3 Bad Men

The mere mention of John Ford conjures up an image of his reputation as the premier director of Westerns. He began his career directing the films set in the Old West, and his last body of respectable films were of that genre. In a thirteen year span early in his movie career, however, he surprisingly didn't have one Western in his portfolio.

This wasn't his choice nor the Fox Studio he worked. Westerns had worn itself out by the late 1920s, and movie fans were flocking elsewhere to see a variety of dramatic and comic films. Ford's last shot at the Westerns took place with the August 1926 release of "3 Bad Men." It would be over a decade later before he redefined Westerns and made them popular again in his 1939 "Stagecoach."

Based on a Herman Whitaker 1916 novel, 'Over The Border,' "3 Bad Men" follows a caravan of settlers in their covered wagons headed for the Dakotas where gold has reportedly been struck in 1877. Along the way, three men with a rap sheet a mile long plan to steal some horses from one of the members of the wagon train, the beautiful Lee Carlton (Olive Bordon) and her father. Before they can implement their plan, however, her father gets shot by a different set of outlaw. The three wannabe horse thieves, struck by Lee's plight, decide to protect her until the end of the trail in Custer. The town, however, has a corrupt sheriff (Lou Tellegen) who heads as bloodthirsty of an outlaw gang as there is one.

One of the primary idiom for Hollywood period-piece films is don't look for historical accuracy. "3 Bad Men" contains a spectacular race by settlers for open land as found in in 1932's "Cimarron," and 1992's "Far And Away," with Tom Cruise and Nichole Kidman, which reenact the 1889 Oklahoma Land Run. The Dakotas never had such a stampede of wagons and horse riders racing to get the best land available. But the sequence is nonetheless eye popping for its utter chaos. Ford, who loved location shooting, filmed the 15-month production near Victorville, California, for the desert scenes as well as around Jackson Hole, Wymong. Three actresses became very sick from the fever during the shoot, including Olive Borden.

Bordon, who dated the co-star of "3 Bad Men," George O'Brien, was at the height of her career when she appeared in the Ford film. A year later, as a belt-tightening move, Fox Studio asked everyone to take a 10% cut in salary. She refused and had no trouble getting picked up by a couple of competitive studios. The trouble for her began when she cut her hair into the fashionable bob, placing her in the unfamiliar role as a flapper. Her career sank like a rock, especially when movies transitioned into talkies, despite her taking a number of voice lessons to get rid of her Virginian southern accent. She was broke by the late 1930s. She did serve as an Army ambulance driver in Europe during World War Two, receiving a citation for finding and turning over an enemy's ammunition truck. Once back in the states, she hit the bottle, became an alcoholic and ended up in Los Angeles' skid row, dying at the young age of 41.

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.

3 Bad Men (as the title card shows it) is an outstanding example of the silent western and one of John Ford's earliest triumphs. The photography is stunning and the land rush sequences truly impressive, and while the story of redemption and sacrifice is predictable it is nonetheless still moving.

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.