This is How Movies Should Be Made

Don't listen to the Hype. It's awful

disgusting, overrated, pointless

Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

See the movie..Don't let yourself be swayed by one or two bad reviews for this under-rated late 50's western with Robert Taylor playing the title character..Jake Wade ..town Marshall..and Richard Widmark as his ex-gang buddy(?) from back in the day..Civil War and post war years..a few have said the score sucked..maybe because of the strike in 1958..I can neither confirm nor deny..if that's the case, it must have been short lived as other films were released the month before(5) and a month later (1) ..big budget movies were released all year with great scores..by this time Robert Taylor was no longer the young handsome face of the 30's and was a veteran actor and a lot like Gary Cooper..played darker,more serious roles late in his career. More gritty..more realistic..the same year he did Saddle The Wind with John Cassavetes..and as gritty as Gregory Peck's The Bravados the same year..1958 and Peck's The Big Country..Cooper also played a town Marshall marrying someone younger in High Noon..he was a star and under played his role here letting Richard Widmark get most of the best lines until the last three minutes of the movie.."I would have handed you your gun" followed by Taylor's response.."you always liked me more than I like you"..good line..great acting..great supporting cast..great scenery filmed on location..but this movie is a sleeper and a keeper..and worthy of some attention..it deserves a look-see..from a good movie year..one of the better performances from that year..

Jake Wade, a former thief and gunman is now the town marshal. Out of a need to clear a debt, he breaks a former accomplice of his, Clint Hollister, out of jail, and almost immediately starts to regret it. It seems that Wade hid some monetary spoils out in the hills and Hollister wants his hands on it. So along with his gang, Hollister forces Wade and his fiancée to go out searching for the cash. But not only is there conflict within the group, there is the small matter of the deadly Comanche to worry about as well.The Law And Jake Wade comes with some pretty solid Western credentials from the off. Directed by John Sturges (Gunfight at the O.K. Corral/The Magnificent Seven), starring Richard Widmark (Warlock/The Alamo), Robert Taylor (Saddle The Wind) and photographed by Robert Surtees (Oklahoma!/Escape from Fort Bravo). Widmark is on prime bad guy form as Hollister, and Taylor, who was often accused of being stiff, is perfect foil playing sedate off of Widmark's borderline evil. The cinematography is luscious from Surtees, both Death Valley and The Alabama Hills in California are as imposing as they are beautiful, with Sturges framing his blurry good vs bad characters amongst them to great effect. What action there is {this is primarily a talky picture in reality} is handled adroitly by the wily Stugess, with a Comanche attack on our protagonists in a ghost town, particularly exciting. It's very rare to see arrows and spears glide so gracefully on their path to pain as we do here, all crisply enveloped in MGM's choice of Metrocolor.But really it's with the story itself that the film lifts its being to rank with the better genre offerings. William Bowers' screenplay, adapting from the Marvin H. Albert novel, on the surface looks like a standard good guy-bad guy dovetail piece, but things are purposely left unanswered to fully form the issues (yes you read it right). Is it for nothing that Wade, our law man, the "good" guy, is all in black throughout the piece? With Hollister all shiny in denim blue! Why is the money out buried in the hills after all this time? And come the finale you should be forced into a rethink about the law and all its little peccadilloes. There really is more on offer here if you give it your undivided attention. Some minor itches aside {Patricia Owens love interest looks lost for example}, The Law And Jake Wade is a fine genre piece that deserves better than being called a weekend time filler. 8/10

The film begins with a man breaking into a jail (Robert Taylor) to rescue and old friend (Richard Widmark). Oddly, however, it turns out they aren't friends any more and you know that they'll soon reunite and blood will be shed. It turns out Taylor is a sheriff and Widmark is his old partner in crime. This, sadly, is about the only twist in the film that caught me off guard.Despite having Widmark and Taylor in the leads, this is yet another tired old Western--and in so many ways practically indistinguishable from the countless number made in the 1950s. That's because the film is so predictable and takes no chances--it's only assets are the stars. Plus, since it's by-the-numbers, you know that by the end of the film, there will be the clichéd shoot-out between Taylor and Widmark. And, in between, there is the rather dull girlfriend, the "hot-headed" young punk and an attack by addle-brained Indians--who, naturally, ride past the cowboys single-file in order to give them a better chance to shoot them! My advice is find a better Western to watch. While this one isn't bad, it sure isn't good. Plus seeing a middle-aged and paunchy Taylor playing the action hero is a bit of a stretch.My advice is to find a Randolph Scott western--particularly from the 1950s--his best and most exciting period. Now those are some westerns well worth seeing.

I just learned that Richard Widmark passed away at the age of 93. Widmark was on a short list of my all time favorite actors, sharing top billing with Fred MacMurray, George Peppard, and the brilliant (in my opinion) supporting actor Martin Balsam. The best actors seem to adapt their roles to themselves, so that they never lose their off-screen persona. Frank Sinatra was always himself in his movies, as was John Wayne. And so was Richard Widmark. Why do we like "bad guys" so much? Possibly because we get the feeling that in their private lives they are neither good nor bad, but rather, something even better: genuine. Richard Widmark never divorced. He outlived two wives, one marriage lasting 55 years until his first wife passed on. So we know he was not a loner, although his life style was private, as he never appeared on TV talk shows to promote his movies or himself. Buoyed by his inimitable personal qualities, he carved a unique niche for himself in film, and ran with it for a half- century.The Law and Jake Wade made a strong impression upon me, seeing it for the first time, as a 16-year old, shortly after its release in 1958. This film had a 3-D quality, and a horror film quality which really grabbed its audience, at that time. By 1958 the 3-D fad was long gone, but, I swear, when the Indians attacked Widmark's gang at night with bows and arrows, it seemed like 3-D revisited as the arrows seemed to be coming right through the screen at the audience. Even knowing it was a movie, I was petrified, so realistic is this scene. Unfortunately, this realism cannot be duplicated via DVD or any lesser medium. Abetting all this excitement is the contrast in style of Widmark and Robert Taylor. While Taylor had adopted family values and professional law man responsibility following his maverick Civil War renegading in partnership with Widmark, Widmark, as the years passed, would have none of the maturing and sobering process to which most men evolve, after having sown their wild oats. So that when Widmark and Taylor locked horns due to a conflict of interest and values, long after the war's end and the demise of their gang, there could be no reconciliation as their cross-purpose came to a head.Widmark's upbeat, anti-social mores neatly bounce off Taylor's low-key, conventional manner, right up to their inevitable show-down. And it doesn't matter whether Widmark prevailed in the end, his is the character which makes this an enduring film-going experience.*****