Day of the Bad Man (1958)

User Rating:

5.8/10   

Director:

Harry Keller

Writers:

John W. Cunningham (story)
Lawrence Roman (screenplay)

Release Date:

13 February 1958 (Australia)

Genre:

Western

Tagline:

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.

Plot Keywords:

Judge | Sheriff | Concerned Citizen | Romantic Triangle | Unfaithful Girlfriend

Cast

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

Also Known As:

Decision at Durango (USA)
Law of the Trigger (USA)
Point of Decision (USA)

Runtime:

82 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Westrex Recording System)

Certification:

West Germany:12 (nf) | Finland:K-16 | Sweden:15

Filming Locations:

Backlot, Universal Studios - 100 Universal City Plaza, Universal City, California, USA

Company:

Universal International Pictures (UI)

Trivia:

In Feb. 1958, this film was in wide distribution on a double bill with The Girl Most Likely (1958) starring Jane Powell.

Quotes:

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.

" He's Gonna Take It Like A Man "

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.