Badman's Territory (1946)

i must have seen a different film!!

I gave it a 7.5 out of 10

What a freaking movie. So many twists and turns. Absolutely intense from start to finish.

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

There are so Many Names of Outlaws and Such in this Murky Story of Bandits and Marshalls that in the End it is just One Big...Ho-Hum. This Western from RKO has a Good Look about it but what it's About is Anybody's Guess.Randolph Scott is OK but is Not the Stoic, Sombre Presence that He Assumed in the Budd Boetticher Classics. Here He is just Randolph Scott, Tall and Unwavering. The Cast has some Familiar Faces and some Not So Familiar to Casual Moviegoers.Gabby Hayes is just a Heartbeat from Irritating and is Most Effective with a Double Take Glance than with that Grovely, Grating Galoot of a Voice that is So Recognizable. He has Much to Do in this Mediocre Western and is as Good as Anybody here.There is a Boring Horse Race Among other Boring Things in this Long Story that is Never Woven Together Adequately. Lawrence Tierney is Wasted as Jesse James as is just about Everyone Else. The Movie Needs more Edge and more Grit, because as it Stands it is a Plate Full of Campfire Comfort that Almost Works but Ultimately is Nothing More than Name Dropping.

Hollywood and History do not, as a rule, go well together.Once again a western movie is damaged by over-saturation of big-name outlaws -- real people but who lived and died very differently from the script's portrayal.Frankly, I watched with trepidation, but was soon more than placated by the very high quality of cast -- and, shucks, the presence of Randolph Scott alone will usually save any movie.Here he is assisted by Gabby Hayes, in an unusual but surprisingly moving characterization, and by an actress of whom I know nothing, Ann Richards, a very lovely woman, but whose allegedly English accent never did sound quite right. Turns out she is from Australia.The bad guys were played by some, not just veterans, but champions, people such as Lawrence Tierney, Tom Tyler, Steve Brodie, and Nestor Paiva.A character named Belle Starr just captivated, just stole each scene she was in, and looking later at the list of players I realize why: She was played by the great Isabel Jewell.Several more wonderful actors did not even get credit, and once more we have to pause and say a little prayer of thanks for IMDb.com. There are John Hamilton, Buddy Roosevelt, Kermit Maynard, Emory Parnell, who even has some lines, and Elmo Lincoln.The great and unheralded Bud Osborne has a pivotal role early in the film, but no credit.Despite the foolishness in using some of the outlaw names, the script has a lot of very good dialog, and it moves, with lots of characters having lots of action."Badman's Territory" is, finally, a very good movie.

Old-fashioned: yes, but in the best sense of the phrase. This film has a kind of charm, without being too cornball. It isn't slow but is perfectly well-paced. The black-and-white photography is not as good as some Scott westerns but this is not a scenery type of western story. The sound recording must have been done on the cheap, but it doesn't really matter because this is a western and it surely wasn't made for the purpose of selling a soundtrack.Movies of all eras (especially today) substitute macho posturing or posing instead of manhood as it was defined in the old days. In contrast, there are two scenes in this film that offer good examples of how things might have really occurred back then. First, the scene where Scott's character just walks squarely into the corral and shoots the horse thief contains no dialog and doesn't need it (good representation of an old corral by the way). The other scene shows Gabby's character refusing to submit to the lawman's demands, knowing that he is about to be shot. He is shot with minimal dialog in a room quietly occupied by the two men alone.The fine line that was walked (and sometimes crossed over) between lawman and badman in the lawless areas of the west is well depicted in this film. I have used words like "depicted" in this review because the movie is intended as entertainment, not historical accuracy.Randolph Scott, Gabby and others in the cast did more than merely stroll through what could have been just another formula western. They give a good effort and movie fans are the beneficiaries.

Here is a great idea: make a western with all the famous outlaws showing up: Jesse and Frank James, The Dalton brothers, Belle Starr and Sam Bass. It must have been financially rewarding because two years later "Return of the Badmen" came out with many of the same actors. Scott is a sheriff that ends up in a town full of outlaws looking for his brother who had been shot. There he falls in love with Ann Richards, who runs a newspaper. The real bad guy is Morgan Conway, who is supposed to be the one on the side of the law. Gabby Hayes gives a great performance as Coyote, quite different from his usual sidekick roles. Fast paced and entertaining.