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Day of the Bad Man (1958)
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Overview
User Rating:
Release Date:
13 February 1958 (Australia) moreTagline:
HE TURNED KILLER...for one day!Plot:
Judge Jim Scott must contend with the vicious relatives of a murderer he's about to sentence...and his unfaithful fiancee. full summary | add synopsisUser Comments:
" He's Gonna Take It Like A Man " moreCast
(Cast overview, first billed only)| Fred MacMurray | ... | Judge James Edward Scott | |
| Joan Weldon | ... | Myra Owens | |
| John Ericson | ... | Sheriff Barney Wiley | |
| Robert Middleton | ... | Charlie Hayes | |
| Marie Windsor | ... | Cora Johnson | |
| Edgar Buchanan | ... | Sam Wyckoff | |
| Eduard Franz | ... | Andrew Owens | |
| Skip Homeier | ... | Howard Hayes | |
| Peggy Converse | ... | Mrs. Marv Quary, Widow | |
| Robert Foulk | ... | Silas Mordigan, Store Keeper | |
| Ann Doran | ... | Martha Mordigan | |
| Lee Van Cleef | ... | Jake Hayes | |
| Eddy Waller | ... | Mr. Slocum | |
| Christopher Dark | ... | Rudy Hayes | |
| Don Haggerty | ... | Deputy Floyd |
Additional Details
Parents Guide:
Add content advisory for parentsRuntime:
82 minCountry:
USALanguage:
EnglishColor:
Color (Eastmancolor)Aspect Ratio:
2.35 : 1 moreSound Mix:
Mono (Westrex Recording System)Filming Locations:
Backlot, Universal Studios - 100 Universal City Plaza, Universal City, California, USAFun Stuff
Trivia:
In Feb. 1958, this film was in wide distribution on a double bill with The Girl Most Likely (1958) starring Jane Powell. moreQuotes:
Cora Johnson: Charlie, the trial's over.Howard Hayes: I told you we'd be late. I told you!
Cora Johnson: Rudy's guilty. Murder in the first degree's what the jury said.
Charlie Hayes: Of course he's guilty. We know that. What about the sentence.
Cora Johnson: Judge is going to do that at 11:00.
Charlie Hayes: Well, we ain't too late at all.
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| Full cast and crew | Company credits | IMDb Western section |
| IMDb USA section | Add this title to MyMovies |


This routine horse opera from Universal stars Fred MacMurray at the height of his success. He plays Judge Jim Scott, the incorruptible small town hero who has to sentence a killer - and contend with the pressures exerted by the guilty man's family.
Filmed in Universal's trademark bright, clear Eastmancolor, the film has an attractive look, even if the characterisation is crude. The bad guys go unshaven, and Lee Van Cleef even wears a black hat.
Rudy Hayes killed a man in cold blood, and at eleven o'clock on this fateful morning, Judge Scott will carry out his sworn duty and sentence the murderer to death by hanging. Charlie Hayes (Robert Middleton) and the hot-headed Howie (Skip Homeier) have come into town as representatives of the all-bad Hayes clan, to see if they can exert some crooked influence, and save Rudy's neck.
Such sub-plot as exists centres on Judge Scott's fiancee, Myra, who has fallen in love with another man - no other than Barney Wiley, the town's good-looking new sherriff (John Ericson).
Even in the Wild West, it is stretching things a little to have a circuit judge engaging in a knife-fight before sitting, and drawing his pistol in the courtroom. The attempts of the Hayes boys to pervert the course of justice are ham-fisted and frankly unbelievable, as is the spurious whinnying of a horse which alerts Judge Jim to danger - twice!
The early passages of the film are good, showing the judge operating in and with the community as a respected citizen, until in mimicry of 'High Noon' the good people of the town desert the judge when the going gets tough. Edgar Buchanan, stalwart of a thousand westerns, is competent as Sam, the judge's loyal sidekick. Myra (Joan Weldon) and Barney are so lightly-drawn as characters that the actors can be forgiven for failing to impress. No doubt Marie Windsor had fun playing the bad girl Cora, but both the Hayes kinsmen, Monte and Jake, are dreadfully under-used.
Predictable, static and utterly unsubtle, perhaps this film, and those like it, do no more than mirror the values of the society which gave rise to them - the predictable, static and utterly unsubtle America of the Eisenhower era.