The intrigue that unfolded
behind the scenes of this turgid thriller is more interesting than anything
that actually happens onscreen. Not only was an iconic director replaced with a
filmmaker of considerably less distinction, but the leading man left his wife
for another woman—and both ladies are featured in the cast. Had any of this
tension seeped into the movie’s scenes, The
Last Run could have been edgy and exciting. Instead, it’s a slow movie
about a man who spends his life driving fast. Make what you will of the irony.
In any event, George C. Scott plays Harry Garmes, an American wheelman who
spent most of his career driving cars for mobsters in Chicago. Because of some
unnamed existential crisis, which was exacerbated by the death of his young son
the infidelity of his now ex-wife, Harry lives in Portugal, drinking and
smoking his way through days full of nothing. When he gets hired to drive an
escaped convict and the convict’s girlfriend across Europe, Harry embraces the
opportunity to see if he still has what it takes. Predictably, this simple
scenario gets complicated, thanks to double-crosses, secret agendas, and
Harry’s burgeoning romantic interest in the convict’s girlfriend.
There’s a
certain poetry to some of the dialogue in Alan Sharp’s script, and it’s fun to
imagine what The Last Run might might
have become if John Huston, the project’s original director, had remained
involved. Alas, he bailed partway through production, apparently because of
friction with the notoriously difficult Scott, and his successor was Richard
Fleischer, whose filmmographry includes several enjoyable films but also a
number of genuine embarrassments. The
Last Run falls somewhere between those extremes; while it’s a
disappointment that often gets stuck in the mud of pointless and/or repetitious
scenes, it’s never overtly bad. Rather, it’s drab and lifeless and uninspired. Although
Huston was at a weird stage in his career, he was an old pro at telling stories
about self-destructive men, so it’s tempting to believe he would have elevated
the material more than Fleischer did. After all, the story is a quintessential
’70s downer, and Huston rebounded from a creative slump with the grim Fat City a year later.
That said, the characterizations
in The Last Run are so thin, and the
narrative events so trite, that perhaps the picture was destined for
mediocrity. Scott strikes a spark every so often with his signature blend of
anger and ennui, but costars Tony Musante and Trish Van Devere barely register
while playing pure clichés—the hotheaded crook and the opportunistic moll. Behind-the-scenes
talents do what they can, with composer Jerry Goldsmith’s jaunty score
complementing cinematographer Sven Nykvist’s moody imagery. As for that other aspect of behind-the-scenes drama,
Scott began production married to actress Colleen Dewhurst, who appears in one
scene as a prostitute, and by the end of production, Scott was with Van Devere,
whom he subsequently married.
The Last Run: FUNKY