IN SAYING
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IN SAYING EVERYTHING ABOUT A MOVIE? |
| BADLANDERS, THE (director: Delmer Daves; screenwriters: from the novel The Asphalt Jungle by W.R. Burnett/Richard Collins; cinematographer: John F. Seitz; editors: William H. Webb/James Baiotto; cast: Alan Ladd (Peter Van Hoek, 'The Dutchman'), Ernest Borgnine (John McBain), Katy Jurado (Anita), Claire Kelly (Ada Winton), Kent Smith (Cyril Lounsbery), Nehemiah Persoff (Vincente, The Powder Monkey), Anthony Caruso (Comanche), Adam Williams (Leslie, Prescott deputy), Robert Emhardt (Sample, bar owner); Runtime: 85; MPAA Rating: NR; producer: Aaron Rosenberg; MGM; 1958) |
| "A Western remake of the film
noir "The Asphalt Jungle" pales considerably besides John Huston's original."
Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz A Western remake of the film noir "The Asphalt Jungle" pales considerably besides John Huston's original. It's based on W.R. Burnett's novel and written by Richard Collins. Delmer Daves ("The Red House"/"Cowboy") directs with a flare for drawing heavy-handed comedy from the rough-house antics. It's set in 1898 in Arizona. Peter Van Hoek, known as the Dutchman (Alan Ladd), and John McBain (Ernest Borgnine), get out of the Arizona Territorial Prison in Yuma on the same day and head for Prescott. The Dutchman, a mining engineer, plans to get revenge on the mine owner who framed him and sent him to jail by having the marshal plant a gold nugget on him. The same marshal orders the Dutchman to leave town by sunset the next day. The Dutchman schemes a robbery of the gold mine that is owned by Cyril Lounsbery (Kent Smith), but doesn't tell the owner that it's his mine that is being robbed. The plan is to sell the stolen gold, supposedly worth over $200,000, to Lounsbery for $100,000. The Dutchman convinces a reluctant McBain, who was cheated out of the land where the gold mine is, to help and also gets Mexican miner Vincente, 'The Powder Monkey' (Nehemiah Persoff), to be the dynamite man. The subplot has McBain coming to the aid of the Mexican Anita (Katy Jurado), who is assaulted by three bigoted roughnecks. McBain falls for her even when he finds out she's a whore. When the Dutchman and McBain bring the nuggets to Lounsbery the next day, he double-crosses them and has the crooked deputy (Adam Williams) there to arrest them. But the ex-cons overtake the deputy and kill him. They leave with the gold after the Dutchman nurses McBain's gunshot wound. It concludes with Anita and McBain taking the gold by wagon to Durango and talking about marriage and buying a ranch, while the Dutchman takes the stage as he promised the sheriff. On the stage he's accompanied by the beautiful Ada Winton (Claire Kelly), who was married man Lounsbery's mistress. The narrative never had much of an emotional impact, though it was colorfully filmed and easy to take as routine fodder. REVIEWED ON 11/2/2005 GRADE: B- Dennis Schwartz: "Ozus' World Movie Reviews" |