The End of the Trail

The film begins when Marshal Cahill goes to arrest five men for bank robbery. Resistance is futile. Back in Valentine Texas Cahill's boys are involved with Strothers, who leads them astray. Danny Cahill was drunk and disorderly. His younger brother sneaks into jail to free the prisoners while every man is fighting a barn fire. The boys soon learn there is no honor among thieves, but too late. The clever crooks burglarize the bank, then return to jail for a perfect alibi. Billy Joe will hide the loot, and no one will know anything if they keep their mouths shut. The posse searched the county but could find no strangers. [This is a strange story compared to earlier John Wayne films. The younger generation has gone awry.] Daniel seems to have a mind of his own. Marshal Cahill & son capture a gang who have new money, but can't provide a good explanation. They are arrested. What if the wrong men are punished for someone else's crime?

Back in Valentine the crooks can't find the buried loot and return to threaten Billy Joe. But he can't describe where he hid it. Somehow Marshal Cahill knows the truth! Late at night Danny and Billy Joe visit the graveyard to locate the burial place. The Marshal's surprise fails. [This serious business is played for laughs.] You can sense the double riding that mule. Cahill and Lightfoot track the wagon, and are ambushed by the gang. Why did they lack vigilance? At night the remaining gang members return to the old mine to collect their share of the loot. Cahill's boys are stopped by their father and told what to do. The bad guys return to get the rest of the loot, and get their reward. Cahill's boys learn to do the right thing; there is hope for them. The messy ending is not covered here, not even an deus ex machina would straighten out this mess.

Compared to his earlier films, this is more of a comedy than a drama. Was this to spare John Wayne from strenuous activity? It lacks the singing and dancing found in some old Westerns. A better story makes a better film. You almost know how it will turn out from the beginning of the film. At times there is a roughness to John Wayne's voice that suggests health problems.

A pretty darn good late John Wayne film

There is a group of people who love to feel superior by disdaining things that everyday people enjoy. One of those things is a John Wayne movie. I am one who really enjoys John Wayne movies. He had a great screen presence, even when he was older, as he was here, in the Rooster Cogburn movies, and especially in the great movie "The Shootist".

This movie is really about fathers and sons, and particularly absent fathers and sons who find the wrong path and try to get back to the right way. Wayne plays the title character, J. D. Cahill. The opening scene is him on the road taking on a band of five bad guys in a shootout that ends the way you would expect the hero to play in a John Wayne film.

Cahill is an older man and we learn that he has young sons, one, Danny, a young teen and the other, Budger, a young boy. Their mother died. In a touching conversation with Danny, regretting his not being around for them, he acknowledges that he has focused too much on his job. He does note that when Danny's mother (Cahill's dear wife) was dying her last words to Cahill were, "Go Get `Em!". And so, he has been ever since.

George Kennedy plays one of his best and menacing bad guys, Abe Fraser. I don't want to get into the plot, but he does suck Danny and Budger into his plans. And it is the boys trying to extricate themselves without letting their father in on their problems that ends up causing most of the problems. The crisis comes when some innocent men are facing death for the crimes the boys know they and Abe's gang committed and they have to get things right in time.

You expect things to turn out a certain way in a film like this. There aren't any big surprises, but there are some funny and some touching moments along the way. And Wayne is still quite good as he holds the screen with his unique presence. And Neville Brand as Lightfoot provides some very fine moments in the film.

I don't think it is one of the best things Wayne did, but it is still better then most films and suitable for families. It can provide some good discussion with your kids, as well.

And it is a John Wayne film.

The critics are too harsh

So the Duke is getting a little long in the tooth. His inimitable style, tough-talkin', swaggerin' self is as true here as his more famous films. After all, it IS John Wayne.

In this plot, J. D. Cahill, a widower and federal marshall has neglected the upbringing of his boys - one surmises because of his duty to his country and the wild, uncivilized territory. But in a youthful, rebellious spirit, his boys throw their lot in with some real outlaws. And it spells trouble. Big trouble. The kind of trouble that only Cahill - U.S. Marshall - can fix.

The movie is fun and entertaining. A couple of hours spent lost in a time when the west was young and the nation herself was immature and rebellious.