Last Moments (1974) User Reviews

Good story, cheap production

[HotToastyRag · 6/10 · 3 November 2022]

It's really too bad that this movie had cheap production values and a low budget. With a bigger, Hollywood-type budget and an A-tier production, it could have really tugged on your heartstrings. As it was, I did find myself reaching for a Kleenex, so I guess the movie did achieve its goal after all. Last Moments is about a terminally ill little boy, Renato Cestiè, who lives with his alcoholic father, James Whitmore, in Europe. James was married to Marina Malfatti, and they both worked in the circus, but she left him and their boy for another man and another life. Since then, James has had to adjust to being a single father, a breadwinner, and staying sober. Sometimes his friends are very helpful, and sometimes they egg him on and let him drink himself into oblivion and lose a bunch of money. Lee J. Cobb is no-good, and one day he takes his life savings - do you think that money might have come in handy when Renato gets sick?

The story is very good, James Whitmore pours his heart into the role, and if you have a very good imagination, you'll realize this movie is a tearjerker. It's just very European and very cheap. If you don't mind those elements, or you like Whitmore and Cobb, find a copy.

DLM Warning: If you suffer from vertigo or dizzy spells, like my mom does, this movie might not be your friend. There's a scene in the bar when James gets drunk and the camera shows his POV for a few seconds before he falls over, and that will make you sick. In other words, "Don't Look, Mom!"

Things you can't unsee

[Skylightmovies · 1/10 · 9 May 2022]

No point telling me I am the perverted one here.

A good looking kid, sweet as pie and innocent beyond belief helps his stripper mother undress after a show and who subsequently abandons him and lives with an alcoholic father while he works all the hours to earn his keep.

All the old guys in town love him and one day they realise he hasn't got long to live. His medication for anaemia is an old queen's dream as the kid says no no no but is told it is good for him and he submits

The old guys in town all club together to give him his last wish - a day at the circus. Mother shows up.

Lee J Cobb and Cyril Cusack put in an appearance.

If I didn't know better, I'd think this was a thinly veiled confession or love letter to a kid who served some chaps very well and who they were sorry to see go.

In the light of behind the scenes movie de generacy and kid movies being an excuse for predators on the set to have their pick, I can only draw one conclusion from this icky excursion. Cusack tells us which god is looking on in a very ungodly way and the kid is sacrificed.

Apart from a few quivering lips when the boys insists on working to earn money for his parents happiness, no one cares. Read between the lines.

Renato great as always

[catherinekeohane · 10/10 · 21 July 2005]

LAST MOMENTS (video) – This video that is many years old, 1974, has recently become a part of my collection. Viewed on the same day as I received it via ebay, I saw it once before when my ex-boyfriend and his mother tried to spoil it for me by making comments. You either love this type of film or hate it. Again stars Renato Cestie as the little boy trying to do good. (See "Last Snows of Spring"). This features a young boy trying to make a living out of a puppet show when his mother abandons him and his father. The father has turned to drink, the mother to prostitution. An Italian film again dubbed. The little boy lovingly saves all the money he can in a tin for his father and wishes for his parents to reunite. His wish comes true when he collapses and is diagnosed terminally ill with malnutrition. Touching scenes between nun and patient, a little bit of "treatment" shown in this one i.e. injection, but all in all again it avoids explicit medical scenes. The child has to be nursed in a library as the hospital is full and the corridors themselves have patients in beds. Also called "The Last Circus Show" this film sees the child enjoying his last circus and being visited by "God" in the shape of "The Balloon Vender." I loved it anyway.