So much average

Good movie but grossly overrated

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

Jake Wade, a former thief and gunman is now the town marshal. Out of a need to clear a debt, he breaks a former accomplice of his, Clint Hollister, out of jail, and almost immediately starts to regret it. It seems that Wade hid some monetary spoils out in the hills and Hollister wants his hands on it. So along with his gang, Hollister forces Wade and his fiancée to go out searching for the cash. But not only is there conflict within the group, there is the small matter of the deadly Comanche to worry about as well.The Law And Jake Wade comes with some pretty solid Western credentials from the off. Directed by John Sturges (Gunfight at the O.K. Corral/The Magnificent Seven), starring Richard Widmark (Warlock/The Alamo), Robert Taylor (Saddle The Wind) and photographed by Robert Surtees (Oklahoma!/Escape from Fort Bravo). Widmark is on prime bad guy form as Hollister, and Taylor, who was often accused of being stiff, is perfect foil playing sedate off of Widmark's borderline evil. The cinematography is luscious from Surtees, both Death Valley and The Alabama Hills in California are as imposing as they are beautiful, with Sturges framing his blurry good vs bad characters amongst them to great effect. What action there is {this is primarily a talky picture in reality} is handled adroitly by the wily Stugess, with a Comanche attack on our protagonists in a ghost town, particularly exciting. It's very rare to see arrows and spears glide so gracefully on their path to pain as we do here, all crisply enveloped in MGM's choice of Metrocolor.But really it's with the story itself that the film lifts its being to rank with the better genre offerings. William Bowers' screenplay, adapting from the Marvin H. Albert novel, on the surface looks like a standard good guy-bad guy dovetail piece, but things are purposely left unanswered to fully form the issues (yes you read it right). Is it for nothing that Wade, our law man, the "good" guy, is all in black throughout the piece? With Hollister all shiny in denim blue! Why is the money out buried in the hills after all this time? And come the finale you should be forced into a rethink about the law and all its little peccadilloes. There really is more on offer here if you give it your undivided attention. Some minor itches aside {Patricia Owens love interest looks lost for example}, The Law And Jake Wade is a fine genre piece that deserves better than being called a weekend time filler. 8/10

I watched this out of the new Warner's DVD set tonight, I had caught it on TV about a month or so ago under a less that ideal setting. This time it had a proper viewing and my undivided attention. The film was Directed by John Sturges, and I can't recommend more that you see this alone for the gorgeous cinematography by Robert Surtees. Here is a Western that in outdoor locations and settings looks perfect. The sagebrush engulfed ghostown at the end is really impressive. Either they went to the trouble of building a partially collapsed wooden aqueduct to a water tank or the set was an actual real ghostown .These locations are all in Lonepine, Death Valley, and The Alabama Hills. Why no recent Westerns in the last 30 years have not been shot there is beyond me, but using those locations would be like slipping into a comfortable old pair of shoes and would also give a certain cachet to a work. Those locations are not as singularly iconic as the Buttes of Monument Valley, but they actually represent even more the West as a whole because they provide an infinite variety of jagged peaks, flat plains, alluvial fans, eroded badlands, and boulder fields.The film stars Robert Taylor as Jake Wade , a reformed outlaw, Richard Widmark as Wade's old partner in crime Clint Hollister from the Civil War Kansas/Missouri border war. Patricia Owens is Peggy Wade's fiancé who knows nothing of his past. Robert Middleton plays Ortero a member of the old Wade-Hollister Gang. Henry Silva is in one of his stock quasi lunatic hothead roles he played so well, as new gang member Rennie. De Forest Kelley (Bones from Star Trek) is again playing a heavy (very similar to what he played in Warlock) gang member Wexler, Eddie Firestone is I believe minor gang member Burke who rounds out the main cast.The story is basically that a reformed Wade finds out that Hollister has been captured and held in a jail awaiting a hanging close enough nearby to allow Wade to break him out in order to pay back a dept owed (Hollister saved his life). After accomplishing this Wade splits with Hollister to go back to his reformed ways, things don't quite go as planned. It seems that on the last job Wade & Hollister pulled Wade disappeared with $20,000.*note bene those who watch this the way they take no chances and bind this Wade's hands behind his back in stark contrast to the stupid remake of 3:10 to Yuma.The only minor things keeping this Western out of a top ten list are that the night time scenes are all shot on obvious sets one of which has a ridiculous backdrop painting of Monument Valley, looking very out of place. Another is that though all the clothes of the actors who have been on the trail supposedly for days are suitably well dusted up, none of the actors have any stubble or the beginnings of beards. And finally the way Robert Taylor looks & plays his part seems just a tad off the mark (old Hollywood style), its like the difference between Sturges' "Gunfight at the OK Corral" and his "Hour Of The Gun" the way in the former Lancaster appears as Earp with the way in the latter Garner looks as Earp.This is a definitely a Western to own.

I just learned that Richard Widmark passed away at the age of 93. Widmark was on a short list of my all time favorite actors, sharing top billing with Fred MacMurray, George Peppard, and the brilliant (in my opinion) supporting actor Martin Balsam. The best actors seem to adapt their roles to themselves, so that they never lose their off-screen persona. Frank Sinatra was always himself in his movies, as was John Wayne. And so was Richard Widmark. Why do we like "bad guys" so much? Possibly because we get the feeling that in their private lives they are neither good nor bad, but rather, something even better: genuine. Richard Widmark never divorced. He outlived two wives, one marriage lasting 55 years until his first wife passed on. So we know he was not a loner, although his life style was private, as he never appeared on TV talk shows to promote his movies or himself. Buoyed by his inimitable personal qualities, he carved a unique niche for himself in film, and ran with it for a half- century.The Law and Jake Wade made a strong impression upon me, seeing it for the first time, as a 16-year old, shortly after its release in 1958. This film had a 3-D quality, and a horror film quality which really grabbed its audience, at that time. By 1958 the 3-D fad was long gone, but, I swear, when the Indians attacked Widmark's gang at night with bows and arrows, it seemed like 3-D revisited as the arrows seemed to be coming right through the screen at the audience. Even knowing it was a movie, I was petrified, so realistic is this scene. Unfortunately, this realism cannot be duplicated via DVD or any lesser medium. Abetting all this excitement is the contrast in style of Widmark and Robert Taylor. While Taylor had adopted family values and professional law man responsibility following his maverick Civil War renegading in partnership with Widmark, Widmark, as the years passed, would have none of the maturing and sobering process to which most men evolve, after having sown their wild oats. So that when Widmark and Taylor locked horns due to a conflict of interest and values, long after the war's end and the demise of their gang, there could be no reconciliation as their cross-purpose came to a head.Widmark's upbeat, anti-social mores neatly bounce off Taylor's low-key, conventional manner, right up to their inevitable show-down. And it doesn't matter whether Widmark prevailed in the end, his is the character which makes this an enduring film-going experience.*****

The plot of this western, while not unusual, is reasonably well done. However, the love interest has very little to do. The scenery is excellently photographed, but the Indian attack is ridiculous. It makes no sense that the Indians did not burn the place. It was a ghost town, the wood was old and dry, and there was no one there but the people the Indians apparently were after.The best part is the handling of Jake Wade (Robert Taylor) after he's caught and being transported to the place where the money is buried. The rest of the movie is fairly dull.Altogether, a reasonable western, but it could have been a lot better.gaynor wild