The Last Stop in Yuma County (2023) Desert Pit Stop Neo Noir

"I'm the good guy." (The Salesman)

Written and Directed by Francis Galluppi. Galluppi's first short film, High Desert Hell, went on to win several awards, one of which was the "Wes Craven Award" at the Catalina Film Festival in 2019.

The excellent cinematography was by Mac Fisken. Music by Matthew Compton.

This was a nice surprise. (It pretty much all takes place in this Mojave Desert "movie ranch.")

It's got, what you could call, a Petrified Forest, Blood Simple, Pulp Fiction, Natural Born Killers, TwinPeaks-y vibe.

It illustrates one of the best ways to shoot a past period Noir on the cheap. One location.

The film stars Jim Cummings (Thunder Road) as The Knife Salesman, Jocelin Donahue (Doctor Sleep) as Charlotte the waitress. 

Jim Cummings as The Salesman

Jocelin Donahue as  Charlotte

Sierra McCormick (Curb Your Enthusiasm TV) as Sybil, Nicholas Logan (Watchmen TV) as Travis, Michael Abbott Jr. as Charlie, Connor Paolo as Gavin, Alex Essoe as Sarah, Robin Bartlett as Earline, Jon Proudstar as Native American Pete, Sam Huntington as David, Ryan Masson as Miles, Barbara Crampton as dispatcher Virginia, Gene Jones (No Country for Old Men) as Robert, Faizon Love as Vernon station attendant, Richard Brake as Beau, and Robert Broski as the gas truck driver. 

Richard Brake as Beau

Sierra McCormick as Sybil

Nicholas Logan as Travis

Story

Noirsville. Once upon a time in the 1970s. Early morning. The Last Stop. A fly speck on a map. A roadside pull off that's a combo diner / filling station / motel. 

It's located on a county two lane in a fictitious Yuma County, Arizona that looks more like the Mojave Desert, the Joshua tree sitting outside the diner is a dead giveaway. It should be a saguaro cactus like we see on the side of the sheriff's car later in the film.  But it doesn't matter, most of the square johns will never know.

Our sharp focus is on the chrome top of a filling station gas pump and what looks like a Cooper's Hawk  perched there in the rising sun. The station's lot stretch's away to a cracked macadam road, beyond which creosote brush and a dry ridge breaks the horizon. 

To the far left we see part of the motel sign. It peeks out beyond the sliver of the filling stations office wall. Our attention shifts to two distant headlights flickering through the creosote brush, becoming brighter as in approaches. 

The headlights belong to a puke yellow '69 Toyota Corolla. It slows, and raises a plum of dust the minute the wheels leaves the pavement. It turns into the lot, rolls up to the pumps and stops. The hawk takes wing.  

In the car is The Salesman. A dealer in fine cutlery, to be exact. In his rear view he spots the service attendant Vernon, a large black man coming towards the car.

When the salesman asks Vernon to fill it up, Vernon smiles and apologizes explaining that his tanks are dry, but that he's expecting the fuel truck to be coming by any minute. Vernon suggests to The Salesman, that he can pull around to the diner that is about to open and have a cup of coffee while he's waiting. 

The Salesman obliges. While he's sitting and waiting for the diner to open, a newsflash over the car radio tells of a daring bank robbery of $700, 000 of the Buckeye Fidelity Bank, by two men at 6:20 AM. Witnesses interviewed, said they made their getaway in a green 1971 Ford pinto with a damaged rear end. 

At about this point a 68 Dodge Polara Sheriffs cruiser pulls up along side the Toyota and lets out Charlotte, the Diner's waitress who unlocks the door and slips inside. 

Her husband Charlie, the Sheriff looks over at the salesman, nods his head, and slowly pulls out of the lot. The radio begins to play music - Paul Mauriat's "L'Amour est Bleu," aka Love is Blue a number-one hit in the USA for about five weeks in February and March of 1968. 

Here, we segue to a bizarre credit sequence detailing the wreck of the tardy fuel truck. The orange tanker is laying on its side at the bottom of a road embankment. We start the sequence with a pan of the green 72 Pinto rolling down the highway, past a set of tire tracks in soft dirt going over the edge of the shoulder. 

The orange tanker is laying on its side at the bottom of a road embankment. The engine is still idling. The trucks radio is on and Love is Blue is paying over the airwaves. 

The driver, with his head at a weird angle is shoved up into the corner of the cab between dash and windshield. Dead, with a broken neck. The exhaust pipe vibrates ominously wafting blue smoke. Gas is dripping out of the big tank, soaking the soil. The Title appears....

We segue back to the "The Salesman." Looking out through the windshield at the Diner, we see Charlotte at the door, she reachs between the venetian blinds and the glass, and flip the "Closed" sign to "Open."

Love is Blue ends abruptly when he turns off the Toyota's key. He picks up the sample box of cutlery on the seat beside him, and walks into The Last Stop. hey maybe he can make a sale.

Inside, the Last Stop Diner is deserted. The rising morning sunlight is flooding through the windows and throws long shadows from chair and table legs across an empty dining room floor 

The Salesman: Hello. 

No answer. His gaze takes in a counter with red Naugahyde swivel stools, a stuffed grizzly bear, some candy dispensers, and a drip coffee maker filling a pot. 

A side entrance door opens and we see Charlotte bring in a mop and bucket. 

Charlotte: Morning.

The Salesman: Morning.

Charlotte tells him to sit wherever he wants, then asks Coffee? The Salesman replies yes, he takes it black. The salesman asks if she has a paper she says yes but it's yesterdays. The Salesman replies that's OK. Charlotte pours a cup and grabs the newspaper.  

The Salesman is in the first booth alongside the door. He is sitting where he can look towards the gas pumps and hopefully the soon to arrive fuel truck.

When she brings the coffee The Salesman asks her about the fuel truck. Charlotte answers questioning him if he's in a hurry to be somewhere? The Salesman replies that it's his daughter Sarah's birthday, tomorrow, and he mentions that he's driving to Carlsbad, California. It's some town that Charlotte doesn't know. 

He mentions that it's about four hours away, on the coast, with beaches. Charlotte asks what's in the case? He replies cutlery. She tells him she's not interested in any. He smiles and replies that he'll give her his sales spiel anyway. She asks if he wants a menu, he says no, but Charlotte talks him into buying a piece of rhubarb pie to go.

Outside a vehicle pulls up to the gas pumps. It's a goose turd green '71 Pinto "3 door runabout." with a damaged rear end. It momentarily catches The Salesman's attention. 

In the Pinto are Beau and Travis. Beau's got the obvious ex con "skell" look. Thin and gaunt wearing a jean jacket over a polo shirt. Travis is bigger but looks, a bit short of a full deck, goofy. He's wearing a "Bigfoot for President T-shirt. 

Beau honks the horn. Vernon comes out and breaks the bad news that there's no fuel to be had until the fuel delivery truck shows up. He again suggests that they wait in the diner. They pull over and park alongside the Toyota.

Faizon Love as Vernon

Beau wants to stay with the Pinto. Travis nixes that idea and gets out and goes into the Diner for a cup of coffee. Beau reluctantly follows. 

Travis whines about how its hot, he wants to get a little the air-conditioning and get a cup of coffee.

When they go in, they order two coffee's. Charlotte tells then to sit anywhere they want. As they pass by The Salesman we can see a gun sticking out of Travis's jeans. The Salesman doesn't see it, he's got his head down doing a crossword puzzle. 

It all starts to go Noirsville when The Salesman gets to a clue that reads "take the money and run." A light bulb goes on in his head and he looks up and out the window, past his Toyota to the green Pinto. 

When Charlotte brings the coffee pot for a refill, she sits down to here his sales pitch. The Salesman starts his spiel but then clues her in about the bank robbers. 

However Beau watching all this gets highly suspicious when he sees them conversing. Richard Brake is excellent as Beau, he metamorphizes from "skell" to a very convincing maniac with his facial expressions alone. It's a great sequence.  

He silently clues in Travis, and when Charlotte gets up and walks back around the counter to the phone to call her husband, the sheriff, they get out of the booth and walk also towards the counter.  She dials the number.

Barbara Crampton as dispatcher Virginia

Here, we cut away briefly to the sheriff's office, to the base dispatcher Virginia. Virginia picks up the phone. We can see Charlie back in his office fiddling around at his desk. "It's your wife." Virginia yells back to him. She holds out the phone.

Back at the diner, Beau heads over quickly, pulls out his automatic, and tells her to hang up. Travis covers the salesman. 

Charlotte hangs the phone up. 

Beau: Who were you calling?

Charlotte: My Husband.

Cut to sheriff's office where Charlie finally ambles over to grab the phone. It's dead.

Beau comes round the counter slowly with the automatic still pointed at Charlotte the whole way.

Beau: Do you know who we are?

Charlotte: Two men waiting for gasoline. 

Beau: I think you know more than that.

Charlotte: You're the guys that robbed the bank this morning.

Beau: Bingo.

"Bingo!"

Beau tucks away his automatic and grabs her by the neck and squeezes. 

The Salesman: Please let her go

Travis [gesturing with his revolver]: Shut the fuck up!

"Shut the fuck up!"

Choking for breath, Charlotte tries to fight back but drops to the floor. Beau, pulls out a pocket knife and cuts the phone line. He makes her get up and go sit in the booth along side The Salesman. 

Beau sits down opposite them. The Salesman still has his hands up.

Beau: Put your hands down. What's in the box?

The Salesman: Cheap kitchen knives.

Beau: You're a knife salesman?

The Salesman nods

Beau: Normally I'd just slit your throat and steal your car, but fortunately for you I figure that fruity little number outside doesn't have any gas, correct?

The Salesman: No, I mean yes.

Beau [attention to Charlotte]: Where's your car?

Charlotte: My husband dropped me off.

Beau: That fat man at the gas station, does he have a car?

Charlotte: He lives there. 

Beau: He lives there?

Charlotte: He runs the motel next door and stays in one of the rooms.

Beau: Huh. And no cook?

Charlotte: Not today.

Beau: Shit, I guess we're stuck hear until that truck arrives. Which means you two better play close attention to what I'm going to tell you. If you try anything stupid I'll shoot you in the face. Understood? Good. So here's what we're gonna do. You're going to go about your day just like any other day. You're gonna keep our coffee mugs filled, and when we are ready to eat, you're gonna take our orders with a big fat  fucking smile. If anybody comes in here find out if they got gas, got it. Got It!!! 

"Got it!"

Beau: Good. And you  [Looking at The Salesman] are just gonna sit here in silence, and play with that fucking puzzle. As soon as that truck gets here we'll be on our way. Now [looking at Charlotte] I suggest you pull yourself together and get back behind that counter.

We are about twenty minutes into the film, and this is the basic situation that is going to play out at the diner. Tension slowly builds to a pretty Noir climax.

An older couple pull in for gas who end up at the diner. Gavin, Charlie's wet behind the ears deputy spikes the anxiety coming and going at the diner, picking up some coffee and also finding out why Charlotte hung up. Sybil and Miles two twenty somethings are riffing on starting a Bonnie and Clyde routine when they spot the green Pinto parked at the diner and realize its the bank robbers Pinto. 

A local named Pete a Native American rancher comes in for coffee, and finally Vernon makes an appearance.

Noirsville

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This is a good Neo Noir. I hope that Francis Galluppi has a lot more up his sleave. He knows how to make a good noir on the cheap. Keeping it simple and being creative with what you have, plus a solid story with relatively unknown but very good actors. He has signature segues, of using tunes playing on the same radio station to cut between characters in different scenes. 

The cast is great with Richard Brake shining as the chief baddie. In looks, he naggingly reminded me of someone, another actor, and I finally figured out who. He looks like Al Mulock, who? He was a Canadian actor who appeared in two films most film goers have seen,  The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly, and Once Upon A Time in The West. He was the gaunt one armed man who surprises Tuco in his bubble bath, and he's one of the three outlaws along with Woody Strode and Jack Elam waiting for the train. Mulock, a heroin addict had the "skell" look.

The rest of the cast holds their own well.  You get a bit of a David Lynch-ian Twin Peaky vibe in the sheriff's office / deputy sequences, while the diner standoff has an Tarantino - Pulp Fiction / Oliver Stone - Natural Born Killers feel, with garnishes of Blood Simple.

Looking forward to more from Galluppi. 8/10