To the Last Man

To the Last Man

1933. USA. Directed by Henry Hathaway. Screenplay by Jack Cunningham, based on the novel by Zane Grey. With Randolph Scott, Esther Ralston, Gail Patrick, Barton MacLane, Buster Crabbe. Long available only in battered television prints, this early feature by the prolific Hathaway (The Sons of Katie Elder, True Grit) has been restored by MoMA from the original camera negative, with one reel of missing footage filled in from a 16mm print. The last in a series of seven low-budget Westerns directed by Hathaway for Paramount’s emerging star Randolph Scott, To the Last Man already revels in the harsh tone and sharp violence that would become Hathaway’s trademarks—notably in a sequence in which the bad guys blast the head off the porcelain doll belonging to Shirley Temple (already a scene-stealer in this early, unbilled appearance). Restored by The Museum of Modern Art with support from the Celeste Bartos Fund for Film Preservation. 72 min.