A Última Diligência

The iconic characters of Ernest Haycox's Stage To Lordsburg is given yet another remake with four country/western legends in the cast. Kris Kristofferson is the Ringo Kid, with Johnny Cash as the US Marshal, Willie Nelson is Doc Holiday, and Waylon Jennings as the gambler Hatfield. It's not the desert poetical version that John Ford made, but this can hold its own.

As you can see the doctor on the trip is the famous true life Doc Holiday instead of the inebriated former Union Army surgeon that Thomas Mitchell won an Oscar playing in the first version. There are other plot changes as well.

However without the showdown of Ringo Kid with Luke Plummer and the Apache attack on the moving coach this would not be Stagecoach and rest assured it is most definitely included. They are staged well if different from the 1939 and 1966 versions.

Others in the cast are John Schneider as the driver and he's not the comic figure that Andy Devine was. Anthony Newley is the whiskey salesman and Anthony Franciosa is the banker Gatewood who makes a very sudden decision to travel just as in the original.

The women are Elizabeth Ashley as Dallas the saloon girl and Mary Crosby plays the pregnant army captain's wife Mrs. Mallory. Her father Bing Crosby was Doc Boone in the 1966 remake.

The quartet of legends makes this one really work.