Best of the Badmen *** (1951, Robert Ryan, Claire Trevor, Jack Buetel, Robert Preston, Walter Brennan) – Classic Movie Review 9920

Director William D Russell’s bracing 1951 RKO Technicolor Western film Best of the Badmen stars Robert Ryan as Union officer Major Jeff Clanton, who clashes with unscrupulous detective Matthew Fowler (Robert Preston), head of a corrupt detective agency, over the capture of a famous group of outlaws, survivors of Quantrill’s Raiders.

Best of the Badmen is often too static and always way too cavalier with the well-known facts in this fictionalised biopic of the story of the Clanton, James and Younger outlaw gangs. But there is enough action and solid acting to keep it merrily rolling along.

Token woman Claire Trevor (Stagecoach) fits into the Western scene nicely and amply justifies her casting as Preston’s angry wife, Lily.

So they say at the start: ‘Except as to true names that are used and as to general historical background, the characters and events depicted in this photoplay are fictional. Any similarity to other actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.’ No wonder ‘This story tells a forgotten chapter in the violent history of the West.’ It never happened. Given how often the story of the Clanton, James and Younger gangs has been told in films, you can understand, though not necessarily forgive, the need for new tales. But then, why use the characters at all. Why not invent new ones?

Also in the strong Western cast are Jack Buetel as Bob Younger, Walter Brennan as ‘Doc’ Butcher, Bruce Cabot as Cole Younger, John Archer as Curley Ringo, Lawrence Tierney as Jesse James, Barton MacLane as Joad, Tom Tyler as Frank James, Robert J Wilke as Jim Younger, John Cliff as John Younger, Lee MacGregor, Emmett Lynn, and Carleton Young.

The screenplay is by Robert Hardy Andrews and John Twist, based on a story by Robert Hardy Andrews. It is set in Missouri just after the American Civil War.

It is a loose follow-up to Return of the Bad Men (1948), which also starred Ryan.

It was partly shot in Paria, Johnson Canyon, Strawberry Valley, the Gap, and Kanab Canyon in Utah.

How did Walter Brennan and Robert Ryan get on? Ryan was a pacifist and an opponent of McCarthyism, while Brennan was politically conservative and anti-Communist.

© Derek Winnert 2020 Classic Movie Review 9920

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