The Badlanders

I saw The Badlanders when it first came out in 1958 in theaters. It was my first acquaintance with both Alan Ladd and Ernest Borgnine. Then as now it's a good action packed western. But that's all it is.

I didn't know at the time that this same plot had been done so much better by John Huston in The Asphalt Jungle. All the subtlety and character development that Huston had was sacrificed for action. Delmar Daves is a pretty good director of westerns and action is what they got here.

Mind you The Badlanders is a good film for the Saturday afternoon trade, but it was done so much better before.

Alan Ladd is Peter Van Hoek, mining engineer who has a heist in mind of his former employers. He's the Sam Jaffe of this version. He's looking for confederates and he enlists a former cell-mate from Yuma prison who is played by Ernest Borgnine. Sterling Hayden in the first version.

Ladd was on the downward side of his career. The Badlanders is a perfect example of the kind of films he was doing after Shane, routine action flicks which could easily have been done as the plot of any number of television westerns that were sprouting all over the place at that time.

Ernest Borgnine was still on the crest of his career from his Oscar winning performance in Marty three years before. He even got his then wife Katy Jurado in this film as his love interest.

Nice cast that's familiar to western lovers round out the film. But everyone here has done better.

Toward the end, there is a scene that I recognized almost word for word from a similar scene in The Asphalt Jungle, then I realized that the whole thing is a close approximation. The family man safe cracker is the family man "powder monkey", the heavy Borgine is the thug Sterling Hayden (with their girlfriends of questionable repute), the financiers with their bought lawmen and molls are the same, the caper is similar. This one is a bit more lightweight than the former.

Maybe it would have worked better as a noir in B&W but not a bad film.

I stumbled onto this one accidentally, and I'm glad I did.

Davies always worked with Borgnine to fine advantage, but the electricity of his pairing with late-in-career Ladd is an unanticipated delight. And, Borgnine's chemistry with then-wife Jurado is hotter still. Couple that with a deliciously foppish performance by feckless Kent Smith and excellent supporting work from Anthony Caruso and Ford Rainey and sharp-edged dialogue. The result is a fast-paced keeper.

This is the kind of film that you want to find when you sit down on a Sunday afternoon to have some "TV time".

Alad Ladd is as solid and dependable as ever with his usual "cool and unruffled" persona and is probably the least effective of all of the leads!

Ernest Borgnine and Katy Jurado initially look like an unlikely pairing but as the film progresses they "gel" more and more. It would also appear to have been an inspired piece of casting as the actors themselves "paired up" during this film and married the following year of its release! For me the two are the real stand-out performers in this film.

I don't want to say too much more on the other characters for fear of giving plot away but suffice to say there is not a stinker amongst them although I have to say that I felt Claire Smith as Ada Winton was a bit invisible to the point where I actually thought a the end of the film "Oh, is she back then; where did she come from?"

One thing that has puzzled me however is who was the actress that played Vincente's wife? It looked as if it could have been a young Natalie Wood but despite a speaking role (of sorts), there is no credit for her. Whoever it was she has some of the most expressive eyes seen since the silent days!

Overall however and enjoyable yarn with a good solid cast providing a good solid performance.

A virtual Western remake of the notorious crime drama The Asphalt Jungle by John Huston that was based on the novel written by W.R. Burnett , but you'd certainly never prefer it to this classic Film Noir .Turn of the century Nevada, 1888 Arizona Federal Prision , Ladd and Borgnine are two inmates who get their freedom . Released from Yuma prison , their destinies eventually converge in the mining town of Precott . But Ladd seeks vendetta from the people of the small mining town that accused him wrongly , while Borgnine wants to go straight . Later on , the excons scheming a robbing but they are not sure whether they can trust each other enough to stick with the difficult plan they are devised to reclaim the property that's rightfully theirs . Then , things go wrong when they agree a covenant with a powerful and suspicious owner , Kent Smith.

The plot is simple in the wake of Noir Films , it has two ex convicts who plan a gold robbery against Kent Smith who cheated them out of their share in a gold mine ; meanwhile , Alan Ladd and Ernest Borgnine fall for two beautiful women , Claire Kelly and Katy Jurado . It contains thrills , suspense , intrigue , amiable rough-house humour , cross and double cross. Main cast is pretty good such as the sober Alan Ladd and sensational Ernest Borgnine as the tough and honorable ex-inmate. Being accompanied by two attractive girls as Claire Kelly and Katy Jurado as an ex-whore . Support cast is frankly good such as Nehemiah Persoff, Anthony Caruso , Ford Rainey , Robert Emhardt , Adam Williams , Karl Swenson and Kent Smith.

Spectacular ciinematography in CinemaScope, Technicolor , shot in Tucson Arizona , by John Seitz , as well as moving and thrilling stock-soundtrack . The motion picture was well produced by Aaron Rosenberg and compellingly directed by Delmer Daves . Delmer was a cool Hollywood filmmaker who shot all kinds of genres , as Noir : Dark passage, The red house ; Drama: Parrish , A summer place , Never let me go ,Rome adventure ; Adventure : Treasure of the golden condor , Demetrius and the gladiators ; Wartime : Destination Tokyo, Task force and specially Westerns such as The hanging tree , Drum beat , Cowboy , 3:10 to Yuma, Jubal , and his most known film Broken Arrow with James Stewart.