Truly Dreadful Film

Excellent characters with emotional depth. My wife, daughter and granddaughter all enjoyed it...and me, too! Very good movie! You won't be disappointed.

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.

While it is a pity that the story wasn't told with more visual finesse, this is trivial compared to our real-world problems. It takes a good movie to put that into perspective.

Highly romanticized take on the life of infamous killer on the southern plains John Westley Hardin, who is credited with killing between 27 and 42 men, most individually, some provoked, some not. While in prison for 17 years, he studied law and religion, and wrote his autobiography. Here, Rock Hudson portrays a largely fanciful Hardin. Well recognized character actor John McIntire plays his religion-obsessed, long bearded, father, as well as his Uncle John Clements, who much helps him.A young woman, Jane Brown, was an orphan, so was raised by the Hardins. She and John hoped to marry soon. However, she is accidentally killed in a gun battle outside the Hardin home. So, John soon develops a romantic relationship with a saloon entertainer: Rosie(Julie Adams) They move around quite a bit to avoid the law, before settling down on a ranch, where they get married and have a boy before John is caught by Texas Rangers. He's sentenced to 25 years in prison, of which he served only 17. When released, he meets his son, who has an unhealthy interest in guns and quick draws, the elder Hardin thinks. After an argument, young John rides to a saloon, with Hardin following him. An argument ensues and Hardin is badly wounded. But, unlike the real Hardin, he survives his wound to ride off into the sunset. For a time, Hardin has a bad relationship with the Hanley brothers, played by Lee Van Cleef(Dirk), Hugh O'Brian(Ike) and Glen Strange(Ben). Uncle John and his boys help Hardin in several scrapes with these men. In the film, Hardin claims he never shot a man who didn't threaten him first or deserve death. It's very doubtful this was true of the real Hardin, who once killed a man for snoring too loud(Well, he was quite drunk, as he apparently often was during his killings). For all his killing, his punishment was very light, only a long prison sentence. It's a wonder nobody shot him down long before it finally happened. This film makes him look like more of a victim than a perpetrator of gunplay, and probably overemphasizes his prowess as a gambler.

"The Lawless Breed" attempts to tell the life story of John Wesley Hardin, the misunderstood gunfighter, from his point of view.The story begins with Hardin (Rock Hudson) being released from prison after serving 16 of 25 years for murder. He goes to the local newspaper and presents the editor with a hand written story of his life. The film then flashes back to his youth where young "Wes" is practicing his fast draw. His father, Preacher J.G. Hardin (John McIntyre) takes a whip to him, condemning his life style. Wes decides to leave home and pursue his dream of earning enough money to buy a small horse ranch for himself and his sweetheart Jane Brown (Mary Castle).The rest of the film can be summed up with the phrase, "I never killed anyone who didn't try to kill me first". He is forced to gun down gambler Gus Handley (Michael Ansara) which brings upon him the wrath of his three brothers, Ike (Hugh O'Brian), Dirk (Lee Van Cleef) and Ben (Glenn Strange).While trying to escape a posse, Hardin hides out with his uncle John Clements (McIntyre again) and his sons Jim (Dennis Weaver) and Joe (Richard Garland). When he returns home to fetch Jane, she is killed during his escape from the farm. Hardin takes solace in the arms of "saloon girl" Rosie (Julia Adams) whom he later marries.Ready to surrender to the law after his planned marriage, Hardin is double-crossed and...........................................Rock Hudson, on the verge of becoming a super star, turns in an excellent performance as the troubled Hardin. He plays the character over a 20 year period. This was one of his first starring roles. He benefited greatly from the direction of the veteran director Raoul Walsh who managed to expose his real talent for the first time.As in most of Universal's fast paced little eighty minute color westerns, there is plenty of action and beautiful Technicolor photography. It also had the benefit of a cast of recognizable supporting players, most of whom had appeared in countless "B" westerns. In addition to those already mentioned above, Steve Darrell appears as Sheriff Jenkins, Robert Anderson as Wild Bill Hickcock, Dick Wessel, Emory Parnell and I. Stanford Jolley as various bartenders, Francis Ford (brother of John) as a saloon sweeper and George Wallace as a saloon bully.An entertaining western.

Chronologically situated between The World in his Arms and Blackbeard the Pirate, and a year after the fine adventure Distant Drums (1951), this is a Raoul Walsh minor but right western, play by soft Rock Hudson and beautiful Julie Adams. Correct, ascetic, vivacious -like the majority of Walsh movies- it tell us the lawless John W. Hardin story based on his autobiography. A entertaining film with no problems or pomp. Nimble. It has got efficacious supporting actors.

Formulaic western casts Rock Hudson in a movie that tries somehow to garner sympathy and understanding for one of the most sadistic and ruthless desperadoes of all time. John Wesley Hardin was an ugly and unrepentant mass murderer but Hollywood paints him as misunderstood and well-meaning. Historical silliness aside, the movie is fast-moving and well acted, just dumb.