The Badlanders Reviews

THE BADLANDERS is an adult western remake of THE ASPHALT JUNGLE. Ladd replaces Sam Jaffe as the brains behind the plot and Borgnine plays the Sterling Hayden hood role. The plot is basically the same, with Ladd finishing out a sentence at Yuma prison. He feels he's been cheated out of his stake in a mine by Smith, the mine's owner, who had him sent up on false charges. Ladd enlists Borgnine, another of Smith's victims. Smith hates his wife and is fooling around with Kelly. They plan to take off for the continent. Meanwhile, she falls for Ladd, who arrives at the hotel where Smith keeps her. Borgnine tumbles for Jurado, a hooker with a heart of guess what? She falls head over heels for Borgnine (they did in real life as well) and they vow to make it work. Persoff, an old pal of Ladd, joins them and the three men enter Smith's gold mine, set dynamite, and blow up a section to reveal a thick vein of the real stuff. Smith has euchred them, though, and arrives with Williams, a crooked cop. Smith is hoisted on his own petard when Borgnine attacks him, then Borgnine, Ladd and Persoff cut out. Borgnine stays with Jurado and Ladd leaves with Kelly. The film was not a hit, although Ladd gives his finest western performance (other than SHANE) and Borgnine had his best role since MARTY. Watch the movie and see if you can recognize it as the same plot of the W.R. Burnett novel that inspired the John Huston film made just eight years earlier.