Le Jardin du diable

This brooding western has an uneven pace and meanders in places but is no less interesting because of the star power of Gary Cooper, the film's centerpiece. The movie is a grim, spare adventure of a party of mercenaries who journey into Indian country for the promise of gold to save a woman's husband who's trapped in an abandoned mine. Susan Hayward has her own personal demons and searches for redemption for destroying her husband's self-esteem and private demons weigh her down throughout the picture. The film tends to preach at times and has a moral about gold, greed and sacrifice. Richard Widmark has a role that seems to have been tailored for him as a cynical cardsharp and quick-draw loner who's as much a mercenary as is Cooper but not quite as noble. Cameron Mitchell has a thankless role as a weak-willed bounty hunter who seems tough enough until his bluff is called. Rita Moreno appears briefly and warbles a pretty tune in a saloon, and Bernard Herrmann contributes a fine music score.

... and I always round up when I'm at the halfway mark, just to explain. This is a fine watch in spite of the choppy script.

Cooper and Widmark's characters' boat breaks down on the way to the California gold fields--they have to stop in Mexico. They head to a local cantina. Susan Hayward comes in and says she is offering one thousand dollars in gold to anyone who will help her save her husband, who was trapped in a cave-in. She says the mine is right in the middle of cursed country called "Garden of Evil" - The film proceeds from there.

The uneven screenplay is credited to Frank Fenton. Bernard Herrmann contributed a score that supplies more drama than the screenplay; the handsome cinematography is credited to Milton Krasner and Jorge Stahl. Jr.

Widmark is especially good as the man who's not used to being a good guy. Cooper and Hayward are as effective as the script allows. The rest of the cast is adequate. Look for a young Rita Moreno in the cantina.

Critics yawned when the film was released, but it made a healthy profit, especially considering it cost around two million dollars to film. This is probably the most beautiful film Cooper made in the 1950's, and the most underrated.

This is a hugely underrated western as eccentric and individual as anything by Peckinpah or Boetticher. One of the early Cinemascope adventures from Fox, GARDEN OF EVIL has a superb cast at the top of their respective games, fantastic special effects, wonderful widescreen photography, and one of house composer Bernard Herrmann's very best scores (which is saying a mouthful). Best of all, it showcases an utterly unique screenplay full of strange, world-weary philosophy that sounds like Hemingway on acid. (Ironically, the chief writer, Fred Frieberger, is best known for producing the third and weakest season of the original STAR TREK -- notorious for its bad writing). At any rate, check this one out the first chance you get. Years of bad pan & scan showings on TV have destroyed its reputation -- but if you ask me, GARDEN OF EVIL is a gem waiting to be discovered, if not a cult waiting to be born!

Some people complained about the Indian's role.I think that the first thing to bear in mind is that this western is more a fable than a realist story:the Indians ,whom we almost never see -a little more than the Arabs in Ford's "the lost patrol" or Duvivier's "la bandera",but not much more-:they are silhouettes in the landscape .The real danger is man's endless greed who ,were the earth made of gold,would die for a handful of it.That's what Gary Cooper's character says.

I think that Hathaway's 1957 movie "Legend of the Lost" is more convincing than "Garden" .This search for a treasure in the desert does not need an outside threat:no hostile tribe here.Men are finally on their own and madness is around the corner.

Try to see both movies in a row,mainly if you do not think that Henry Hathaway is an auteur.He is.

While Garden of Evil is not known to most film fans, it is a favorite of many. Everything about this film is great. The scenery, the music, the incredible cast. Unlike today's films it has lots of say about greed, heroism, love between men, loyalty, and betrayal. It also has more great lines than most movies - all

delivered brilliantly by Susan Hayward, Gary Cooper and Richard Widmark.Here are some as I remember them (not necessarily accurate). Susan to Coop: You need me. Because without me, Mister, you're lost. And when you're lost in this country, you're dead. Widmark to Coop: See that. Every night the sun goes down, and it always takes someone with it. Tonight it's me. Coop to himself: If the earth would made of gold, men would kill for a handful of dirt.

This should be on list of the ten best westerns, right up there with Shane and The Searchers