This turned out to be a false title because this film was not the Final Chapter: Walking Tall. Like that other hero from Tennessee Davy Crockett, Buford Pusser was too powerful a hero to die, cinematically speaking.
Still as in real life we find that the sheriff with the stick was not universally popular. You take the approach he does to law enforcement and eventually people will fear you. That was a plot in fact for two westerns with Richard Widmark, Warlock and Death Of A Gunfighter. Pusser was in fact defeated for re-election.
But news of his exploits in cleaning up his county and all the attempts on his life got him a Hollywood offer for his life story. And then came the car crash that ended his life.
I'll never understand why Joe Don Baker didn't do the sequels. To this day it's the role people remember him for because he was so good in the part. Bo Svensson for the rest of his life always came out second best even with more Walking Tall movie to his credit. My best cinema memory of Svensson was as the guy employing Clint Eastwood's wife Marsha Mason in his joint in Heartbreak Ridge.
This film maybe entitled Final Chapter, but it was by no means a fade to black for the Walking Tall hero Buford Pusser.
Still as in real life we find that the sheriff with the stick was not universally popular. You take the approach he does to law enforcement and eventually people will fear you. That was a plot in fact for two westerns with Richard Widmark, Warlock and Death Of A Gunfighter. Pusser was in fact defeated for re-election.
But news of his exploits in cleaning up his county and all the attempts on his life got him a Hollywood offer for his life story. And then came the car crash that ended his life.
I'll never understand why Joe Don Baker didn't do the sequels. To this day it's the role people remember him for because he was so good in the part. Bo Svensson for the rest of his life always came out second best even with more Walking Tall movie to his credit. My best cinema memory of Svensson was as the guy employing Clint Eastwood's wife Marsha Mason in his joint in Heartbreak Ridge.
This film maybe entitled Final Chapter, but it was by no means a fade to black for the Walking Tall hero Buford Pusser.