed with me for years afterward,

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Many scenes, yes: the two that stand out among many are Malden's abandonment of Brando after the bank robbery, and Brando calling Slim Pickens a "tub of guts" before shooting him. Shocking abd violently abrupt scene, but indelibly well-choreographed, photographed and executed.

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'Course, come Saturday I like to revisit my favorite Western Movie Hero, Audie Murphy. The Colony Theater in Toledo must have run each of his Universal-International epics at their Kid's Matinee on Saturday, and I enjoyed about all of them.

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My experience was much the same (a Thursday-Friday-Saturday double bill of a UI sci-fi film and an Audie Murphy Western was a common occurrence at my home-town theater). Part of that was because Murphy seemed so young, not all that much older than my pre-pubescent self, so much younger than Cooper, Wayne, Stewart and Randolph Scott were in that era. I could identify.

That said, I just don't think so much of Murphy nowadays. He seems too lightweight to carry a film by himself. His best work was done in support of Stewart in NIGHT PASSAGE and Burt Lancaster, Lilian Gish and Audrey Hepburn in the largely forgotten and incredibly underrated THE UNFORGIVEN. And, to be honest, aside from those two and THE RED BADGE OF COURAGE, I have a bit of a problem even discussing Murphy's work in a thread called "Adult Westerns".

Re the Cooper vs. Wayne thing that Rayban brought up: Cooper WAS the quintessential Wetern hero if you include only his films made before the end of World War 2, and I still think of him that way. But then he aged dramatically, even shockingly, almost overnight, it seems. In the 50s he made a string of films as a lead character whose heroism is either diluted or enhanced (depending on your point of view) by self-doubts, inner demons and other neuroses. That might have worked in HIGH NOON, but after things like THE HANGING TREE and THEY CAME TO CORDURA and MAN OF THE WEST, Cooper became a subdued stereotype as an anti-John Wayne during the very era when Wayne's larger-than-life persona became fully developed.

But I'll still take Cooper and, now, Randolph Scott over Wayne. And that may be for no better reason than my own personality being more like their personas than Wayne's.