The Walking Hills (1949)

Directed by John Sturges. Starring Randolph Scott, Ella Raines, Arthur Kennedy and Edgar Buchanan as Old Willy!

Sturges assembles a great group of actors for this contemporary noir western taking place in then current times of 1949. The presence of Randolph Scott and Edgar Buchanan keep it firmly rooted in the genre but the whole approach is more adult and sinister than the B-movie programmers the stars were known for.

The movie opens on a group of people playing cards in the back room of a border town. Each character has a shady past that they are trying to run away from. When they discover the local folklore of buried treasure in the sand dunes may be true they decide to sneak into the Mexican desert at night and begin to dig. Eventually secrets, emotion and a sand storm threaten to tear everything apart.

Terrific looking black and white photography give this western a wonderful noir inspired look. Made before HANGMAN'S KNOT this truly seems like the first step Randolph Scott would take toward making a more mature western film, eventually coming to fruition in the movies he did with Budd Boetticher. At 78 minutes this is every bit as good, IMO.

Guitarist, singer, songwriter Josh White is on hand as part of the group of treasure hunters. White sings and plays guitar while they dig, when they eat and when they're just standing around at night. It's the perfect kind of blues that you need when you are in the middle of a desert digging for gold.

 

Garden of Evil (1954)

Directed by Henry Hathaway - starring Gary Cooper, Susan Hayward, Richard Widmark, Cameron Mitchell and Rita Moreno

Stuck at a port town in Mexico with a broken steamer, three men (Cooper, Widmark and Mitchell) sitting in a cantina get hired by Susan Hayward to travel with her and save her husband who's trapped in a gold mine shaft. She pays them two thousand dollars a piece and hires a Mexican for one thousand. The catch? They have to travel through Apache country during a special Apache holiday called 'Moon of the White Man', from when they wiped out all of the settlements.

Richard Widmark plays a gambler full of wit and great one-liners. Cameron Mitchell plays a hotheaded bounty hunter who continually tests Gary Cooper until Cooper hands it to him. Cooper beats Mitchell into a campfire until he cries. Then he wipes his face clean, tells him it's going to be alright and sends him to bed. Susan Hayward mugs on and Widmark smiles.

Shot on location in Mexico and the first Fox western shot in CinemaScope, THE GARDEN OF EVIL is a beautiful color adventure with striking imagery. It opens with a cute song and dance number by Rita Moreno. The group then heads out across the lush green countryside and onto steep mountains (with matte paintings?) The town of the mine shaft is covered in real ash from a nearby volcano. There's a great scene when they first approach town and we see a giant wall of blackened lava. **SPOILERS** When they reach the husband he's ungrateful and tells Susan Hayward off. Cooper tells it like it is:" You took him too far. You took him over his head. You made a coward of him and he hates you for it. It could happen to any man, ... with a woman like you." Susan plays an intense cold-hearted woman. She eats Richard Widmark alive telling him, "You're nothing." You can just see his soul die. It's great.

Coop tells her he's an ex-Sheriff and they need to leave, the Indians are coming. But her husband can't ride so they have to carry him, and the gold. Susan acts stubborn and insists on staying to psych-out the Indians, so Coop slugs her and everybody takes off. What follows is a dangerous chase full of risky adventure and awesome spills. A bit of a low-rent TREASURE OF THE SIERRA MADRE, the film is a fun colorful tale of greed and lust set against great Mexico locations.

"The Garden of Evil, ... if the earth was made of gold, I guess men would die for a handful of dirt."