Branded

A fine western that was better than I expected It to be.Alan Ladd, although sometimes wooden puts In a good performance here. The cinematography and the colour process of this movie are outstanding. This western has a few good plot twists to make It stand out.The location scenery Is stunning too. Alan Ladd has something of a mystery persona here not unlike his role In Shane. The colours In this movie are very vivid and lifelike not at all garish as I thought they might be. This western has good support acting too, Charles Bickford plays his part with ruthless relish ala Big country. Robert Keith Is a shady slime ball who's demise In the film Is very fitting. This Is an out and out satisfying western and one I can thoroughly recommend.

Some have said it's too bad Ladd made "Shane", because it overshadowed this great piece. I'd like to think there's room for both great Westerns to fill the honor roll of classic Westerns.

Ladd plays a gunman named Choya. He's probably a lot like Shane, only perhaps a month before Shane becomes the character we see in his film.

He's recruited by an older man to pretend to be the son of a wealthy rancher, a son who was kidnapped at the age of five.

Many revelations come about during the movie, and most of them very early. The new partner of Choya (Ladd) quickly shows himself to be the last person you'd want near you, a true monster. Yet he's a very believable monster. The first death scene, which is a murder committed by this man, may be one of the best Hollywood stunt scenes ever done. It's worth watching all on its own. Too bad we never see the victim again, as he is a character we could truly like, which makes the act even more deplorable.

The dramatics and action that unfold are rugged "tough guy" Western traditions united with very believable motivations. This is a great script, and it is superbly directed, which also means the acting is superb.

I won't spoil the film any more. It is a truly great Western, made during the golden age of Westerns, when people actually knew some of the rugged individualists of the late nineteenth century and the West, before all of our information came from self righteous rich kids and bubble boys who probably never stepped foot in a park by themselves.

Enough of the cynicism. Back to the film. It's rich and full of every ingredient, action, drama, three dimensional characters, pathos, scenery, everything that makes a great film. So sit back and enjoy.

Con artist passes himself off as a rancher's long lost son. He and his partner stand to make a cool million if the plan works. Meanwhile, the real son is making his way home through harsh country with the threat of death nearby all the way. Exciting western filmed in beautiful mountain country.

The opening scenes set the tone of the film… Ladd, an itinerant gunman known simply as Choya and with the aid of a tattooed birthmark, passes himself off as the lost son and is accepted wholeheartedly by the parents (Bickford and Royle) and Ruth (Freeman), the man's sister…

Ruth had responded to his arrival on the ranch as any pretty woman would respond to a mysterious, handsome stranger, but she rapidly sets right to the fact that he is a relative…

As soon as he is welcomed as Richard Jr, however, something happens to Choya… As a member of a loving family, Choya experiences feelings denied him by his own childhood and became increasingly sickened by his contribution in the tricking…

Leading a cattle drive to El Paso, Choya decides to give up his charade revealing his true identity to Ruth, who turns on him with consternation and antagonism… There remains only one way to redeem himself and make up for the distressing emotion he has caused the Lavery family: To find their real son…

All the elements in "Branded" are taken directly from the straight-shooting school of Western movies… Choya, despite his confession to Ruth that he is a "four-flushin' thief," is true-blue outlaw hero… The smart Leffingwell has him classified correctly: "You won't hit an older man. You ain't the kind that'll draw first, or shoot a man in the back." Even with the rules thus outlined, Ladd still has a chance to present his standard beguiling bad guy early in the film, merely holding back a victorious smile as he pretends confusion over the elder Lavery's excited reaction to his birthmark…

Besides its other values, "Branded" is a visual delight… In fact, the movie's one drawback as a Western entertainment is a lack of big action highlights

The imposter topic is very rare in a western:we often find it in a classic detective film like "no man of her own"(1950) and its French mediocre remake "I married a shadow" (1982).Except for the short prologue ,first half looks like a psychological suspense.Second part is more eventful,although not at the expense of Alan Ladd character's frames of mind.

The hero actually is in need of a family;we know it from the start,Alan Ladd's wistful face tells it all.Love interest-which might be some kind of faux incest-is not as convincing as the hero's searching for haven ;it's a pity that the mother's character is not more present because she is,more than Mona Freeman's one,the keystone of the story.

Also a work of redemption ,because Ladd will try to redeem himself ,and a plea for peace and understanding,proof positive that a western does not need a violent showdown to be successful.The Rio Grande becomes a beautiful symbol,as human as political,and the scene when the Father takes in the two men on its banks has a biblical grandeur.

Rudolph Mate shows here that a B western can sometimes be deeper than so-called" A grade" classic ones.