Garden of Evil Reviews

Adventurers Cooper, Widmark, and Mitchell are headed for the California gold mines when their ship is dismantled and they are stranded in a Mexican village. Hayward hears about the soldiers of fortune and approaches them with a proposition: her husband is trapped in a gold mine cave-in and she will pay them handsomely if they will lead her through wild Indian territory and help rescue him. The thought of gold makes them all willing and they push on into the wild interior of a mountainous province. Their guide, Mendoza, Hayward notices, is marking the trail as he leads them into the primeval region. She obliterates the markers and must later contend with Mitchell's animal advances until Cooper stops the lust-driven gold-seeker. The group arrives at a remote area the Indians call "The Garden of Evil," where they find Hayward's husband, Marlowe, who has a broken leg and shows no gratitude toward the wife who has risked her life to rescue him. They all have gold but they also have a horde of murderous Indians surrounding them. The Indians begin killing the interlopers one by one, until Cooper, Hayward, and Widmark attempt to make an escape. They are being pursued by the Indians and the men draw lots to see who will stay behind to hold off the savages. Widmark loses and as Cooper and Hayward leave, he looks at the burning red, setting sun and says: "There it goes. Every day it goes and somebody goes with it. Today, it's me." Cooper takes Hayward to safety, then returns to help Widmark but finds him mortally wounded. Cooper catches up with Hayward and they ride to safety together, Cooper ruefully commenting: "If the world were made of gold, men would die for a handful of dirt." The plot here is routine but the acting is above average with a handsome production and dazzling on-location shots in Mexico. Hayward overacts to the point where her nerves seem to about burst from her skin, a condition she later claimed was the result of her then-tempestuous marriage with actor Jess Barker; in fact she planned to divorce Barker once the film was made. Moreover, Mitchell was emotionally involved with the actress, even after she used her sons as an excuse to return to the US for Christmas while the rest of the cast and crew were stuck in Mexico. The actress later went to a jammed Mexican cafe in Cuernavaca with the cast to celebrate New Year's Eve. After a few brandies she leaned over to Mitchell, knowing his attraction to her, and ran her long fingernails deeply along his cheek, drawing blood and leaving wounds that caused director Hathaway to delay further shooting until the scabs vanished. Mitchell was scarred for life. Hathaway had a difficult time with Hayward, who delayed productions and often walked off the set when annoyed with his brusque ways. The film went over budget and beyond schedule, although Cooper remained mute about the temperament his costar displayed; Hayward was then one of the top box-office actresses. He had not appeared with her since BEAU GESTE (1939), in which Hayward played a small but significant part as his childhood sweetheart. This was Cooper's 81st film and he did his heroic best with a weak script and Hathaway's on-and-off direction.