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5 out of 5 people found the following review useful:
Borgnine plays it good for a change, 24 September 2002
Author: funkyfry from Oakland CA

Satisfying tale of 2 paroled prisoners who set up to rob a mine belonging to the men who railroaded them into prison. Nice photography, somewhat slack pace. Good characterizations, especially by Borgnine and Jurado. Borgy plays a good man for a change, affecting the Chaneyesque character transformation from violent, angry inmate to a strong-willing individualist on the way to Mexico with the stolen loot. The heroes are surprisingly trusting, given that they had already been cheated by their new "employers". Nice tone, little substance or action.

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5 out of 7 people found the following review useful:
Not a bad caper western, 19 November 2002
Author: daryl42 from California

Toward the end, there is a scene that I recognized almost word for word from a similar scene in The Asphalt Jungle, then I realized that the whole thing is a close approximation. The family man safe cracker is the family man "powder monkey", the heavy Borgine is the thug Sterling Hayden (with their girlfriends of questionable repute), the financiers with their bought lawmen and molls are the same, the caper is similar. This one is a bit more lightweight than the former.

Maybe it would have worked better as a noir in B&W but not a bad film.

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5 out of 7 people found the following review useful:
Excellent Delmer Davies Western, 22 April 2002
9/10
Author: herbqedi from New York, NY

I stumbled onto this one accidentally, and I'm glad I did.

Davies always worked with Borgnine to fine advantage, but the electricity of his pairing with late-in-career Ladd is an unanticipated delight. And, Borgnine's chemistry with then-wife Jurado is hotter still. Couple that with a deliciously foppish performance by feckless Kent Smith and excellent supporting work from Anthony Caruso and Ford Rainey and sharp-edged dialogue. The result is a fast-paced keeper.

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4 out of 6 people found the following review useful:
One of Ladd's best later films, with a fine Borgnine match, 3 January 2001
7/10
Author: fs3 from Baton Rouge, LA

Vividly filmed in Cinemascope in the best late-50's MGM style, this loose remake of The Asphalt Jungle in a Western setting has some good acting and takes a different road. The relationship of Alan Ladd and Ernest Borgnine is consistently interesting and unpredictable throughout, and Katy Jurado offers a standout performance. Ultimately less grim than its source material, this one has a satisfying resolution, and the action that leads to it holds the interest the entire way. A solid Western that deserves a significant place in both of its stars' filmographies.

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5 out of 8 people found the following review useful:
A superior horse opera that needs a pro music score!, 16 November 2006
10/10
Author: MisterChandu from USA

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!

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2 out of 3 people found the following review useful:
location photography, 24 July 2007
Author: martin-wright1 from United Kingdom

A notable aspect of this western, particularly when seen in a good PAL version, is that the location photography is extremely well lit and balanced with good use of minimal lighting and the use of pincushion rather than Bush & Lomb lenses in the location photography (it is possible to see the difference). This shows up well in the end sequences. However the studio work is lit using the standard studio methods and shows little of the location cameraman's skill.

The colour is well balanced and the sound is okay, not as good as some. At this tiem Cimemascope was losing its exclusivity and so was being used more and more in lower budget westerns.

As far as Alan Ladd being in the doldrums, he was working solidly but appeared to be working at his best in British productions where they appeared to provide him with enough challengingly good actors to keep him ocuppied. A good afternoon film, enjoyable.

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3 out of 5 people found the following review useful:
Up for Borgnine, Down for Ladd, 20 March 2005
Author: bkoganbing from Buffalo, New York

I saw The Badlanders when it first came out in 1958 in theatres. 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 cellmate 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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4 out of 7 people found the following review useful:
Remarkably bad music score., 6 September 2003
6/10
Author: max von meyerling from New York

Not the worst late western (late fifties; late in the genre) you can see. Good performances even if a somewhat silly adaptation of the Asphalt Jungle. What makes this movie remarkable, if only in the negative sense, is that it has one of the worst music scores of any film ever made. This is the classic bombastic cliché music background which as kids we would do as da-da, da-da, da-da-dum when we played. Apparently they just scotched taped various pieces of stock ( and presumably royalty free) music which might go along with the screen action (or might not) and it sounds like someone left a boom box on in the theater while the movie was running. One of a handful of films that should be shown in film schools in order to teach students how NOT to do it.

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2 out of 4 people found the following review useful:
one of Daves' less ambitious but also one of his best., 25 March 2007
Author: tmwest from S. Paulo, Brazil

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.

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3 out of 6 people found the following review useful:
Gold, greed and revenge, 30 July 2002
7/10
Author: helpless_dancer from Broken Bow, Oklahoma

An ex-con and a fellow inmate seek revenge and a high dollar payday in developing a plot to strip a supposedly mined out vein and selling the contents to a shady tycoon. Is revenge stronger than a lust for more financial gain by a double crossing man and his shady lawman friend? Good western with lots of fisticuffs, gunplay, and a tense, explosive finale.

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