The Law and Jake Wade

Robert Taylor stars as Jake Wade, former outlaw gone straight who must battle his old partner, Richard Widmark as Clint Holister, the leader of a band of outlaws wanting to find stolen bank money, the location of which only Jake Wade knows. Robert Taylor does a competent job in the lead, but Richard Widmark really steals the show as the menacing leader of the gang. The movie is exciting, fast paced and leads to a satisfying climax. Good solid western.

Jake Wade (Robert Taylor) breaks his partner Clint Hollister (Richard Widmark) out of jail. Jake had buried their loot and refuses to reveal the location to Clint. Jake is actually the new Marshall of another small town married to wife Peggy (Patricia Owens). Clint and his new crew catch up to Jake, and he wants the loot.

It's a good if not great western. Robert Taylor is on the decline and he's a diminishing leading man. This one is all Richard Widmark. He is chewing up the movie the whole way through. He has all the swagger in the world. This has a fight with Indians. There is final shootout between the two leads in an abandoned town. It's all here.

'Old' Westerns aren't my favourite type of film - never have been, but if I had to make an exception for a classic example, right now this would be it. One thing in its favour from my point of view is that it tells a simple story which really boils down to one man versus another. Sure, both the title character and the baddie have cohorts, but the crux of the matter is that there's a score to be settled between the two leads. Joyfully, there isn't a posse in sight (unless you include the Indian encounter.)

There's nothing' better than a man trying to atone for his past getting caught up once more with an old accomplice who won't let him forget it. What some call a wooden performance from Robert Taylor, I prefer to call 'relaxed'. I've seen him harshly judged in some quarters, but to me he was a likable presence - although it's true to say that of the two, Richard Widmark takes top honours. The final showdown is tense and competently strung out by Sturges. While it's not quite mano a mano, it IS one on one... To me, that's a good thing.

Seems to me Widmark's character would have been money ahead to simply knock off another bank rather than go into injun country where the chances of dying were pretty high. However, this probably wouldn't have made any better of a film. Plenty of shooting, flying arrows, nasty killers, and as usual Widmark gives a stellar performance as a psychotic gunman intent on having his way no matter what.

"The Law and Jake Wade" was made in 1958 and starred Robert Taylor as a former outlaw who gave up the life of crime and became Marshal Jake Wade. Taylor's character is chased by a former outlaw associate, Clint Hollister, eagerly portrayed by Richard Widmark, who returns with two intentions; first, to find the stolen bank money that Wade had hidden in a job they did together, and then kill Jake Wade for causing him so much trouble in the first place. The outlaw gang's portrayers are Henry Silva, Robert Middleton, Eddie Firestone, and before his days in "Star Trek" DeForest Kelley, and all set out to find the missing money. There is, however, some Comanche Indians on the warpath, and the trek where Taylor is leading them to is also in the territory controlled by the Indians. All the elements for a watchable western are included in this one, and the viewer can also take in some views of the western wildlands. A nice 7/10