"The Last Hunt" is a grim disturbing tale of the slaughter of the buffalo in the 1880s, a time when the buffalo numbers had dwindled to a mere 3000 head.
The story opens with Sandy McKenzie (Stewart Granger) losing his small herd of cattle to a buffalo stampede. An ex-hunter, Sandy had been planning to set up a small cattle ranch as he was sick of hunting buffalo. Charlie Gibson (Robert Taylor - playing against type) a sadistic hunter, comes along and persuades Sandy to join up with him to go after buffalo. Sandy reluctantly agrees.
To fill out their crew They hire a one-legged skinner named Woodfoot (Lloyd Nolan) and a young red-headed half breed Jimmy O'Brien (Russ Tamblyn). Charlie takes great pleasure in mowing down the helpless buffalo while Sandy shoots the beasts only because he has to. One night a small Indian raiding party steals the group's mules. Charlie goes after them and guns them all down while smiling devilishly as he does it. He wounds a young Indian girl (Debra Paget) and takes her and an orphaned child back to the camp.
Sandy and the girl are attracted to each other but Charlie takes her unto himself, which creates a tension between the two. Among Charlie's kills is a white buffalo whose hide is big medicine to the Indians and a bonus to Charlie as it will fetch a high price. A young brave Spotted Hand (Ed Lonehill) arrives in camp and tries to obtain the white buffalo hide. Charlie claims it as his own and kills the young brave when he challenges Charlie. Unbeknownst to Charlie, Jimmy and the Girl steal the hide to honor Spotted Hand's burial pyre.
Sandy, fed up with the whole mess, decides to go to tow o sell the hides. Sick of the stench of buffalo, he gets all duded up, gets drunk and gets into a saloon brawl with a trio of buffalo hunters (Ainslie Pryor, Dale Van Sickel, Terry Wilson) and the bar tender (Fred Graham). He also gets involved with saloon girl Peg (Constance Ford).
Returning to camp Sandy is at first greeted with open arms by Charlie who quickly becomes angry when he learns that the white buffalo hide was not among the hides sold in town. He quickly suspects that Sandy has stolen the valuable hide. Sandy decides to leave the camp with the girl setting up the inevitable showdown with Charlie.
The scenes of the killing of the buffalo should look realistic as they were actual "thinning out of the herds" shots taken by wildlife sharpshooters.
Others in the cast included Joe DeSantis as the fur dealer Ed Black, Ralph Moody as the Indian Agent and Roy Barcroft as Major Smith the supply officer for the reservation.
Quirky ending.
The story opens with Sandy McKenzie (Stewart Granger) losing his small herd of cattle to a buffalo stampede. An ex-hunter, Sandy had been planning to set up a small cattle ranch as he was sick of hunting buffalo. Charlie Gibson (Robert Taylor - playing against type) a sadistic hunter, comes along and persuades Sandy to join up with him to go after buffalo. Sandy reluctantly agrees.
To fill out their crew They hire a one-legged skinner named Woodfoot (Lloyd Nolan) and a young red-headed half breed Jimmy O'Brien (Russ Tamblyn). Charlie takes great pleasure in mowing down the helpless buffalo while Sandy shoots the beasts only because he has to. One night a small Indian raiding party steals the group's mules. Charlie goes after them and guns them all down while smiling devilishly as he does it. He wounds a young Indian girl (Debra Paget) and takes her and an orphaned child back to the camp.
Sandy and the girl are attracted to each other but Charlie takes her unto himself, which creates a tension between the two. Among Charlie's kills is a white buffalo whose hide is big medicine to the Indians and a bonus to Charlie as it will fetch a high price. A young brave Spotted Hand (Ed Lonehill) arrives in camp and tries to obtain the white buffalo hide. Charlie claims it as his own and kills the young brave when he challenges Charlie. Unbeknownst to Charlie, Jimmy and the Girl steal the hide to honor Spotted Hand's burial pyre.
Sandy, fed up with the whole mess, decides to go to tow o sell the hides. Sick of the stench of buffalo, he gets all duded up, gets drunk and gets into a saloon brawl with a trio of buffalo hunters (Ainslie Pryor, Dale Van Sickel, Terry Wilson) and the bar tender (Fred Graham). He also gets involved with saloon girl Peg (Constance Ford).
Returning to camp Sandy is at first greeted with open arms by Charlie who quickly becomes angry when he learns that the white buffalo hide was not among the hides sold in town. He quickly suspects that Sandy has stolen the valuable hide. Sandy decides to leave the camp with the girl setting up the inevitable showdown with Charlie.
The scenes of the killing of the buffalo should look realistic as they were actual "thinning out of the herds" shots taken by wildlife sharpshooters.
Others in the cast included Joe DeSantis as the fur dealer Ed Black, Ralph Moody as the Indian Agent and Roy Barcroft as Major Smith the supply officer for the reservation.
Quirky ending.