Das Brandmal

While on the dodge from a shooting scrape, gunfighter Alan Ladd meets up with a pair of drifters, Robert Keith and John Berkes. They want him to pose as the long lost son of a prominent Texas rancher Charles Bickford who was kidnapped as a child and never heard from again. John Berkes is a tattoo artist and he gives Alan Ladd a tattoo that looks like a birth mark the child had.

It works all too well as Ladd is welcomed into the home of Bickford and wife Selena Royle. In addition there's a sister in the home played by Mona Freeman and Ladd is not developing brotherly feelings for her.

In the end he can't go through with fleecing these decent people and Ladd sets out to set things right.

Branded was Ladd's second starring western after Whispering Smith and he proved to be equally well received here. The urban Ladd of the films Paramount put him in starting with This Gun for Hire gradually gave way to a western character and he would do more of them of varying quality over the rest of his career. The best of which was that immortal classic Shane.

In one sense though Ladd's character is very much like Raven in This Gun for Hire. Both of them were orphans with great big chips on their shoulders. Imagine Raven a little earlier than when he met up with Veronica Lake and got into the home of a couple like Bickford and Royle and you have a pretty good idea of what Ladd's character Choya is like in Branded.

Acting honors however go to the ever dependable Joseph Calleia as a Mexican bandit chief and to Robert Keith. Keith usually was a good guy in most films, a typical role for him would be the father of the Tuttle girls as he was in Young at Heart. He completely plays against type as a slime ball bottom feeder who turns out to be far more despicable than even we originally think.

Branded is a good western and Alan Ladd and the cast members should be proud of their work in this one.

My father and I went to the drive-in movies every weekend during the first half of the 1950s, and I can vividly recall seeing a number of Alan Ladd movies sitting in our '50 Ford and munching on cracker jacks while Dad smoked unfiltered Pall Malls.

Dad thought Alan Ladd was the best, and I always assumed that he based his opinion mostly on Ladd's indelible turn in "Shane." But, I can't help but think that "Branded" played no small part in forming his opinion.

What a gem of a movie! I may have seen it as a youngster and, if so, I waited more than 60 years to see it again. It was worth the wait! First, the characters, the script, and the storyline are believable. The players think like we do, talk like we do, and act like we do. That usually is enough to attract some interest in a film. But this movie offers much more.

The cinematography is breathtaking. This little film yields nothing to "She Wore a Yellow Ribbon" or "Rio Grande." The scenery, the color, the lighting, are all superior.

The horsemanship is spectacular. How often can you say that about an "oater." The riders in this film gallop along narrow ridge-lines and down steep grades. And there is nothing to cushion their fall except red rock. And take a look at the camera angles, as the riders are tearing down the trail.

And the music! Again, how often do you get to praise the score in a Western? The score is taut, and adds much to the drama and the excitement.

The cast is excellent. And it gives the viewer the chance to see Alan Ladd just before he filmed "Shane." Sure, there were about four movies between "Branded" and "Shane," but "Shane" sat on the shelf for two years before it was released in 1953, so it was actually filmed right after "Branded." You could almost say that Ladd auditioned his Shane character in this film.

This small picture probably had a small budget and a limited release. But it is an "A" picture in every respect. Any retrospective on Ladd or classic Westerns should include this little gem.

One of Alan Ladd's lesser-known westerns is this adventure of a scheming outlaw with a conscience who sets out to solve the mystery of a lost son and return him to his parents. Of course, the mission is fraught with danger, from a partner and assorted crooks. After getting to know the missing lad's family, Choya's change of heart takes across the Rio Grande where the boy is being raised by a tough, mean outlaw who aims to keep the boy, using gun play if necessary to get his point across. The picture is helped by great scenery and several scenes show a realistic slice of ranch life and cattle drives. Ladd gets a great boost from Robert Keith, Charles Bickford and Joseph Calleia, and Mona Freeman, always tough and spirited, is pretty as she takes a fancy to the dashing outlaw who would be her brother.

A fine western that was better than I expected It to be.Alan Ladd, although sometimes wooden puts In a good performance here. The cinematography and the colour process of this movie are outstanding. This western has a few good plot twists to make It stand out.The location scenery Is stunning too. Alan Ladd has something of a mystery persona here not unlike his role In Shane. The colours In this movie are very vivid and lifelike not at all garish as I thought they might be. This western has good support acting too, Charles Bickford plays his part with ruthless relish ala Big country. Robert Keith Is a shady slime ball who's demise In the film Is very fitting. This Is an out and out satisfying western and one I can thoroughly recommend.

Some have said it's too bad Ladd made "Shane", because it overshadowed this great piece. I'd like to think there's room for both great Westerns to fill the honor roll of classic Westerns.

Ladd plays a gunman named Choya. He's probably a lot like Shane, only perhaps a month before Shane becomes the character we see in his film.

He's recruited by an older man to pretend to be the son of a wealthy rancher, a son who was kidnapped at the age of five.

Many revelations come about during the movie, and most of them very early. The new partner of Choya (Ladd) quickly shows himself to be the last person you'd want near you, a true monster. Yet he's a very believable monster. The first death scene, which is a murder committed by this man, may be one of the best Hollywood stunt scenes ever done. It's worth watching all on its own. Too bad we never see the victim again, as he is a character we could truly like, which makes the act even more deplorable.

The dramatics and action that unfold are rugged "tough guy" Western traditions united with very believable motivations. This is a great script, and it is superbly directed, which also means the acting is superb.

I won't spoil the film any more. It is a truly great Western, made during the golden age of Westerns, when people actually knew some of the rugged individualists of the late nineteenth century and the West, before all of our information came from self righteous rich kids and bubble boys who probably never stepped foot in a park by themselves.

Enough of the cynicism. Back to the film. It's rich and full of every ingredient, action, drama, three dimensional characters, pathos, scenery, everything that makes a great film. So sit back and enjoy.