Flap [The Last Warrior] (1970, Anthony Quinn, Claude Akins, Tony Bill, Victor Jory, Shelley Winters) – Classic Movie Review 11,531

Director Carol Reed’s 1970 American Western film Flap [The Last Warrior] is set in a modern Native American reservation, and stars Anthony Quinn as Flapping Eagle, Claude Akins as Lobo, Tony Bill as Eleven Snowflake, Victor Jory as Wounded Bear Mr Smith and Shelley Winters as Dorothy Bluebell.

The Mexican-American star Anthony Quinn impersonates a Native American once again, this time a present-day drunken one, Flapping Eagle, who lives on an Indian reservation in the US southwestern, and hijacks a train to reclaim Phoenix, Arizona, for the Indians, upsetting brutal police officer Sgt Rafferty (Victor French).

Esteemed British director Carol Reed, sadly long past his prime, flaps about, uncertain what to do with a well-meaning script by Clair Huffaker (based on his novel Nobody Loves a Drunken Indian) that is trapped in the bottomless pit between comedy and tragedy. Shelley Winters is as typecast as Quinn as his brothel-keeper girlfriend.

Also in the cast are Don Collier as Mike Lyons, Victor French as Sgt Rafferty, Rodolfo Acosta as Storekeep, Susana Miranda as Ann Looking Deer, Anthony Caruso as Silver Dollar, William Mims as Steve Gray, Rudy Diaz as Larry Standing Elk, Pedro Regas as She’ll-Be-Back-Pretty-Soon, John War Eagle as Luke Wolf, J Edward McKinley as Harris, and Robert Cleaves as Gus Kirk.

The movie was filmed in 1969 in Albuquerque, Madrid, Puye Cliffs (Santa Clara Pueblo), Santa Fe, and Santo Domingo Pueblo.

In November 1969, 89 American Indians and their supporters occupied Alcatraz Island, visited by Quinn, and the movie was promoted in connection and the occupation, with posters saying: ‘The Indians have already claimed Alcatraz.’

The song ‘If Nobody Loves’ is written by Marvin Hamlisch with lyrics by Estelle Levitt, and is performed by Kenny Rogers and The First Edition.

The movie had a premiere on 19 November 1970 in the Cinema East Theater of Albuquerque with Anthony Quinn appearing. Admission was $100 with proceeds establishing a $75,000 creative arts scholarship fund for Indian students.

Given the original title of Nobody Loves a Drunken Indian, controversy and protest surrounded it, particularly from local Indians when the film was shooting in and near pueblo reservations. Quinn’s bumbling caricature drew criticism as being ‘Zorba the Navajo’, and while some praised the film for highlighting the plight of Indians in America, mostly it was felt it made a joke of Indian rights.

Warner Bros got jitters and kept the movie on the shelf for 18 months before general release.

Clair Huffaker wrote novels and screenplays, and also wrote scripts for TV and was one of the writers on the Warner Bros Western show Lawman. He served in the US Navy in World War Two and then studied in Europe.

Derek Winnert 2021 Classic Movie Review 11,531

Link to Derek Winnert’s home page for more reviews: http://derekwinnert.com/