Good start, but then it gets ruined

Good movie, but best of all time? Hardly . . .

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

Copyright 1958. A Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer picture. New York opening at sixty neighborhoods: 3 September 1958. U.K. release: 14 December 1958. Australian release: 4 December 1958. 7,477 feet. 83 minutes. SYNOPSIS: Alan Ladd plays a Dutchman (!) who wants to rob a mine in Prescott, Arizona. He hires Ernest Borgnine as his gunslinger. But Ernest falls in love with an attractive Mexican girl, Katy Jurado.COMMENT: Well below what you would expect of a Daves western, especially as it was made so close to "Three Ten to Yuma" and "The Last Wagon". Daves claims that when he was making the movie, neither he nor any of the players or technicians were aware that the script was a re-hash of "Asphalt Jungle" with a number of extremely odd changes, including an astonishing finish in which the Sam Jaffe character rides off into the sunset with the Marilyn Monroe character. It's hard to completely credit Daves' claim, because he seems to have done his best in certain scenes to out-Huston Huston. The extraordinary opening, for instance, featuring a fight among six convicts who are chained together, and the shot of Borgnine, an embittered prisoner, stumbling out of the opaque blackness of solitary into the blinding daylight. Of course, Alan Ladd also exerted some influence on the movie, insisting on the hiring of the noted film noir cameraman, John Seitz, who has certainly contrived some striking effects. Nonetheless, despite some fine slices of action, including the mine robbery and the climactic (but infuriatingly brief) gunfight, this is a patchy film.

I thought the most interesting thing about this movie was that the miners wore those hats with torches in the front. At first, In thought they were candles, but they are really some sort of flamed headgear - looking like cloth caps with candle-type flames coming out in the front. They must have been awfully hot! It seems, to me, many people would have been burned - hats, hair, and hide! It must have been interesting (and very hot) to maneuver around mines in those things.This isn't much of a western; you have to pinch yourself, sometimes, to remember it is presented as a western. After the mining, you get back to stagecoaches and shootouts. The soundtrack effects sometimes don't appear to be happening on screen. It's neat how Alan Ladd pulls a slug out of Ernest Borgnine. He's faster than Dr. Bombay from the "Bewitched" TV show! *** The Badlanders (1958) Delmer Daves ~ Alan Ladd, Ernest Borgnine, Katy Jurado

This is one of Delmer Daves' less ambitious westerns, but also one of his best. You would not see Alan Ladd playing more complex characters, like Richard Widmark, Gary Cooper, Glenn Ford or James Stewart, which were in other Daves' westerns. But Daves was able to make the most out of it and Badlanders is an entertaining, fast paced western, about two men who have been cheated out of what belonged to them, and decide to rob a mine. They would get rich and also revenge themselves. Ernest Borgnine and Katy Jurado give the best performances of the film, both play people who have had a terrible life but find hope in each other's arms. Claire Kelly has a small, but significant role, as the mistress of the mine's owner. Badlanders deserves to be released in DVD with widescreen in order to take full advantage of the fact that it was filmed in Cinemascope.

Allen Ladd and Ernest Bourgine did outstanding work in this horse opera. The plot, the acting, the sets, all work well. This is one of Ladds better films, Bourgnine always adds to a film, Katy Jerado of "High Noon" fame is just great, and the rest of the cast work well. It is just a little gem of a film.The one distraction is a no longer so often heard stock soundtrack of less than "A" feature quality. Maybe they were newer when the film was released, and maybe they have been given a rest so newer viewers will not recognize them, but I have heard these sound cuts far too often in many a 1960's western, TV show, horror film, documentary, and what not. I wonder how much better it would have been with a Dimitri Tiomkin, a Lionel Neuman, a Bernard Herrmann, or John Williams soundtrack. If they ever restore this, and it is worth restoring, I would have a new soundtrack done for it.Still, this is a good film, a great western, and worth a watch. It is out of print right now but you can catch it on cable or get a used VHS print on E bay. Superior horse opera!