The Last of the Cowboys

Any henry fonda film is worth a look ...gary sandy shows what a real moron acts like when put on the big screen and embarrasses himself ... the women were delightful, and daina house was especially beautiful and bountiful ... loved eileen brennan too

The story line is dull at the beginning. Yet it evolves wonderfully. The characters are wonderful. Robert Englund, Susan Sarandon and Henry Fonda are great together. The story takes place in a simpler time with simpler people. The scenery in the movie is gorgeous. Takes place over the road. You get to see many different places. There's funny parts that will make you laugh out loud and sad parts that may make you cry. It's a really peaceful movie. Although the ending is terrible as it leaves the story open and ends the story swiftly and tragically. The watcher is left to wonder what exactly happened to the characters.

After being admitted to a hospital in California for a terminal illness, a truck driver named "Elegant John Howard" (Henry Fonda) has his big rig repossessed by the finance company. But rather than stay there and die he decides to retake his truck and drive it one last time on a trip across the country. On the way he picks up a hitchhiker near Cheyenne named "Beebo Crozier" (Robert Englund) who wants to go to Florida. Unfortunately, neither he nor Beebo have enough money to pay for the food and fuel necessary to get there. As luck would have it, however, while driving near Laramie, upon stopping to visit an old friend named "Penelope Pearson" (Eileen Brennan)-who happens to be the madam of a brothel--he discovers that she and six prostitutes desperately need to get to South Carolina. Needless to say, with their ability to make money, combined with his need to fund one last cross-country trek, both Elegant John and Penelope reach a business agreement of sorts to accomplish their respective goals. Now rather than reveal any more I will just say that this was an entertaining and light-hearted drama which kept me interested from start to finish. Admittedly, it is a bit dated but I thought it definitely managed to capture that particular period of time quite well. In any case, although this isn't the best "trucker film" ever made, I thought it was well worth the time spent and for that reason I have rated it accordingly. Slightly above average.

Elegant John (Henry Fonda) is a terminally ill truck driver who steals his old rig to make one last great cross country run, but this time has the law on his tail as who pursue his 18 wheeler across State lines. Along the way he picks up an odd assortment of hitch-hikers and passengers, including a band of evicted prostitutes, the madam (Eileen Brennan) being his old flame.

A rather odd film cheaply shot by a one time director John Leone that pre-figures the CB radio craze and such popular road movies as SMOKEY AND THE BANDIT (1977) and CONVOY (1978). This odd curio did become a cult favourite following the CB radio craze and with the emergence of the home video boom. A curious film for Fonda that one would suspect was not quite the film he thought it was going to be. Some of the band of followers, from the odd Robert Englund character to the band of prostitutes that includes Susan Sarandon; Sarandon was also a co-producer on the film.

I was the Production Accountant on this movie, and I also got to do some voice-over work on it, so I'm not entirely unbiased, but if it were awful, I would say so. I thought it was a fun film, not a critically acclaimed masterpiece, by any means, but there were plenty of laughs along the way. The Bible states that laughter does good like a medicine, so watching this movie could be good for your health.

So many of the actors in this picture hadn't yet reached their peak at the time we made this film. Susan Sarandon, of course, is one who has since gone on to much greater fame. Melanie Mayron was seen on TV on a weekly basis as a photographer in the "Thirty-Something" TV drama series. Robert Englund later became known as Freddie Krueger, still haunting people's dreams. One of my personal favorite actors on this show was Dub Taylor, who played the sheriff. He was an excellent comedic actor, and a truly nice, sincere person. We all had fun working on this show, and I think that fun comes through.