Garden of Evil (1954)

“I guess if the earth were made of gold, men would die for a handful of dirt.”

            Ever wanted to know what a Film Noir that takes place in the west would look like? All you need to do is watch Garden of Evil. I did not find it as thrilling as a traditional Noir or Western, though.

            A ship breaks down. Two men from the ship Hooker (Gary Cooper) and Fiske (Richard Widmark) are taken to the nearby island of Porto Miguel. They are told that the ship will take weeks to fix. The town looks like a ghost town. The only lively place is the local bar but there are not that many people there either.

            After a while in the bar a woman named Leah Fuller (Susan Hayward) comes in looking for people to help her. A long way off in a mine her husband has become trapped in a cave in and she needs the help of a few men to get him out. Leah tells the men that she will pay them each a thousand dollars. Not many of the locals sign up to go because they are superstitious about the Apache Indians that roam the hills destroying villages of invading peoples. Hooker and Fiske sign up along with a guy named David and a local named Vincente.

            The group is fortunate to not have run into any Indians on their journey to the mine. The only opposition they face is each other. David cannot control his lust for Leah which leads to a big fight between him and Hooker. Hooker winds up punching him up and then talking to him calmly.

            At the mine, Leah’s husband is still alive. He is dehydrated and has a fractured leg. When Fuller comes to a bit he is very angry with Leah. He says it is her fault he got caught in the mine because she wanted things. Leah says that is true and a few other ramblings that I cannot remember and for some reason that kind of pisses Hooker and Fiske off… at least I think it does, my attention started to wander at this point. Leah comes up with the idea for the men to leave that night and she will stay behind to tend to the fire to make it look like to the Indians that they are all still at the house. Hooker and the other men think Leah is crazy. Hooker has enough of her stoic crap and he punches her out so he can place her on the back of his horse.

            Fuller needs to get off his horse and rest. David is not happy about the rest he wants to keep going to not be spotted by the Indians and to get back to Porto Miguel as soon as possible. Fuller knows he is bothering David and he is willing to go on ahead by himself to let the others have a chance to keep clear of the Indians. David gets Fuller onto a horse. Hooker sees what is happening but he is too late to stop them. David for some reason freaks out on Hooker but before too much can happen David is shot by an Indian arrow and dies. Further in their travels they come by an abandoned burned out church. They find Fuller has been killed and tied to a cross.

            Not long after leaving the church the Apaches begin attacking the small group. Vincente is killed first. Fiske and Hooker try to be the hero and stay behind to shoot at the Indians while the other leaves for safety with Leah. Hooker wanted to stay behind but Fiske is willing to make a bet with him. Since Gary Cooper is the main actor in the film he gets to leave with Susand Hayward while Richard Widmark gets left behind.

            If you cannot guess the ending then you have obviously never seen any movie in your life.

            So many reviewers on IDMB really liked Garden of Evil. Some even said that it is one of the best and most underrated Westerns. I thought Garden of Evil was just alright. I was not too crazy about the story (well, it was a good example of a story about greed since all the characters were greedy with certain things) and there were parts that definitely dragged. The main cast of Gary Cooper, Susan Hayward, and Richard Widmark was great. Hayward was the perfect actress to play a tough, determined Western woman. I can see where some reviewers were saying the film is a cross between a Noir and a Western. As I said at the beginning Garden of Evil is not as thrilling as the traditional form of the genres. The film is worth seeing for the cast and the color in Cinemascope. Garden of Evil is available to view in full on YouTube. 

The Lusty Men (1952)

“Hope's a funny thing. You can have it even when there ain't no reason for it.”

            Seriously I want to know what some studios in Old Hollywood were thinking when they named films. There have been so many times I have watched a film and thought the title does not even fit with the story. Sometimes they made the films seems so melodramatic and silly. These thought came to mind when I watched The Lusty Men. When I heard this title I thought it was going to dramatic and seductive. I was completely thrown off when I saw it was about rodeos and crazy men who like danger.

            Jeff McCloud (Robert Mitchum) worked in a rodeo up until he road a dangerous bull and got really hurt. After the rodeo he goes back to his old house. He did not think anyone was living there. He finds an old unmarried man named Jeremiah living there. Jeff goes to leave when Louise (Susan Hayward) and her husband Wes pull up to the house. They are ranch hands on a cattle farm. Since Jeff needs a job they take him with them. The ranch owner is leery about hiring Jeff he does not want someone who will rough up the horses like a bunch of the other men who have come through. Jeff promises that will not happen.

            Soon Jeff realizes Wes brought him to the ranch to teach him how to ride in rodeos so he can win some money. Wes did not plan on telling Louise about going to a rodeo. She found out he took out money to send in to save his place in a show. She is upset with him but she lets him do what he wants. Wes does decently in his first rodeo. He likes it enough that he wants to quit his job and travel around working in the rodeo. Louise tells Jeff that all Wes is thinking about is getting his own ranch while she is the one who has been thinking rationally. Louise asks Jeff about trying to talk Wes out of rodeo-ing. He tells her he just wants to see someone get what they want. Louise is willing to travel with Jeff because she likes him.

            The three of them get a piece of ground where all the rodeo guys stay. They talk to the men and women who have been traveling with the rodeo for a long time. They hear horror stories of bad injuries and how the men drink and gamble all the time.

            In his first rodeo Wes is signed up for riding a bull. He has never ridden a bull before and he winds up drawing the most dangerous one. Wes manages to ride the bull to the finish. After the rodeo they all go out to a hotel in town where all the other riders and their wives go. A girl hits on Wes and Louise literally kicks her in the ass to get her away from Wes.

            Louise receives a cable that the ranch they want is ready to be sold. Wes wants nothing to do with the ranch now he wants to stay on the road and ride in the show. Louise still wants Jeff to talk her husband out of doing rodeos. He confesses he went along with them just so he could be near her and they kiss.

            Wes gets mad at Jeff for kissing his wife and calls Jeff a coward for not riding. Jeff decides to ride a bull. He gets hurt and a rib punctures his lung and he dies. After Jeff dies Wes decides to give up the rodeo.

            What a terribly boring story The Lusty Men was. The only reason I stuck through the whole thing was because of Robert Mitchum and Susan Hayward. I can only hope their other film they made together was not as bad as this (if anyone knows where to find their film White Witch Doctor from 1953 please let me know!).  I do not like westerns or anything that has to do with rodeos or with the Midwest. I am a total easterner from the NY/NJ area with a bad attitude when it comes to people from the Midwest and cowboys and all that western nonsense. I apologize to anyone from the Midwest who is reading I am sure you are a cool person and that we would be friends since you are reading this which means you must like old films or Susan Hayward or Robert Mitchum. Anyway before I ramble myself into a hole, I will stop here with my review of The Lusty Men so I can go to sleep (it is very late at night/early in the morning) and now forget I ever saw this film.