The Naked Dawn

A compelling movie of a different kind. When a low budget movie that was filmed in 10 days with very few characters, markedly rivets ones attention, that is a telltale sign of a a good and unusual production. The attire and settings were very convincing. The three leading characters all portrayed Hispanics extremely unusual for a 1950s western. The acting/directing was very good. The movie discusses female servitude/abuse; and the lure of money and its impact on ones loyalty, profession, and romantic decisions. With few characters and a low budget, the movie project took the very little and turned into quite an interesting and believable flick, of a different kind, that found time to examine core aspects of human behavior. In the same general genre as For Whom the Bell Tolls, but yet so different. Wow!!

There is something very likable about this low budget, "poetic" story of an aging outlaw who comes upon the small farm of an ambitious peon and his willful wife. The atmosphere is a bit thick perhaps, constant philosophizing in a "poetic" Spanish accent, with a guitar playing in the background. But Kennedy is particularly good as the outlaw, worldly-wise and mellow with flashes of toughness, anger and cynicism. The other players carry their weight well enough, though Iglesias sometimes goes a bit overboard with his characterization of the naive, greedy young man. There's not much to the story, but it's well told. Here, certainly, is a film that, whatever its ultimate virtues, is unique. Though the subject makes it a Western, the style (as well as the Mexican setting and the apparent thirties time-frame) makes it something completely different. This is the sort of film one expects from Ulmer's reputation; small but personal. I really did like it, but I don't know if I would go as far as Francois Truffaut: "Poetic and violent, tender and droll, moving and subtle, joyously energetic and wholesome... reminds us inevitably of Renoir and Ophuls."

Decent but minor Mexico-set-Western about an enjoyable friendship-confrontation between Arthur Kennedy and Eugene Iglesias , while Betta St John turns out to be the third in discord . Nice but unexceptional Western adapted from a story written by Julian Zimet and loosely based on a short tale by Russian writer Maxim Gorky .This is the story of three people in love, a love that at the beginning doesn't affect their friendship, and about how their relationship evolving , but each person's relationship with the other two is complicated as it is not only based on their direct feelings for the person in question. It is In Mexico, at the dawn of the automobile and modern times , there a resourceful , jolly outlaw with anarchistic philosophy called Santiago (Arthur Kennedy) robs train freight cars , but things go wrong when he has just lost his intimate colleague. Stars Arthur Kennedy as the stranger who steps into the middle of an isolated farm and ends up befriending one young husband named Manuel (Eugene Iglesias) and his beautiful wife Maria (Betta St John) . The latter is a haplesss and hopeless woman who is mistreated by her hubby , while the drifter gets turned around by the simple farmer who subsequently becomes an ambitious person . Vera Cruz to Matamoros they stalked his desperate trail ! So close together ... only a bullet can separate them !

A good little drama that takes place in Mexico at the dawn of the automobile including thrills , loves stories , emotion , crossfire and better than the title suggests . An interesting a strange movie that allegedly inspired Jules at Jim by Francois Truffaut , in fact the relation among Truffaut's roles : Oskar Werner , Jeanne Moreau , Henri Serre bears a certain resemblance to Arthur Kennedy , Betta St. John and Eugene Iglesias. Furthermore , displaying colorful cinematography by Frederick Gately , as well as evocative musical score by Herschel Burke Gilbert. Film relies heavily on the peculiar relationship among three protagonists Arthur Kennedy , Betta St. John , Eugene Iglesias . But , really here stands out Arthur Kennedy , in fact , this is one of Kennedy's best characters from his long career , usually as a great secondary actor . There he plays an adventurous hustler having a taste of the good life who burglarizes trains and along the way falls in love with a poor farmer's wife. While Betta St. John is pretty well as the gorgeous but unfortunate spouse of the hardworking and eventually reedemed farmer finely performed by Eugene Iglesias .

Being nicely shot on location in Mexico and Mack Sennett Studios , Silver Lake, Los Angeles, California . The picture was professionally directed by Edgar G. Ulmer . He was a prolific filmmaker who made all kinds of genres , directing acceptable films and here providing an intense pace though it results to be some dated. Adequate and professionally shot , being filmed in short time . Edgar was born on September 17, 1904 in Olmütz, Moravia, Czech Republic as Edgar George Ulmer. He was a notorious and prolific director and writer. At his beginnings he was blackballed from Hollywood work after he had an affair with Shirley Castle -he eventually married her and she became known as Shirley Ulmer-, who at the time was the wife of B-picture producer Max Alexander, a nephew of powerful Universal Pictures president Carl Laemmle. That's why Ulmer spent the bulk of his remaining career languishing at "Poverty Row" studios. He signed a long-term contract there in 1943 after directing the "big-budget" Jive Junction (1943), being especiallly known for Satanás (1934), Bluebeard (1944) , Detour (1945) , The Strange Woman (1946), People on Sunday (1930) , Aníbal (1959) , The Amazing Transparent Man (1960) , Beyond the Time Barrier (1960) , among others. Rating : 6.5/10. Well worth seeing.

The movie's not a western in the usual sense. Instead, it's more like a pondering of character and life-styles set in modern Mexico. Manuel and Maria are in an arranged marriage, she being passed along like a piece of property, he being a budding farm entrepreneur. They are above all "respectable", and the feeling is that this is what holds the marriage together.

Then, into their settled life arrives escaping train robber Santiago. But he's not a typical robber. We know that from his buddy's moving death scene. There Santiago shows something of a poetic sensitivity, proving he's not without his own sense of values. In fact, he's more a free spirit than a criminal type, even giving away much of his loot to deserving strangers. Ironically, however, he appears unfree to be anything but free!

It's Santiago's free-wheeling effect on the young couple's brittle marriage that makes up the storyline. Kennedy, of course, was one of that era's premier actors. Here, his bravura performance effectively dramatizes Santiago's free spirit gusto. On the other hand, as the young couple, Iglesias and St. John appear over-the-top at times. Perhaps that can be rationalized by their emotional release from repressed lives. Nevertheless, the emoting does at times distract from story advancement.

The notion of respectability is also pondered here. What the screenplay seems to be saying is that conforming lives are okay as long as one's humanity is not sacrificed in the process. In his own eccentric way, this appears the lesson Santiago imparts to the young couple. At the same time, religion gets much the same treatment, while criminal Santiago acts poetically as a kind of secular priest in easing his dying confederate into the great unknown.

All in all, the movie's distinctive features come more from blacklisted writer Zimet's offbeat screenplay than from cult director Ulmer who's required to film in Technicolor instead of his b&w forte. Nonetheless, the movie's fully deserving of the Ulmer brand-- an offbeat 80-minutes that manages some depth over and above its tacky 50's title.

If for the first half of this drama, you can go through the typical Hollywood depiction of Mexico and its people (dancing flamenco and shouting "Olé"), you will enjoy this tale of greed and treason among common folks, related to one another in different ways. Never mind the mixture of Spanish elements with the Mexican: the description of Mexican culture (which is key to the story, though not essential) is not even offensive, but plainly cheap, funny and sometimes embarrassing for the cast, although Charlita seems to enjoy every minute of her part as a kind of Tongolele lost in a dusty cantina. Since the central plot is interesting enough by itself, we can overlook all the kitsch, for what is being told is universal: how human beings can become negative from one moment to the next, by ambition and lust for material possession. All the three leads are quite effective. I really had never seen Arthur Kennedy so good in a role, practically having the whole film on his shoulders; beautiful Betta St. John is a bit out of range in her dramatic scenes, but she is more convincing here than in those Tarzan movies with Gordon Scott; while Eugene Iglesias is intense enough to suggest the emergence of a lout in less than half a day. As in all of Edgar G. Ulmer's films, no matter how big or small the budget, the visuals are good. The ingredient I enjoyed the less was the proto-Morriconesque score by composer Herschel Burke Gilbert, who could have benefited by going to Plaza Garibaldi in México City and have some tequila and tacos, sing with a mariachi band, and listen to rancheras and other typical Mexican musical forms.