City of Bad Men *** (1953, Dale Robertson, Jeanne Crain, Richard Boone, Lloyd Bridges) – Classic Movie Review 12,893

Hugh Sanders and Dale Robertson in City of Bad Men.

20th Century Fox’s lively and fresh-feeling 1953 Technicolor Western film City of Bad Men stars Dale Robertson, Jeanne Crain, Richard Boone and Lloyd Bridges. It has quality and originality written all over it in an era of too many over-familiar Westerns. 

Director Harmon Jones’s lively and fresh-feeling 1953 20th Century Fox American Technicolor Western film City of Bad Men stars Dale Robertson, Jeanne Crain, Richard Boone, and Lloyd Bridges. It has considerable quality and originality written all over it in an era of too many over-familiar Westerns.

City of Bad Men is a different kind of suspense Western with outlaw Brett Stanton (Robertson) and his gang out to take the cash from the 1897 Heavyweight Championship prize fight between James J ‘Gentleman Jim’ Corbett (John Daheim) and Bob Fitzsimmons (Gil Perkins) in Nevada’s Carson City. But he reckons without the charms of his old girl sweetheart Linda Culligan (Crain). So it’s cash or Crain, or maybe Cynthia Castle (Carole Mathews). Which will Robertson choose?

City of Bad Men is fairly well-made, interesting Western entertainment, with a fine production, a tense mood and good action, and there are the riveting Boone and Bridges high up in the cast, worth their weight in gold as rival gang leader Johnny Ringo and Robertson’s brother Gar Stanton, plus, buried in an enormous cast, former star Barbra Fuller uncredited as Mrs Adler. Maybe we could do without the love triangle, or the romance entirely, and just get on with the story, but otherwise good. The screenplay by George W George and George F Slavin is very creditable.

The main cast are Jeanne Crain as Linda Culligan, Dale Robertson as Brett Stanton, Richard Boone as Johnny Ringo, Lloyd Bridges as Gar Stanton, Carole Mathews as Cynthia Castle, Carl Betz as Deputy Phil Ryan, Whitfield Connor as Jim London, Hugh Sanders as Sheriff Bill Gifford, Rodolfo Acosta as Mendoza, Pascual García Peña as Pig, John Doucette as Cinch, Leo Gordon as Russell, James Best as Deputy Gig, Don Haggerty as Bob Thrailkill, Frank Ferguson as Easterner at Training Camp, John Daheim as James J Corbett, Gil Perkins as Bob Fitzsimmons, Harry Carter, Robert Adler, Alan Dexter, and Barbra Fuller as Mrs Adler.

City of Bad Men is directed by Harmon Jones, runs 84 minutes, is made and released by 20th Century Fox, is written by George W George and George F Slavin, is shot in Technicolor by Charles G Clarke, is produced by Leonard Goldstein, and is scored by Lionel Newman.

Release date: October 20, 1953.

The Corbett-Fitzsimmons fight is shown being held in an indoor arena under artificial lights but actually took place outdoors at the Racetrack Arena in Carson City. Fitzsimmons is shown competing in long tights but actually wore short trunks.

Barbra Fuller died on May 15, 2024, aged 102.

George Warren Goldberg was born in Manhattan on 8 February 1920 and died on 7 November 2007, aged 87. It is baffling why he would change his name to George W George. But thereby hangs a tale. George’s cartoonist father Rube Goldberg received antisemitic hate mail for his political cartoons in World War Two so he made his sons George and Thomas change their surnames before they went to college. Thomas chose ‘George’ as a surname, so George followed suit.

© Derek Winnert 2024 – Classic Movie Review 12,893

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