The Broken Land

Director John Bushelman rings no bells for me but I see that he directed the 1978 TV mini series THE DARK SECRET OF HARVEST HOME, which was a better than tolerable horror effort.

Regrettably, the low budget puts paid to any hopes one might have of a hidden gem, particularly after one learns that a very young Jack Nicholson is in the jail of nasty Marshall Jim Cogan (Kent Taylor), who runs the place with whip and Colt .45, and does not hesitate to press false charges, even against the mentally retarded town idiot, amateurishly played by Gary Sneed.

Double chin Diana Darrin seems more than a tad old for the part of love interest to Robert Sampson, but at least she has some information about Marshall Cogan that she imparts to the populace at the decisive moment.

Nicholson and his mordant smile inevitably catch your eye as the sole spirited performance. Clearly, budget limitations did not permit contracting better players and script writing team, but at least the cinematography stands as better than usual for a B (C?) Western, all shot on rocky and dusty Arizona location.

Worth a watch, though probably not a rewatch. 5/10.

This early 60s western would be totally forgotten if not for a performance by a young Jack Nicholson. The film barely clocks in at 60 minutes, IMDb timing notwithstanding, and its bare bones screenplay tries to to far too much in that brief span. Characters are thinly drawn and poorly (and bizarrely) motivated. Not much to recommend here except for Jack completists.

This short 1-hour Western movie centers on a drifter who comes to a small town and has run-in with its sadistic sheriff. A string of circumstances leads to running from a posse, robbery, and murder. Considering the limited length of this movie, it's a good story, the characters are likable, the dialog is literate, the performances are good (particularly Jack Nicholson), and it's well directed. If you collect Western movies, this one is worth having.

And what a delight to watch it in LBX please folks !!!! What a pleasure because it is so rare from an API production. The story itself is not that terrific, but for a B western, that's what I like, instead of the bland and standard yarns with the same character, as the likes of Bill Elliot or Roy Rogers.... Don't mind about Jack Nicholson, focus instead on this cosy tale, despite the fact that it won't bring anything exceptional, except the villain as lead character, but it is only a rare little gem, so unique and hard to find in LBX. And the acting is pretty good too for this kind of production, even the directing, from this unknown director. But I have always craved for evil lead characters, especially a rogue sheriff, played here by Kent Taylor.

While I don't watch a steady diet of westerns I watch them from time to time for the cast members and since THE BROKEN LAND has also a score of 5,0 I expected it to be bad but instead it was worth the view.

When the story begins Dave Dunson rides in a small town ruled with an iron fist by a corrupt Sheriff (Kent Taylor) that uses law for controlling everyone, including locking up Will Brocious (Jack Nicholson) only because his father was a crook, insisting that a feeble-minded guy was trying to shoot him and locking up Dunson because he wanted to stop his reign of terror. How it will unfold it's best if you see it for yourselves.

While the plot looked like that of so many other westerns it was still very entertaining and the acting by all no names except Nicholson was decent. Still, if you are a huge fan of westerns or you don't have nothing else to do and you already saw a lot of stuff this is for you.