The Last Musketeer

Though what musketeers of any kind have to do with this story I don't know, Rex Allen stars in this fine B western where cattle buyer Allen gets involved with the problems of a valley and the small ranchers who are being starved out by James Anderson owner of the local Ponderosa who also controls all the water in the valley with a reservoir he's built and maintains with gunmen.

His father built the Ponderosa, but the son wants to make it bigger yet by driving all the other ranchers out and then damming up an underground river that feeds the reservoir and selling electric power to surrounding cities. In 1952 still a lot of the country had not yet gotten public power courtesy of one of the New Deal's most innovative and progressive agencies, the Rural Electrification Agency. The plot would have resonated well in the rural market area though not as well as in the Thirties. In that sense though good and still somewhat topical this would have found a bigger market in the Thirties.

Rex and sidekick Slim Pickens also have to contend with young lovers Mary Ellen Kay and Michael Hall whose father is killed by Anderson and his men and is seeking vengeance. Hall's understandable grief and quest for Anderson's hide might upset plans that Allen has to bring Anderson down legally.

Both Rex Allen and Slim Pickens have a background in rodeo, in fact Slim Pickens was a rodeo clown. About six or seven minutes in the film is devoted to Slim's routine with a bull like you would have seen in his younger days.

This is a pretty serious western and a good one showing Rex Allen to good advantage as a cowboy hero.