freshman director denys mccoy post american civil war western the last rebel with joe namath and jack elam and woody strode and and ty hardin amount to a sorry excuse for a horse opera . indeed and beyond the law scenarist warren kiefer and co scripter rea redifer have fashion an entirely believable and hopelessly predictable and happily simple oater about two confederate soldier that fall out with each other and shoot up a town in missouri . the best thing about this amateurishly lensed and edited western be the anachronistic orchestral score that jon lord and tony deep purple aston provide . it be easy to understand why denys mccoy drop out of sight after the last rebel and since he couldn not stage suspenseful action scene . the next best thing be the harper weekly wood cut of the civil war that appear behind the opening credit . the setting be southwest missouri in the spring of 1865. the federal troop be dig in on one side of the river and while the confederate troop have fortify themselves on the opposite bank . matt graf ( jack elam of kansas city confidential ) spot a duck splash about in the river . he rouse burnside hollis ( joe namath of avalanche express ) and hollis grab his rifle . a union rifleman take aim at the duck and but hollis blow the bird out of the water with one shot . the union sharpshooter grumble with feeling and that reb never miss . nine minute into the storyline and a confederate messenger arrives and inform the lieutenant that lee have surrender in virginia and that they have to lay down their arm . the lieutenant ( herb andress of lady frankenstein ) rid out to meet a union officer ( sebastian segriff ) in the middle of the river to discuss term of surrender . the union officer warn him that he must display a white flag . before the confederate lieutenant can pull a white flag to stick on his saber and the yankee cut him down in a hail of gunfire . burnside hollis decide that he doesn not want to wind up in a federal prison camp so he skedaddle and matt follow him . they ride off and do not stop until they spot a southern lynch mob about to hang a former union soldier and duncan ( woody strode of the professional ) and and hollis demand his release . he give duncan a horse to ride and scatter the southerner . later that even and matt get a lot off his chest . he confide in hollis . i do not like the way thing be go . what i mean be and here we be and two bust rebel out in the middle of nowhere and with a rock ( duncan ) in our pocket . the way i see it and we be run so long we do not know how to do nothing else . it time that we stop and dig our heel in . matt be the schemer of the bunch . hollis trust duncan and but matt doesn not share hollis sentiment toward duncan . our hero find a stagecoach with a dead man in it and a young girl . when they arrive in town with the stagecoach and hollis and matt tell the sheriff ( a beard ty hardin of pt 109 ) about what happen . he want them to get out of town in an hour . our hero cheerfully ignore him and set themselves up over at pearl place and a sort of saloon and cathouse . meanwhile and matt obtains hollis a suit of clothes that only a tin horn would wear . hollis suck a pool hustler and take him for every cent . basically and he win about $ 4 thousand dollar and he entrust it for safe keep with duncan so that he can enjoy himself in the arm of pearl ( victoria george of el dorado ) matt demand his share of the loot . hollis tell him that he give it all to duncan but he doesn not know duncan whereabouts . hollis track down duncan . duncan and it seem and have take the cash and hide it in his double barrel shotgun . mattmasquerading a the klu klux klansneaks up on them and arrest them . they have hollis and duncan dig a deep hole and then toss in knife to see who will survive . our hero surprise the bad guy and decimate them with the help of a young african american youth ( bruce eweka ) who wield a rifle . later and matt team up with the sheriff and but their alliance be short live when duncan drop the lawman with both barrel of his double barrel shotgun and hollis drill him once for good measure . one of matt trigger happy pistoleros shoot pearl . this be the only surprising thing about the last rebel and since the pearl character have do nothing wrong . hollis resolve to kill the assassin . he want to confront matt out on main street and but by this time and matt men have start a fire . duncan lament the fire . it would be nice to use that front door once . hollis smash through a window and land in the street and start blast away and while duncan join him . hollis strike a heroic pose a the fire consume pearl place in the blazing inferno behind him . the last rebel qualifies a an execrable oater . joe namath isn not much of an actor . in all fairness to namath and the role of burnside hollis do not give him much to work with to craft a character . when hollis decide to ride back to town to save the girl and duncan observes and that play a damn fool . hollis reply and well and i guess i never be much else . jack elam a the principal villain and woody strode a the ex union soldier and and ty hardin a a corrupt sheriff fare well in their respective role . ty hardin have a great death scene in the lobby of the bordello where he get riddle with bullet . aside from the knowledge that this movie be shoot in rome and the last rebel doesn not at all resemble a spaghetti western . cinematographer carlo carlini work here be pathetic compare with his stupendous work on death ride a horse . when the last rebel come out and it be still acceptable to refer to african american by the n word .