The Badlanders (1958)

INFORMATION FROM IMDb

Plot Summary
Two men are released from the Arizona Territorial Prison at Yuma in 1898.
One, the Dutchman, is out to get both gold and revenge from the people
of a small mining town who had him imprisoned unjustly.
The other, McBain, is just trying to go straight,
but that is easier said than done
once the Dutchman involves him in his gold theft scheme.
Written by Alfred Jingle

Full Cast
Alan Ladd ... Peter Van Hoek ('The Dutchman')
Ernest Borgnine ... John 'Mac' McBain
Katy Jurado ... Anita
Claire Kelly ... Ada Winton
Kent Smith ... Cyril Lounsberry
Nehemiah Persoff ... Vincente - The Powder Monkey
Robert Emhardt ... Sample
Anthony Caruso ... Comanche
Adam Williams ... Leslie
Ford Rainey ... Warden
John Daheim ... Lee (as John Day)
Barbara Baxley ... Diane (scenes deleted)
Zina Provendie ... Dorothy Lounsberry (scenes deleted)
Richard Bartell ... Bartender (uncredited)
Gregg Barton ... Mine Foreman (uncredited)
Paul Baxley ... Jeff (uncredited)
Annette Claudier ... Mother (uncredited)
Roberto Contreras ... Pepe (uncredited)
Vinnie De Carlo ... Driver (uncredited)
Richard Devon ... Prison Guard (uncredited)
Joe Dominguez ... Spanish Mine Worker (uncredited)
Ann Doran ... Stagecoach Passenger - Mother (uncredited)
Sam Edwards ... Crazy - Convict (uncredited)
Robert Griffin ... Bartender (uncredited)
Joe Haworth ... Joe - Mine Foreman (uncredited)
Jackie Hummer ... Girl (uncredited)
Helen Jay ... Other Girl (uncredited)
Pat Lawless ... Irish Guard (uncredited)
James McCallion ... Hotel Clerk (uncredited)
Jorge Moreno ... Pancho (uncredited)
Anna Navarro ... Raquel (uncredited)
Erwin Neal ... Powder Man (uncredited)
Carol Nugent ... Nora (uncredited)
Jack Perkins ... Miner (uncredited)
Almira Sessions ... Old Woman Stagecoach Passenger (uncredited)
Karl Swenson ... The Marshal (uncredited)
Hal Taggart ... Prison Board Member (uncredited)
Tex Terry ... Yard Guard (uncredited)
Robert Totten ... Young Miner (uncredited)
Henry Wills ... Miner (uncredited)

Produced
Aaron Rosenberg

Cinematography
John F. Seitz ... director of photography (as John Seitz)

Writing Credits
Richard Collins ... (screenplay)
W.R. Burnett ... (novel)

Trivia
Ernest Borgnine met his future wife Katy Jurado while working on this film.
A reporter saw the two laughing over lunch one day and started a rumor
that the two were involved romantically, which Borgnine insisted
for the rest of his life was not true.
The story persisted, though, and Borgnine's wife ended up divorcing him because of it.
Ironically, he and Jurado grew closer and closer because of this trouble,
and ended up marrying in 1959.

When Alan Ladd observes Sam Edwards being flogged inside the Arizona Territorial Prison,
he does so with a practiced eye having been flogged himself in
"Two Years Before the Mast" (1946) and "Botany Bay" (1953).

The opening scene, of Alan Ladd's character being released from prison,
was, as scripted, actually filmed at the Yuma Territorial Prison in Yuma, Arizona.

Ernest Borgnine, introduced to Yuma through the opening scene setting
of this movie(Yuma Territorial Prison) heard there was superb small bird hunting in the area.
My dad and I used to see him early mornings at breakfast every fall
for years thereafter at the old Stardust Hotel where he stayed while bird hunting.

Goofs
Continuity
During the mine shaft cave-in during and after the ore is removed,
a large vertical chuck of rock is shown breaking away from the shaft wall and collapsing twice.

As the stand-ins for 'The Dutchman' and McBain are riding in the wagon
on their way to rob the Lisbon mine, the long shots show 'The Dutchman'
wearing a tan leather jacket. However, on reaching the mine,
the jacket has disappeared and is replaced by a vest.

At the beginning of the movie a group of prisoners chained in tandem
with leg irons shuffles its way to the river for a "bath".
As they approach the guard at the water's edge they are handed a bar of soap.
the second prisoner in line holds out his left hand and is given a bar of soap.
In the next scene this prisoner has no soap and holds out his hand again
to receive the bar a second time.

Crew or equipment visible
Right when they are leaving the collapsed mine, two people are visible,
one in a white shirt, next to the corner of the adobe building in the background.
They quickly get back behind the building.

Memorable Quotes

Filming Locations
Old Tucson - 201 S. Kinney Road, Tucson, Arizona, USA
Yuma Territorial Prison State Park - 206 N. Fourth Avenue, Yuma, Arizona, USA
Imperial County, California, USA
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios - 10202 W. Washington Blvd., Culver City, California, USA

The Badlanders (1958) is a western caper film directed by Delmer Davies
and starring Alan Ladd and Ernest Borgnine.

Based on the 1949 novel The Asphalt Jungle by W. R. Burnett,
the story was given an 1898 setting by screenwriter Richard Collins.
It is the second film adaptation of the novel following 1950's The Asphalt Jungle.

User Review

Up for Borgnine, Down for Ladd
6/10
Author: bkoganbing from Buffalo, New York
20 March 2005

Quote from bko

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.

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