IMDb RATING
6.6/10
4.2K
YOUR RATING
A trio of American adventurers marooned in rural Mexico are recruited by a beautiful woman to rescue her husband trapped in a cave in Apache territory.A trio of American adventurers marooned in rural Mexico are recruited by a beautiful woman to rescue her husband trapped in a cave in Apache territory.A trio of American adventurers marooned in rural Mexico are recruited by a beautiful woman to rescue her husband trapped in a cave in Apache territory.
- Director
- Writers
- Stars
Víctor Manuel Mendoza
- Vicente Madariaga
- (as Victor Manuel Mendoza)
Antonio Bribiesca
- Antonio, bartender
- (uncredited)
- …
Manuel Dondé
- Cantina Waiter
- (uncredited)
Arturo Soto Rangel
- Priest
- (uncredited)
Salvador Terroba
- Victim
- (uncredited)
Fernando Wagner
- Steamboat Captain
- (uncredited)
- Director
- Writers
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Featured reviews
This is a hugely underrated western as eccentric and individual as anything by Peckinpah or Boetticher. One of the early Cinemascope adventures from Fox, GARDEN OF EVIL has a superb cast at the top of their respective games, fantastic special effects, wonderful widescreen photography, and one of house composer Bernard Herrmann's very best scores (which is saying a mouthful). Best of all, it showcases an utterly unique screenplay full of strange, world-weary philosophy that sounds like Hemingway on acid. (Ironically, the chief writer, Fred Frieberger, is best known for producing the third and weakest season of the original STAR TREK -- notorious for its bad writing). At any rate, check this one out the first chance you get. Years of bad pan & scan showings on TV have destroyed its reputation -- but if you ask me, GARDEN OF EVIL is a gem waiting to be discovered, if not a cult waiting to be born!
Some people complained about the Indian's role.I think that the first thing to bear in mind is that this western is more a fable than a realist story:the Indians ,whom we almost never see -a little more than the Arabs in Ford's "the lost patrol" or Duvivier's "la bandera",but not much more-:they are silhouettes in the landscape .The real danger is man's endless greed who ,were the earth made of gold,would die for a handful of it.That's what Gary Cooper's character says.
I think that Hathaway's 1957 movie "Legend of the Lost" is more convincing than "Garden" .This search for a treasure in the desert does not need an outside threat:no hostile tribe here.Men are finally on their own and madness is around the corner.
Try to see both movies in a row,mainly if you do not think that Henry Hathaway is an auteur.He is.
I think that Hathaway's 1957 movie "Legend of the Lost" is more convincing than "Garden" .This search for a treasure in the desert does not need an outside threat:no hostile tribe here.Men are finally on their own and madness is around the corner.
Try to see both movies in a row,mainly if you do not think that Henry Hathaway is an auteur.He is.
While Garden of Evil is not known to most film fans, it is a favorite of many. Everything about this film is great. The scenery, the music, the incredible cast. Unlike today's films it has lots of say about greed, heroism, love between men, loyalty, and betrayal. It also has more great lines than most movies - all
delivered brilliantly by Susan Hayward, Gary Cooper and Richard Widmark.Here are some as I remember them (not necessarily accurate). Susan to Coop: You need me. Because without me, Mister, you're lost. And when you're lost in this country, you're dead. Widmark to Coop: See that. Every night the sun goes down, and it always takes someone with it. Tonight it's me. Coop to himself: If the earth would made of gold, men would kill for a handful of dirt.
This should be on list of the ten best westerns, right up there with Shane and The Searchers
delivered brilliantly by Susan Hayward, Gary Cooper and Richard Widmark.Here are some as I remember them (not necessarily accurate). Susan to Coop: You need me. Because without me, Mister, you're lost. And when you're lost in this country, you're dead. Widmark to Coop: See that. Every night the sun goes down, and it always takes someone with it. Tonight it's me. Coop to himself: If the earth would made of gold, men would kill for a handful of dirt.
This should be on list of the ten best westerns, right up there with Shane and The Searchers
... and I always round up when I'm at the halfway mark, just to explain. This is a fine watch in spite of the choppy script.
Cooper and Widmark's characters' boat breaks down on the way to the California gold fields--they have to stop in Mexico. They head to a local cantina. Susan Hayward comes in and says she is offering one thousand dollars in gold to anyone who will help her save her husband, who was trapped in a cave-in. She says the mine is right in the middle of cursed country called "Garden of Evil" - The film proceeds from there.
The uneven screenplay is credited to Frank Fenton. Bernard Herrmann contributed a score that supplies more drama than the screenplay; the handsome cinematography is credited to Milton Krasner and Jorge Stahl. Jr.
Widmark is especially good as the man who's not used to being a good guy. Cooper and Hayward are as effective as the script allows. The rest of the cast is adequate. Look for a young Rita Moreno in the cantina.
Critics yawned when the film was released, but it made a healthy profit, especially considering it cost around two million dollars to film. This is probably the most beautiful film Cooper made in the 1950's, and the most underrated.
Cooper and Widmark's characters' boat breaks down on the way to the California gold fields--they have to stop in Mexico. They head to a local cantina. Susan Hayward comes in and says she is offering one thousand dollars in gold to anyone who will help her save her husband, who was trapped in a cave-in. She says the mine is right in the middle of cursed country called "Garden of Evil" - The film proceeds from there.
The uneven screenplay is credited to Frank Fenton. Bernard Herrmann contributed a score that supplies more drama than the screenplay; the handsome cinematography is credited to Milton Krasner and Jorge Stahl. Jr.
Widmark is especially good as the man who's not used to being a good guy. Cooper and Hayward are as effective as the script allows. The rest of the cast is adequate. Look for a young Rita Moreno in the cantina.
Critics yawned when the film was released, but it made a healthy profit, especially considering it cost around two million dollars to film. This is probably the most beautiful film Cooper made in the 1950's, and the most underrated.
A trio of American drifters formed by a veteran ex-sheriff named Hooker (Gary Cooper) , a card player named Fiske(Richard Widmark) and a gunfighter , Luke Daly (Cameron Mitchell) going to California and marooned in rural Mexico are recruited by a beautiful woman named Leah Fuller (Susan Hayward) who offers a strong reward to rescue her husband named John Fuller (Hugh Marlowe) from vengeful Apaches . Fuller is wounded in a gold mine on a territory occupied by Indians. The three adventurers accompany the woman , but for the trip their feelings are turning .
Leisurely and deliberately paced , at times thrilling and tense classic Western whose plot follows hazardous trails , though sometimes is slow moving. Based on a story by F. Freiberger and Tunberg was filmed in Mexican scenarios , for that reason play some Mexican actors as Victor Manuel Mendoza and Rita Moreno as gorgeous dancer in her film debut. It's considerably boosted by the main cast formed by a perfect trio as Cooper , Hayward and Widmark who add stature to the screenplay . The amusing results to be the guessing in which order the main roles get killed off . This was the only Gary Cooper film shot in Cinemascope and his partenaire was Susan Hayward , both of them had formerly played when were very young ¨Beau Geste¨(1939) . Colorful cinematography perfectly remastered by Milton Krasner and Jorge Sthal , spectacularly filmed on Mexican landscapes , though also contains some matte paintings of the cliffs . Impressive and suspenseful musical score by the classic Bernard Herrmann , Alfred Hitchcock's usual . ¨Garden of evil¨failed in Box office and did't obtain success as public as reviews ; however , being today best considered .
The motion picture is professionally directed by Henry Hathaway . Henry was a craftsman and expert on Western genre as he proved in ¨Shoot out , True grit , Five card stud , Nevada Smith , Sons of Katie Elder , How the West was won , Rawhide , Brigham Young , Buffalo Stampede¨ and of course ¨Garden of evil¨. Rating : nice Western that will appeal to Gary Cooper fans.
Leisurely and deliberately paced , at times thrilling and tense classic Western whose plot follows hazardous trails , though sometimes is slow moving. Based on a story by F. Freiberger and Tunberg was filmed in Mexican scenarios , for that reason play some Mexican actors as Victor Manuel Mendoza and Rita Moreno as gorgeous dancer in her film debut. It's considerably boosted by the main cast formed by a perfect trio as Cooper , Hayward and Widmark who add stature to the screenplay . The amusing results to be the guessing in which order the main roles get killed off . This was the only Gary Cooper film shot in Cinemascope and his partenaire was Susan Hayward , both of them had formerly played when were very young ¨Beau Geste¨(1939) . Colorful cinematography perfectly remastered by Milton Krasner and Jorge Sthal , spectacularly filmed on Mexican landscapes , though also contains some matte paintings of the cliffs . Impressive and suspenseful musical score by the classic Bernard Herrmann , Alfred Hitchcock's usual . ¨Garden of evil¨failed in Box office and did't obtain success as public as reviews ; however , being today best considered .
The motion picture is professionally directed by Henry Hathaway . Henry was a craftsman and expert on Western genre as he proved in ¨Shoot out , True grit , Five card stud , Nevada Smith , Sons of Katie Elder , How the West was won , Rawhide , Brigham Young , Buffalo Stampede¨ and of course ¨Garden of evil¨. Rating : nice Western that will appeal to Gary Cooper fans.
Did you know
- TriviaThis was the fourth film telecast on "NBC Saturday Night at the Movies," the first television program to exclusively broadcast post-1948 theatrical films on US network television. This one was first telecast 14 October 1961, and like the opener of the series, How to Marry a Millionaire, and several others which followed, had been filmed in CinemaScope, at its original 2.55:1 ratio, and so had to be "formatted to fit your screen" i.e. shown pan/scan in the conventional 4:3 TV ratio, losing nearly half of the image in the process, and literally destroying the composition of each scene. But viewers didn't seem to mind. The idea proved so successful that NBC soon followed it up with another series with the identical format, "Monday Night at the Movies," and it wasn't long before the format was taken up by both CBS and ABC.
- GoofsThe film is set in Mexico and the Indians are being called Apaches. However, they are dressed as Northeastern American Mohawks. In addition, the men of the Apache nations were traditionally long-haired. In this film, the "Apache" Indians are sporting Northeastern Mohawk haircuts.
- ConnectionsEdited into Verifica incerta - Disperse Exclamatory Phase (1965)
- SoundtracksLa Negra Noche
by Emilio D. Uranga
- How long is Garden of Evil?Powered by Alexa
Details
Box office
- Budget
- $2,070,000 (estimated)
- Runtime
- 1h 40m(100 min)
- Color
- Aspect ratio
- 2.55 : 1
Contribute to this page
Suggest an edit or add missing content