The Last Run

Infobox Film
name = The Last Run


image_size = 150
caption = French poster art
director = Richard Fleischer
producer = Carter DeHaven
writer = Alan Sharp
narrator =
starring = George C. Scott
Tony Musante
Trish Van Devere
Colleen Dewhurst
music = Jerry Goldsmith
release =
cinematography = Sven Nykvist
editing = Russell Lloyd
released = July 7, 1971 (USA)
runtime = 95 min.
country = United States of America
language = English
budget =
gross =
followed_by =
website =
amg_id = 1:98791
distributor = Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
imdb_id = 0067329

"The Last Run" is a 1971 action film directed by Richard Fleischer, starring George C. Scott, Tony Musante, Trish Van Devere, and Colleen Dewhurst.

Plot

Harry Grimes (George C. Scott) is an aging American career criminal who was once a driver for Chicago’s organized crime rings. He is living in self-imposed exile in a fishing village in southern Portugal, where he seeks occasional companionship from a local prostitute (Colleen Dewhurst). Unexpectedly, Harry received a job, his first in nine years, to drive an escaped killer (Tony Musante) and the man’s girlfriend (Trish Van Devere) across Portugal and Spain into France. He accepts the job, despite premonitions that will end badly for him. In the course of the trip, Harry and his passengers are pursued by both the police and Harry’s former mobster cronies.Shock Cinema, page 18, Edition No. 35, Summer 2008]

Cast

*George C. Scott as Harry Grimes
*Tony Musante as Paul Rickard
*Trish Van Devere as Claudie Scherrer
*Colleen Dewhurst as Monique
*Aldo Sambrell as Miguel

Production history

John Huston was the original director for "The Last Run". However, Huston and Scott, who previously worked together on the 1966 film "", had fights on the set. Huston walked off the production and he was hastily replaced by Richard Fleischer. [ [http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,904935-9,00.html “George C. Scott: Tempering a Terrible Fire,” Time Magazine, 22 March, 1971] ] Scott also had fights with French actress Tina Aumont, who was originally cast as the killer’s girlfriend. She also quit the film and was replaced by Trish Van Devere, an American actress. Scott and Van Devere fell in love during the production. However, Scott was married at the time to Colleen Dewhurst, who was also in the film. Dewhurst and Scott divorced after the production concluded, and the actor married Van Devere (who became his third wife).

Critical reaction

"The Last Run" was poorly received by the major critics, and most of them lamented the replacement of Huston with Fleischer. Roger Ebert, writing for the "Chicago Sun-Times", commented that "with Huston directing Alan Sharp's interesting screenplay, the movie would still have had the good stuff, I think, and would have avoided the embarrassing collapses of tone that wreck this version." [ [http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/19710722/REVIEWS/107220301/1023 Chicago Sun-Times review] ] Roger Greenspun, reviewing the film for The New York Times, stated that Fleischer "a veteran of more than 20 years in the business...seems not yet to have mastered the reaction shot; and his automobile chase sequences, for all the billowing dust and squealing tires, seem to move at 30 miles an hour." [ [http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9F00E5DC1330E73BBC4053DFB166838A669EDE New York Times review] ] Toni Mastroianni, reviewing the film for the "Cleveland Press", faulted Scott’s performance as the main stumbling block: "The problem with Scott at the moment is to find a movie as big as he is. The role is right for him and maybe he should play a real Hemingway part instead of an imitation one." [ [http://www.clevelandmemory.org/mastroianni/tm115.shtml Cleveland Press review] ]

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer promoted the film with the tag line: "In the tradition of Hemingway and Bogart." However, the film was not a commercial success. To date, "The Last Run" has not been released on home video or DVD.

References