Branded is a 1950 Technicolor western film starring
Alan Ladd, Mona Freeman,Charles Bickford, and Robert Keith.
It was adapted from the novel Montana Rides by Max Brand under pen name Evan Evans.
A gunfighter on the run from the law is talked into posing as the long-lost son of a wealthy rancher.
Production
Original Novel
The film was based on the 1933 novel Montana Rides. It was written by Max Brand as Evan Evans.
(The year before RKO had released a Tom Keene Western called Montana Rides but the plot was different.
The novel concerned a gunman, Montana, aka Arizona Kid, aka Mexico Kid,
who impersonates the missing son of cattle magnate Richard Lavery.
It turns out the real son is raised by a local outlaw, Meteo Rubriz.
The New York Times called it "an exceptionally absorbing an exciting tale."
The Los Angeles Times called it a "swinging, lilting Western... written with incredibly quiet savagery."
The novel was so popular it led to a sequel, Montana Rides Again.
In this, the Montana Kid is lured into Mexico by bandit Mateo Rubriz and Friar Pacaul,
who decide to steal an emerald from the governor which had been looted from a church.
Development
In 1948 Hedda Hopper announced that Winston Miller sold the story to Paramount,
who would make it as a vehicle for Alan Ladd, with Miller to write the script and Robert Fellows to produce.
Leslie Fenton was originally set to direct.Fenton was then assigned to make The Jewell,
so the film was handed to Rudolph Mate. Mel Epstein became the producer.
In March 1950 the film was retitled Branded.
Shooting
The movie was mostly shot on location in Arizona, in the border country near Douglas.
Locations included Salt River Canyon, in the Dragoon Mountains, at the Slaughter Ranch and Cave Tree Canyon.
User Review
Thanks to a strong story and some enthusiastic performances, "Branded" remains as one of Alan Ladd's top westerns…
26 October 2008 | by Righty-Sock (Mexico)
Quote from RIGHTYDisplay MoreThe opening scenes set the tone of the film… Ladd, an itinerant gunman known simply as Choya and with the aid of a tattooed birthmark, passes himself off as the lost son and is accepted wholeheartedly by the parents (Bickford and Royle) and Ruth (Freeman), the man's sister…
Ruth had responded to his arrival on the ranch as any pretty woman would respond to a mysterious, handsome stranger, but she rapidly sets right to the fact that he is a relative…
As soon as he is welcomed as Richard Jr, however, something happens to Choya… As a member of a loving family, Choya experiences feelings denied him by his own childhood and became increasingly sickened by his contribution in the tricking…
Leading a cattle drive to El Paso, Choya decides to give up his charade revealing his true identity to Ruth, who turns on him with consternation and antagonism… There remains only one way to redeem himself and make up for the distressing emotion he has caused the Lavery family: To find their real son…
All the elements in "Branded" are taken directly from the straight-shooting school of Western movies… Choya, despite his confession to Ruth that he is a "four-flushin' thief," is true-blue outlaw hero… The smart Leffingwell has him classified correctly: "You won't hit an older man. You ain't the kind that'll draw first, or shoot a man in the back." Even with the rules thus outlined, Ladd still has a chance to present his standard beguiling bad guy early in the film, merely holding back a victorious smile as he pretends confusion over the elder Lavery's excited reaction to his birthmark…
Besides its other values, "Branded" is a visual delight… In fact, the movie's one drawback as a Western entertainment is a lack of big action highlights…