Garden of Evil

A trio of American drifters formed by a veteran ex-sheriff named Hooker (Gary Cooper) , a card player named Fiske(Richard Widmark) and a gunfighter , Luke Daly (Cameron Mitchell) going to California and marooned in rural Mexico are recruited by a beautiful woman named Leah Fuller (Susan Hayward) who offers a strong reward to rescue her husband named John Fuller (Hugh Marlowe) from vengeful Apaches . Fuller is wounded in a gold mine on a territory occupied by Indians. The three adventurers accompany the woman , but for the trip their feelings are turning .

Leisurely and deliberately paced , at times thrilling and tense classic Western whose plot follows hazardous trails , though sometimes is slow moving. Based on a story by F. Freiberger and Tunberg was filmed in Mexican scenarios , for that reason play some Mexican actors as Victor Manuel Mendoza and Rita Moreno as gorgeous dancer in her film debut. It's considerably boosted by the main cast formed by a perfect trio as Cooper , Hayward and Widmark who add stature to the screenplay . The amusing results to be the guessing in which order the main roles get killed off . This was the only Gary Cooper film shot in Cinemascope and his partenaire was Susan Hayward , both of them had formerly played when were very young ¨Beau Geste¨(1939) . Colorful cinematography perfectly remastered by Milton Krasner and Jorge Sthal , spectacularly filmed on Mexican landscapes , though also contains some matte paintings of the cliffs . Impressive and suspenseful musical score by the classic Bernard Herrmann , Alfred Hitchcock's usual . ¨Garden of evil¨failed in Box office and did't obtain success as public as reviews ; however , being today best considered .

The motion picture is professionally directed by Henry Hathaway . Henry was a craftsman and expert on Western genre as he proved in ¨Shoot out , True grit , Five card stud , Nevada Smith , Sons of Katie Elder , How the West was won , Rawhide , Brigham Young , Buffalo Stampede¨ and of course ¨Garden of evil¨. Rating : nice Western that will appeal to Gary Cooper fans.

If you have never seen Susan Hayward, Gary Cooper and Richard Widmark together, this will be a treat! First of all, the story works....

Next, the lines work and the performances are perfect: Susan Hayward's voice is the feminine equal of the stoic, knowing and forceful sound of Gary Cooper's voice: those voices are the trademarks of both of their film careers, and in this movie the interplay of their vocal tracks are very significant, definitive performances in both their careers....just listen to their lines and you will appreciate the fact that this movie is one of the high points of the dramatic art of two great performers...

You will also enjoy the visuals in this movie....Hayward is sexy, and backed by beautiful vistas. Cooper is strong and incorruptable, as are the stark and clear views that back his appearances....

Richard Widmark creates an excellent "gambling" persona...with a bit of backbone.

If you haven't seen it...DO!

If you like it, check out "The Big Sky" starring Kirk Douglas...it is black and white if I remember rightly...but well worth checking out!

... and I always round up when I'm at the halfway mark, just to explain. This is a fine watch in spite of the choppy script.

Cooper and Widmark's characters' boat breaks down on the way to the California gold fields--they have to stop in Mexico. They head to a local cantina. Susan Hayward comes in and says she is offering one thousand dollars in gold to anyone who will help her save her husband, who was trapped in a cave-in. She says the mine is right in the middle of cursed country called "Garden of Evil" - The film proceeds from there.

The uneven screenplay is credited to Frank Fenton. Bernard Herrmann contributed a score that supplies more drama than the screenplay; the handsome cinematography is credited to Milton Krasner and Jorge Stahl. Jr.

Widmark is especially good as the man who's not used to being a good guy. Cooper and Hayward are as effective as the script allows. The rest of the cast is adequate. Look for a young Rita Moreno in the cantina.

Critics yawned when the film was released, but it made a healthy profit, especially considering it cost around two million dollars to film. This is probably the most beautiful film Cooper made in the 1950's, and the most underrated.

I'm having a problem understanding all the reviewers who call this film 'under-rated'. In fact, for me at least, the reviews it received are, if anything, a little too high. I love Cooper and Widmark generally as actors but Cooper's performance is wooden and he seems to be just reading his lines in places while Widmark is a caricature of the gambler/adventurer and comes across as unreal. Hayward is HORRIBLY miscast as a tough, resourceful woman and we never do see the love and devotion that is supposed to be driving her to rescue her 'husband'...she sure doesn't otherwise act like a devoted wife. The writing, despite the normally skilled writers is quite lackluster and bland and there are far too many long shots which do nothing for the story development and are just window dressing and filler using the lovely landscape shots. The scene involving Cooper putting a whooping on our young bounty hunter is laughably pathetic as he falls and STAYS down in the fire over and over......cringingly terrible and I couldn't help but laugh out loud. I think this movie was justifiably overlooked by time....it's a second rate effort by otherwise skilled actors and it's clear they didn't 'gel' at all.

This is a hugely underrated western as eccentric and individual as anything by Peckinpah or Boetticher. One of the early Cinemascope adventures from Fox, GARDEN OF EVIL has a superb cast at the top of their respective games, fantastic special effects, wonderful widescreen photography, and one of house composer Bernard Herrmann's very best scores (which is saying a mouthful). Best of all, it showcases an utterly unique screenplay full of strange, world-weary philosophy that sounds like Hemingway on acid. (Ironically, the chief writer, Fred Frieberger, is best known for producing the third and weakest season of the original STAR TREK -- notorious for its bad writing). At any rate, check this one out the first chance you get. Years of bad pan & scan showings on TV have destroyed its reputation -- but if you ask me, GARDEN OF EVIL is a gem waiting to be discovered, if not a cult waiting to be born!