Garden of Evil (1954)

User Rating:

6.6/10   

Director:

Henry Hathaway

Writers:

Fred Freiberger (story) and
William Tunberg (story) ...

Release Date:

9 July 1954 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Romance | Western

Tagline:

Takes you beyond the land of the Black Sand!

Plot:

A trio of American adventurers marooned in rural Mexico are recruited by a beautiful woman to rescue her husband from Apaches.

Plot Keywords:

Gold | Gold Mine | Mine | Husband | Mexico

Cast

Gary Cooper	...	Hooker
Susan Hayward	...	Leah Fuller
Richard Widmark	...	Fiske
Hugh Marlowe	...	John Fuller
Cameron Mitchell	...	Luke Daly
Rita Moreno	...	Cantina Singer
Víctor Manuel Mendoza	...	Vicente Madariaga

Runtime:

100 min | USA:96 min (FMC Library Print)

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.55 : 1

Sound Mix:

4-Track Stereo (35 mm magnetic prints) | Mono (Western Electric Recording) (35 mm optical prints)

Certification:

Germany:12 | West Germany:12 (f) | Australia:PG | Finland:K-16 | Sweden:Btl | USA:Approved (PCA #16963, General Audience)

Filming Locations:

Mexico City, México D.F., Mexico

Company:

Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation

Goofs:

Anachronisms: The Steamboat that landed Hooker and Fiske on the shores of Mexico is of early 20th century design and definitely not of the gold-rush days of 1849.

Quotes:

Fiske: Say, Hooker, before you became an idiot lookin' for gold, what were you?
Hooker: An idiot without it.

Soundtrack:

La Negra Noche

a choice between higher and lower values.

Henry Hathaway made so many and such a variety of films, that when he did something outstanding like this western, people were kind of anesthetized and did not give it the value it deserved. 'Garden of Evil' has a great story, great actors, and a fabulous scenery. Not even Anthony Mann achieved this perfection of blending scenery and story. The story is about three men, Cooper, Widmark and Mitchell which are on a steam ship that breaks down and has to be fixed on the coast of Mexico, at a time where there was no Panama Canal, and they had to pass through Cape Horn, so the Pacific Coast was kind of unreachable and mysterious. There, while they have to wait, they are hired by Susan Hayward to free her husband stuck on a gold mine on a territory full of Apaches. They all desire the gold and also the woman, and she uses her power of seduction to command them. When they get to the place, which is called Garden of Evil, and realize that they might not come out alive, each one makes a choice about higher or lower values. There is an impressive fight between Mitchell and Cooper where Mitchell is repeatedly thrown into the fire. Rita Moreno in a small part where she only has a chance to sing half of two songs, is breathtakingly beautiful. Susan Hayward is excellent, Hathaway was able to bring out the best in her as he did in 'Rawhide'. One of the best lines is when Cooper says to Hayward referring to her husband, that what counts is what one does and not what he speaks. This film should be on any list of the all time best westerns.