AllMovie

After 25 years, notorious western outlaw Harry Carey is released from prison. He returns to his frontier home town, only to discover that the place has been streamlined and modernized beyond all recognition. Even worse, virtually everyone in town has forgotten Carey; most of the younger folk consider him a nuisance, addressing him derisively as "Pop" (Carey's double-take reaction to this familiarity is priceless). The ex-outlaw seeks out H.B. Walthall, the sheriff who sent him up, hoping for a fond reunion with his old friendly enemy. Alas, Walthall has been relegated to a do-nothing position by new sheriff Ray Mayer, a staunch advocate of "scientific" crime-fighting methods. But when bad guy Tom Tyler and his mob rob a bank and take Carey's daughter Margaret Callahan hostage, it is Carey and Walthall's "old fashioned" methods which save the day. Hoot Gibson co-stars as Callahan's boyfriend, while singing-cowboy Fred Scott appears in a marvelous sequence wherein Harry Carey reacts with disgust upon watching a musical western movie. The Last Outlaw was based on a story by John Ford, who directed a silent version in 1919.