Badman's Country (1958)

Director:

Fred F. Sears

Writer:

Orville H. Hampton (writer)

Release Date:

2 August 1958 (USA)

Genre:

Western

Tagline:

Warner's Big Six-Gun Saga!

Plot:

Pat Garrett arrives in Abilene where he catches five of Butch Cassidy's gang. He calls in Wyatt Earp...

Plot Keywords:

Gold | Outlaw Gang | Abilene Kansas

Cast

George Montgomery	...	Pat Garrett
Neville Brand	...	Butch Cassidy
Buster Crabbe	...	Wyatt Earp
Karin Booth	...	Lorna
Gregory Walcott	...	Bat Masterson
Malcolm Atterbury	...	Buffalo Bill Cody
Russell Johnson	...	Sundance
Richard Devon	...	Harvey Logan
Morris Ankrum	...	Mayor Coleman
Dan Riss	...	Marshal McAfee
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Martin Benedict
William Bryant
Jack Carol
Steve Drexel
John Harmon
Leroy Johnson
Jack Kinney
Fred Krone
Lewis Martin
Tim Sullivan
Al Wyatt

Runtime:

68 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Finland:K-16

Company:

Robert E. Kent Productions

Goofs:

Factual errors: Although the plot has well-known actual western figures Pat Garrett, Wyatt Earp, Bat Masterson and Buffalo Bill fighting Butch Cassidy's gang, in reality by the time Cassidy had gathered his now-famous Hole-in-the-Wall Gang, Garrett was dead, Buffalo Bill was touring in his Wild West show, Earp was prospecting for gold in Alaska and Masterson was a sportswriter for a newspaper in New York City.

Like those old Godzilla movies.

Remember the old Godzilla movies where every monster would show up and either fight with or against Godzilla? This western has the same idea. In this movie, Pat Garrett, Buffalo Bill, Bat Masterson and Wyatt Earp go up against Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Was Wild Bill Hickcock and Doc Holliday busy that day? Standard Western except that the humor is strangely lacking in this movie. Malcom Atterbury as Buffalo Bill is supposed to be the comic sidekick but he doesn't provide a whole lot of laughs. I am most likely reading way too much into this but when George Montgomery's Pat Garrett is giving his big speech to the town leaders about how it is their duty to stop Butch Cassidy because he will eventually destroy their town, I kept thinking about the arguments used for the Vietnam buildup, which happened a few years after this movie was made. I doubt director Fred Sears planned the similarity but if he did it was very subtle and clever. Hard to believe that Russell Johnson (the Professor on Gilligan's Island!) was the ruthless Sundance Kid. Fans of B-westerns should enjoy this movie.