Badman's Territory (1946)

Director:

Tim Whelan

Writers:

Jack Natteford (story) and
Luci Ward (story) ...

Release Date:

1 April 1946 (USA)

Genre:

Western

Tagline:

See Them ALL...IN ACTION -- IN ONE PICTURE! The James Boys - The Daltons - Belle Starr

Plot:

After some gun play with a posse, the James Gang head for Quinto in a section of land which is not a part of America...

Plot Keywords:

Brother Brother Relationship | Jesse James | Marshal | Outlaw | Title Spoken By Character

Cast

Randolph Scott	...	Sheriff Mark Rowley
George 'Gabby' Hayes	...	Honest Jim Badger aka The Coyote Kid
Ann Richards	...	Henrietta Alcott
Ray Collins	...	Colonel Farewell / Narrator
James Warren	...	Deputy John Rowley
Morgan Conway	...	Captain William 'Bill' Hampton
Virginia Sale	...	Meg
John Halloran	...	Hank McGee
Andrew Tombes	...	Doc Quillan aka Doc Grant
Richard Hale	...	Ben Wade
Harry Holman	...	Hodge
Chief Thundercloud	...	Chief Tahlequah
Lawrence Tierney	...	Jesse James
Tom Tyler	...	Frank James
Steve Brodie	...	Bob Dalton

Runtime:

97 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Sound System)

Certification:

Finland:K-16 | Sweden:15 | USA:Approved (certificate #11200) | UK:U

Company:

RKO Radio Pictures

Trivia:

Ben Johnson appears uncredited as a member of Marshal Hampton's posse. He even has a line or two of dialogue. He and the marshal and another deputy dismount and enter a building on location. In the next shot, the studio interior, Hampton and the deputy come through the door, but not Ben, he has disappeared and is seen no more.

Quotes:

Narrator: But an unusual mistake was made in this race for statehood. A strip of land was completely overlooked... forgotten. It was left without law or sheriff. This strip had no legal basis for government of any kind. And in the closing decade of the Nineteenth Century, it became a hideout for the outlaws who infested the west. No United States Marshal dared venture there. It was called Badman's Territory.

Movie Connections:

Followed by Return of the Bad Men (1948)

Great Scott! Lousy movie!

Perhaps the most disjointed, incomprehensible major studio film I've ever seen. I defy anyone to accurately encapsulize the plot in a sentence or even ten. I just watched this film and have no idea what it is about. Now, I love Westerns. I am almost fanatic in my appreciation of Randolph Scott and George 'Gabby' Hayes, and both of them are terrific in this movie. But the script is word spaghetti. The leading lady, Ann Richards, speaks with a British accent for no discernible plot reason, and she gives a performance slightly less believable than might have been obtained from a brick. Outlaw gangs from all over the West and all over the 19th century are thrown together without much apparent purpose other than their name value. Nothing much of interest or accuracy happens with any of them. Nestor Paiva, quite at home playing Italian peasants or gangsters, is bizarrely cast as Texas outlaw Sam Bass, who in real life died at 27, fourteen years younger than Paiva. Chief Thundercloud portrays the Arapaho chief Tahlequah, despite the fact that Tahlequah is a Cherokee name. Geography is tossed about like a piñata; Scott takes a pleasant little day ride on horseback from one end of Oklahoma to the other and back, an actual distance of about 750 miles, and the geographical location is actually referred to officially as "Badman's Territory." As if. None of this would matter if the movie were any good. History, geography, and real-life logic have been tossed willy-nilly into the air quite entertainingly in many movies before and since. But with the entertaining ones, it was possible usually to follow the story. It's great fun to watch Scott, and Hayes gives a particularly enjoyable and offbeat performance. But that's all, brother.