mcarrara

One of the biblical epics of the CinemaScope era. You can find some campy elements in "The Robe", "The Egyptian", "The silver Chalice" and all others. but this is the epitome of Kitch and bad taste. The decor of palaces and temples are in strong colors, mainly red, violet and gold, that makes your eyes blur. Also the costume in general (Carmen Miranda would love it), Worst of all is the script.In Samara, Lana runs a Las Vegas-like Casino, with poker tables, round cards, golden dices, and a phony roulette table. Also, a long line of "International hostess" (One of them a ¡Gheisa!) When Purdom goes to the dungeon, is saved for a fellow prisoner how is a barber-medicine man (like in medieval times). In the end, when Lana is forced to jump to a fire pool of the funny Moloch or Baal she worship, we, the audiences at the theatre, believe that the complete production should burn in flames for ever after.

"Garden of Evil" was the first western filmed in the original wide screen format of CinemaScope and stereophonic sound.(The second was "River of no Return") both produced by Fox studios.The Mexican landscapes are excellent thanks to the superb photography and use of color. the score is also first rate by the great composer Bernard Herrmann. The lines of Gary Cooper are excellent, I fine example of the "Man with no name" type. Full of philosophic topics. Widmark and Hayward also ad magic to film. A traditional frontier western. Its a film made for wide screen, it deserves an excellent wide print with a superb stereo sound, like in the original. a must in DVD.

When the film opened in theaters in Mexico city, in 1957 I was a 10 year old kid, so the censors put me out of the line outside the theater. Then the film disappeared for more of forty years, because the leading lady Christianne Martel, former 1953 Miss France, after a very short career in Hollywood ended in the Mexican cinema and became very popular. Eventually she married a prominent Mexican politician, that baned all her films from exhibition, even in television. Suddenly last year, the film appeared in DVD. so I run to buy it. No nudity at all, all the time some plant or animal gets the closeup to protect the "private parts" from the camera. Some times Adam and Eve look like martians due to the rubber "leotards" that the couple wears in some scenes where no bush or object protect them. Bad taste, bad acting (If there is any) even car bored eastmancolor. Pedro Almodóver or John Waters will love the film if they had the chance to see it.