The Law and Jake Wade

Robert Taylor stars as Jake Wade, former outlaw gone straight who must battle his old partner, Richard Widmark as Clint Holister, the leader of a band of outlaws wanting to find stolen bank money, the location of which only Jake Wade knows. Robert Taylor does a competent job in the lead, but Richard Widmark really steals the show as the menacing leader of the gang. The movie is exciting, fast paced and leads to a satisfying climax. Good solid western.

Some of the best westerns of the Fifties and Sixties were directed by director John Sturges. Sturges's films combined that rare blend of action for the kiddies with adult problems and issues.

Here the problem is a debt owed or at least that's what Marshal Jake Wade feels towards Clint Hollister. Before Jake broke with the Hollister, it seems that Hollister saved him from a hangman's noose back when he ran with Hollister's gang. Jake hears about Hollister being arrested and sentenced to be hanged so he rides a piece and breaks him from jail.

That squares it as far as the Marshal is concerned, but the outlaw leader has other ideas. Seems Jake ran off with the proceeds from the last job. No good deed goes unpunished in this life. Hollister re-unites with his gang and they kidnap the Marshal and his fiancée and force him to lead them to the money.

You have to watch the film for the rest of this. If you're any kind of a fan of westerns, I think you'll know how this turns out.

Robert Taylor plays the upright Marshal Jake Wade who could have let the whole thing slide and let outlaw Richard Widmark hang, but he feels a debt. It's a good part for Taylor as he was winding down his contract at MGM. Unfortunately Taylor doesn't figure that Widmark owed him something for running off with the loot. The two leads play well off each other.

Rounding out the cast is Patricia Owens who is your typical crinoline western woman and the rest of Widmark's gang which included DeForest Kelley, Robert Middleton, and Henry Silva among others.

Nice Saturday afternoon fare for all fans of the American western, like me.

'Old' Westerns aren't my favourite type of film - never have been, but if I had to make an exception for a classic example, right now this would be it. One thing in its favour from my point of view is that it tells a simple story which really boils down to one man versus another. Sure, both the title character and the baddie have cohorts, but the crux of the matter is that there's a score to be settled between the two leads. Joyfully, there isn't a posse in sight (unless you include the Indian encounter.)

There's nothing' better than a man trying to atone for his past getting caught up once more with an old accomplice who won't let him forget it. What some call a wooden performance from Robert Taylor, I prefer to call 'relaxed'. I've seen him harshly judged in some quarters, but to me he was a likable presence - although it's true to say that of the two, Richard Widmark takes top honours. The final showdown is tense and competently strung out by Sturges. While it's not quite mano a mano, it IS one on one... To me, that's a good thing.

Any movie that adds significantly to my lexicon is tops in my book. Richard Widmark is so good at being so bad. He doesn't do it any better than in this movie. And ever since I've seen this move (many years ago) I always say, "More of that doin' without thinking'" whenever I do something mindless and/or stupid. Watch the movie and you'll see what I mean!

I read the comment about Robert Taylor being a bad actor. He is rather stiff, but it doesn't seem to bother me. I had a friend say the same thing about Tony Curtis. I guess it is a subjective thing. Either it bothers you or it doesn't. All I really had to say was in the first paragraph. The rest was necessary to fulfill submission guidelines. What's wrong with a short review. Sometimes less is more!

Seems to me Widmark's character would have been money ahead to simply knock off another bank rather than go into injun country where the chances of dying were pretty high. However, this probably wouldn't have made any better of a film. Plenty of shooting, flying arrows, nasty killers, and as usual Widmark gives a stellar performance as a psychotic gunman intent on having his way no matter what.