Simply Perfect

Best movie of this year hands down!

Entertaining from beginning to end, it maintains the spirit of the franchise while establishing it's own seal with a fun cast

The tone of this movie is interesting -- the stakes are both dramatic and high, but it's balanced with a lot of fun, tongue and cheek dialogue.

"The Law and Jake Wade" - sounds like it ought to have been a John Wayne Western, doesn't it? Wayne portrayed characters like Rooster Cogburn and J.D. Cahill, there's even Big Jake McCandles, which is why I'm probably thinking about him in the first place. But the Big Jake duties fell to Robert Taylor in this picture, with a formidable outlaw opponent in Richard Widmark's Clint Hollister.It's difficult to come up with new ideas in virtually any genre anymore, but I thought it was an interesting hook for Wade to have the foresight of leaving Hollister's gun in the stolen saddle bag he buried. It set up the final confrontation in a clever manner, and it helped that Wade finally got Otero (Robert Middleton) to turn by helping out with Peggy's (Patricia Owens) getaway. In the Western outlaw world, you have to pick your spots.Say, keep an eye on that Indian attack when a Comanche throws the first spear against Wade and Hollister's gang holed up in the deserted cabin. The spear flails through the air upending itself, but still manages to strike the outside cabin wall when it completes it's journey. There had to be some Comanche magic dust on that one.Not the best Western you'll ever come across but the picture does have it's moments. Richard Widmark's one of my favorites ever since catching him in his gangster debut in 1947's "Kiss of Death". If you pay attention, you'll note that maniacal Tommy Udo-like cackle at one point when he gets ready to abandon the gang for a short time. He wasn't laughing at the finale though. And say, what do you think happened with the twenty grand in the saddle bag?

"The Law and Jake Wade" is a dark Western with some big name actors. But for the scenery and acting by Richard Widmark, there's not much else going for this movie. The film is based on a novel by the same title that helped launch a successful fiction writing career for Marvin H. Albert. I don't know how well the script follows the book, or how well Albert fleshed out the "reformed" Jake Wade in the book. But the film leaves this as an unsettled, dark matter. A couple other reviews have noted this. I kept looking for the film to explore the conflicts of Jake Wade over his past and present. In the beginning, that held my interest in the film. But as the movie progressed, and we never saw any resolution in the character of Wade, this became a nagging distraction from my enjoyment of the film. I agree with the few others who found fault with the plot and some of the scenes (Indian attacks) as well. But, I'd like to discuss this big hole in the story further. The dark aspect of the film is the character of Jake Wade. Has he reformed, or hasn't he? The question is never resolved in the film, so I was left hanging. So, I disagree with reviews that saw this as a standard Western. Widmark, who plays Clint Hollister, asks the question point blank in the movie. Why did Wade bother to spring him from jail when he had been tried and was due to hang for murder? Does the simple answer suggested by some reviews answer the question? Was it a matter of honor for Wade, or a debt to be repaid as some think? If so, that means that Wade had not changed and did not put law and order first. Wade knows Hollister. They had been together for many years. Wade knows that Hollister plans to kill him. Wade freed Hollister knowing that he would go on robbing and killing. So, the dark side of this film is that there is apparently no conflict in the person of Jake Wade. So, has he really reformed? Does he really believe in law and order? Does he really care about keeping the peace and protecting people? If he does, we don't see it, because any moral struggle over his actions never comes to the fore. Was it absent in the book? Or was it in the book but not explored in the film by the screenwriter, the director and/or the actor? Without exploration of Wade's moral conflict over his actions, we are left with a wooden marshal who has no thoughts about it one way or another. And in that lies the dark side of this film. The movie sets out to have us rooting for Wade as the bad guy turned good. But in reality, his bond to his former life was stronger than any moral sense and change of life for law and order. Now, some reviewers seem to hold Robert Taylor up as a great actor; so I'll end here with some words about Taylor's acting and appeal. As a young person, I too liked the handsome, rough-hewn image of Taylor, the leading man. There's no doubt that he was a draw for me and many other movie buffs to see his movies. But, the last few decades as I've built up a film library for my family, I haven't found a single movie in which I thought Taylor was very good or excellent as an actor. At his best, he is just good or OK. Some of the films have been very good due mostly to the stories and support from others in the cast. Enough said on that – I still have a couple keepers in which Taylor stars. He's wooden in those as well, but the films are quite good. "The Law and Jake Wade" could have been a great film if it had probed the character of Wade more deeply, and given him some conflicting emotions over his moral choices.

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..

Reformed marshal helps former cohort escape from prison, but comes to regret it. Taylor is fine as the stoic marshal trying to escape his outlaw past. Widmark makes a terrific villain, without resorting to the giggling psycho persona that marked many of his earlier performances as bad guys. He even has some funny lines. The enigmatic Silva is notable as a member of Widmark's gang. Sturges made a number of Westerns during the 1950s. This is another solid entry in the director's Western filmography, although it's not as good as the one that preceded it (Gunfight at the O.K. Corral) or the one that followed it (Last Train from Gun Hill).