Drei ehrliche Banditen

Three outlaws (played by Tom Santschi, J. Farrell MacDonald and Frank Campeau) take a young woman (Olive Borden) whose father was killed by horse thiefs under their wing and help her survive the machinations of a corrupt sheriff (Lou Tellegen). The storyline shows some similarities to that of 'Three Godfathers' which director John Ford filmed more than two decades later. However, I enjoyed '3 Bad Men' a lot more than Ford's younger film. It is more original, has a romantic sub plot and is funnier and less kitschy. It is moreover beautifully filmed and well-acted throughout. There are some weak points, though. I was not entirely convinced by the sudden transformation of the three hardened criminals into sometimes a bit sentimental protectors. And as some other reviewers have pointed out, the climax has been handled poorly. The three outlaws want to defend the entrance to a canyon against the sheriff and his men; as one of them says: A good man could hold it against an army. Sure, but the good man would need to take cover instead of standing quasi in the middle of the road... But these are minor issues. All in all, this is a beautiful early western that is well worth watching.

This is a great find - some excellent performances here (Olive Borden as the plucky little heroine, Priscilla Bonner as poor little misguided Millie, Lou Tellegen as the corrupt sheriff in rather silly hat) and an excellent story which has a lot to say and keeps you watching. If only someone out there would restore it to its former glory ... wouldn't it look wonderful?

This film convinces me that John Ford deserves his legendary status. He seems to have had his unique gift for cinema story telling from his beginnings. This is a starkly realistic tale depicting , unromantically , some of the brutal hardship of the late 19th century west.

There is great poignancy in the loyalty and ethos which surface in even the most "bad" of men. To convey this in a silent film , with fairly minimal use of dialogue screens , required some pretty good acting and good camera work. There are several protracted facial studies which convey the critical messages very eloquently. Through most of the film I forgot that there was no "talking" dialogue. There are some surprisingly "contemporary" humor lines on the dialogue screens , not typical of westerns but quite typical of Fords evolving love of pathos.

The story is kind of all over the place, and it has a weird mixture of comedy and drama (which, of course, is hardly odd in a John Ford film), but this is a pretty good one. Tom Santschi, J. Farrell MacDonald and Frank Campeau play three outlaws who plan to rob a covered wagon of its horses, but instead find young Olive Borden weeping over her dead father. They're disarmed and decide to turn a new leaf and take care of the girl (to note: she is a young adult, not a child). They become her surrogate father and help her as she establishes herself in the newly formed town that has sprung up in the Dakotas. Soon, there is to be a land rush, and many have gathered there before the land is opened to colonization (the pesky Indians have been removed to a reservation - they aren't a huge part of the film, but occasionally they can be seen watching the white men). The three bad men start looking for a husband for Borden and hit upon George O'Brien. The villain here (Lou Tellegen) is interestingly the law man and wears a white hat. The photography is gorgeous and Ford's direction is excellent. Despite the sloppiness of the script, it's a gripping Western. The land rush sequence is equal to the one in Cimarron four years later.

Not one of Ford's better oaters, "3 Bad Men" is nonetheless a modest and satisfactory silent Western, with comic touches and serviceable storyline of three outlaws rescuing a young abandoned girl after her mother is killed in the wild west. While the able players (George O'Brien, Tom Santischi, Olive Borden, Priscilla Bonner, J. Farrel MacDonald) are in good form, the film is chiefly notable for its superlatively evocative photography, the shots of gorgeous exteriors and the typically Fordian long shot of epic landscape & riders on the horizon. It is very poetic and well-made.

Look for that exciting sequence of the Dakota land rush.