Bad Lands (1939)

How sad is this?

Funny, strange, confrontational and subversive, this is one of the most interesting experiences you'll have at the cinema this year.

Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.

It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

One would think that if a reviewer that knows the name and face of an actor in a film (when he is seen), then such reviewers would not go to great lengths in adding little tidbits about that actor, in their review, when that actor...John Payne...is not in the film. John Payne did not play "Apache Jack" in this film. That role was played by a one-and-done actor named Jack Payne. Perhaps those reviewers that pointed out the fabrication John Payne is in this film would go back and edit their reviews. But, the chances are very high that, rather than delete/correct their reviews, they will just mark this with a 'don't like'. Be my guest.

If you didn't know this was a remake of "The Lost Patrol" it might be passable, but that picture had tension, a better script and had some big Hollywood names in key roles. "Bad Lands" is a pale imitation in every respect - maybe the Foreign Legion is a better setting for the story, instead of the Old West.The cast of character actors assembled here, especially Robert Barrat and Addison Richards, try mightily but don't have the starpower of Boris Karloff, Victor McLaglen and Reginald Denny. And Robert Coote? what is a Brit with a distinctly British accent doing in the old west? Peculiar, but not enough to offset the steady stream of talk and more talk that riddles the movie. The only repeat performer from "Lost Patrol" to "Bad Lands" is Douglas Walton, who played a young, effete British soldier in the former and here plays a young, effete cowboy - same role, different backdrop.I am second to no one in my affection for westerns, but this might have needed a different director and screenwriter to punch it up. "The Lost Patrol" was made in 1934 - what a difference four years can make.

The production certainly saves on make-up since there's not a woman in sight. It's all about a 10-man posse setting out after a bad man, but ending up mouse-trapped by Apaches in dry desert badlands. The movie plays much better if you haven't seen The Lost Patrol (1934) of which this is a virtual remake with a transposed setting. The premise is a good one as we get to know the posse members before they get picked off by the shadowy Apaches. Barrat is excellent as the stalwart sheriff, showing why he was such a fixture in movies of the 30's and 40's. Addison Richards shines too, as a tough guy, before becoming the more familiar silver- haired business executive of the 40's and 50's. And, of course, there's the lugubrious Andy Clyde, along with a rather shifty Noah Beery Jr. of Rockford Files fame.Unfortunately, the wagon-load of tension coming from the premise is not equaled on screen since events unfold rather loosely, without the kind of tension that John Ford gets, for example, in The Lost Patrol. As a result, the movie is more interesting than riveting; at the same time, when pay-off's occur, there's not the involvement that makes for memorable viewing. And I think it a mistake for both this film and the 1934 one to show the attackers in the end. Instead, let them remain an unseen "force of nature" since that's how they're portrayed to that point. Nonetheless, this is a Western that certainly doesn't follow the formula horse operas of the day.In passing—I don't know if it's the presence of Paul Hurst and Francis Ford or maybe the posse theme, but the movie reminds me in ways of the classic Ox-Bow Incident of 1943.

Western stories are one of my best enjoyments, however, Bad Lands 1939 just did not hold my attention at all, the only two actors in this film who carried the picture on their backs were, Noah Beery Jr.,(Chick Layman) "Riverboat" '59 TV Series, who was the son of veteran actor Wallace Berry. The other actor, John Payne (Apache Jack) "Tin Pan Alley '40 who was a singer in many film musicals in the 20's. John Payne and Noah Beery were just starting out in their film career's and if you like these actors, the film is worth watching.