The Fiend Who Walked the West

I would have never imagined a remake of the Henry Hathaway's KISS OF DEATH like this one, in waiting for Barbet Schroeder's version starring Nick Cage and David Caruso. An awful remake, probably the worst remake ever. Back to this western version, the line between it and the Hathaway's movie are not that obvious. Once more, after the Robert D webb's films, it's strange to see the Twentieth Century Fox company producing 105 minutes length movies in LBX- 2.35 - with nearly unknown actors, I mean no big stars at all, no Richard Widmark, Victor Mature, Robert Wagner, John Wayne or Henry Fonda...Fox also used that kind of method for released films only, from Regal Films company. Because this Gordon Douglas' western looks like a B western but blown up at 105 mn in LBX. Robert Evans is OK as the villain but not Richard Widmark either.

One of my sci-fi/horror/fantasy reviews written 50 years ago: Directed by Gordon Douglas; Produced by Herbert B. Swope Jr., for 20th Century-Fox. Screenplay by Philip Yordan and Harry Brown; Photography by Joe McDonald; Edited by Hugh Fowler; Special Photographic Effects by L. B. Abbott. Starring: Hugh O'Brian, Robert Evans, Dolores Michaels, Linda Crystal, Edward Andrews, Emile Meyer and Ken Scott.

Unique mishmashing of innumerable genres: a lightweight psycho thriller set in the Old West, with the plot stolen wholesale from "Kiss of Death" and the title music from Bernard Herrmann's work for "The Day the Earth Stood Still". Marginal at best in all genres.

I find it absurd to compare Robert Evans with Richard Widmark in ' Kiss of Death ' which had a similar plotline as this film. Widmark succeeded in keeping his sneer and laugh as repetitive mannerisms and the audiences loved him for it. Evans left films as an actor, and his portrayal of the crazed and perverted killer was brilliantly conceived. I have seen no other performance quite like it and that is a compliment. Slightly camp, dangerously sexy he turned the ' fiend ' into a horrifically amusing tour de force of a part. Hugh O' Brian is good and Evans twists him around his ringed finger in a game of come on, suggesting literally unspeakable desires with women. As long as he is there of course. Fixated on O'Brian he terrifies the man's wife, shoots an arrow into an old woman and except for the arrow the violence is not as brutal as critics of the time condemned it to be. Gordon Douglas the fine director conveys a lot of black humour, but the UK censor promptly gave it an X certificate ( the first adults only certificate for a Western ) and everyone seeing it due to horror promotion expected the worst. Personally I have seen an equal amount of violence and nastiness in Westerns before this one, and children with an adult could see them. For example in the applauded John Ford ' She Wore A Yellow Ribbon a man is hauled alive over a fire, screaming until he dies. Nothing in ' The Fiend Who Walked the West ' quite compares with that! Sadly this film has slipped into deliberate obscurity and I saw it recently on YouTube with French subtitles. The French brought it out on DVD years ago, and I have it proudly in my collection. ' Fiend ' is crazy, tinged with perverse sexuality and non stated desires. It is also due to Evans crazily amusing, and way, way over the top. Viewers see it with a sense of humour and do not take it seriously. As I write this I am watching ' Canyon Passage ' and have just seen a woman and child killed brutally and long distance sculping. This film could be seen by children on their own with a ' U ' certificate. Censorship can be as cruelly funny as this underrated film.

I can never forget this film. Unlike some critics, me and my mates found Robert Evans' performance mesmerising. In '58, it was our first experience of a horror-western and for us it worked very well. I'm not saying it's a truly great film, just that it was so radically different at the time that it remains one of my most memorable films of the 50s.

In the East-End of London, in the mid to late 50s, we teens were hooked on Americana. We knew and liked Hugh O'Brian as Wyatt Earp in the TV series. Robert Evans was new to us and a revelation. We liked his look and his style; his performance fitted well with Rock 'n Roll, James Dean and the whole 'cool' American thing.

Fortunately, although in the UK, I have a recorder which plays NTSC tapes. I will be buying this film soon.

Much of this film will seem familiar to anyone who's seen 1947's "Kiss of Death", which plotwise it closely resembles, and some of the theme music heard over the opening credits was borrowed from 1951's "The Day The Earth Stood Still". That having been said, however, this film has much to recommend it on its own. Most critics disapproved of Robert Evans in the title role, but I found him very impressive: funny and likeable one minute, menacing and really frightening the next; the stuff of any true psycho. The film isn't without flaws; the direction is frankly uninspired, and several opportunities missed. But Evans (in one of his last roles before giving up acting to become a producer) remains fascinating to watch; he's very unlike any other western villain you've ever seen. Emile Meyer (as a brutal prison guard) and Stephen McNally (as a good guy for a change) offer strong supporting performances; Hugh O'Brien is his reliable self as the hero.