Bullet for a Badman *** (1964, Audie Murphy, Darren McGavin, Ruta Lee) – Classic Movie Review 7715

Director R G Springsteen’s lusty 1964 B-movie Western Bullet for a Badman stars Audie Murphy as Logan Keliher, a gun-slinging lawman gone good and peaceful, who is forced for the sake of his wife and a kid to return to using his weapons to deal with an old bad guy from the past, Sam Ward (Darren McGavin), when he turns bank robber and turns up wanting to kill him.

Bullet for a Badman is a routine, over-familiar, old-fashioned Murphy revenge Western, redeemed considerably by McGavin’s powerful turn as the villain, good stunts, a cast of veterans (Alan Hale Jr, Ray Teal and Bob Steele) and Joseph F Biroc’s superb Eastmancolor cinematography on locations at Zion National Park, Springdale, Utah.

In the usual, regular, unsurprising plot, based on a novel by Marvin H Albert with a screenplay by Mary Willingham and Willard Willingham, Murphy is playing a one-time lawman trying to show that he does not kill. Keliher and Ward are former Texas Rangers who become enemies after Keliher marries the former wife of Ward, the father of the boy who believes he is Keliher’s son. Ward reappears intending to kill Keliher.

Though upstaged by McGavin, Murphy is excellent as the hero, much better than he is usually given credit for. Springsteen handles it all very neatly.

Also in the cast are Ruta Lee, Skip Homeier, George Tobias, Bob Steele, Alan Hale Jr, Edward Platt, Kevin Tate, Beverley Owen, Berkeley Harris, Cece Whitney, Charles Horvath and Ray Teal.

© Derek Winnert 2018 Classic Movie Review 7715

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