The Law and Jake Wade (1958)

Director:

John Sturges

Writers:

William Bowers (screenplay)
Marvin H. Albert (novel)

Release Date:

22 July 1958 (Japan)

Genre:

Western

Plot:

Outlaw Clint Hollister escapes from jail with the help of Marshal Jake Wade, because once Clint did the same for him...

Plot Keywords:

Loot | Outlaw | Sheriff | Treasure Hunt | Beautiful Woman

Cast

Robert Taylor	...	Jake Wade
Richard Widmark	...	Clint Hollister
Patricia Owens	...	Peggy
Robert Middleton	...	Ortero
Henry Silva	...	Rennie
DeForest Kelley	...	Wexler (as De Forest Kelley)
Burt Douglas	...	Lieutenant
Eddie Firestone	...	Burke

Runtime:

86 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Metrocolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Perspecta Stereo (Westrex Recording System)

Certification:

UK:U | West Germany:16 | USA:Approved (certificate #18917) | Finland:K-16 | Sweden:15

Filming Locations:

Alabama Hills, Lone Pine, California, USA

Company:

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)

Goofs:

Continuity: When Marshall Wade comes into a town near the start of the movie leading an extra horse, he throws that horse's rein up against a rail and it drops right off. As he steps down from his horse, the other horse's rein is now tightly wound around the rail.

Quotes:

Clint Hollister: Well, did you say a few words over the boys?
Ortero: Yeah...good-bye.
Clint Hollister: Very touching.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in A Majority of One (1961)

Close to a Top Ten Western

I watched this out of the new Warner's DVD set tonight, I had caught it on TV about a month or so ago under a less that ideal setting. This time it had a proper viewing and my undivided attention. The film was Directed by John Sturges, and I can't recommend more that you see this alone for the gorgeous cinematography by Robert Surtees. Here is a Western that in outdoor locations and settings looks perfect. The sagebrush engulfed ghostown at the end is really impressive. Either they went to the trouble of building a partially collapsed wooden aqueduct to a water tank or the set was an actual real ghostown .

These locations are all in Lonepine, Death Valley, and The Alabama Hills. Why no recent Westerns in the last 30 years have not been shot there is beyond me, but using those locations would be like slipping into a comfortable old pair of shoes and would also give a certain cachet to a work. Those locations are not as singularly iconic as the Buttes of Monument Valley, but they actually represent even more the West as a whole because they provide an infinite variety of jagged peaks, flat plains, alluvial fans, eroded badlands, and boulder fields.

The film stars Robert Taylor as Jake Wade , a reformed outlaw, Richard Widmark as Wade's old partner in crime Clint Hollister from the Civil War Kansas/Missouri border war. Patricia Owens is Peggy Wade's fiancé who knows nothing of his past. Robert Middleton plays Ortero a member of the old Wade-Hollister Gang. Henry Silva is in one of his stock quasi lunatic hothead roles he played so well, as new gang member Rennie. De Forest Kelley (Bones from Star Trek) is again playing a heavy (very similar to what he played in Warlock) gang member Wexler, Eddie Firestone is I believe minor gang member Burke who rounds out the main cast.

The story is basically that a reformed Wade finds out that Hollister has been captured and held in a jail awaiting a hanging close enough nearby to allow Wade to break him out in order to pay back a dept owed (Hollister saved his life). After accomplishing this Wade splits with Hollister to go back to his reformed ways, things don't quite go as planned. It seems that on the last job Wade & Hollister pulled Wade disappeared with $20,000.

*note bene those who watch this the way they take no chances and bind this Wade's hands behind his back in stark contrast to the stupid remake of 3:10 to Yuma.

The only minor things keeping this Western out of a top ten list are that the night time scenes are all shot on obvious sets one of which has a ridiculous backdrop painting of Monument Valley, looking very out of place. Another is that though all the clothes of the actors who have been on the trail supposedly for days are suitably well dusted up, none of the actors have any stubble or the beginnings of beards. And finally the way Robert Taylor looks & plays his part seems just a tad off the mark (old Hollywood style), its like the difference between Sturges' "Gunfight at the OK Corral" and his "Hour Of The Gun" the way in the former Lancaster appears as Earp with the way in the latter Garner looks as Earp.

This is a definitely a Western to own.