Garden of Evil

***Unique 50’s Western takes place in coastal Mexico and the volcanic interior*** A desperate woman (Susan Hayward) hires three gringos and a Mexican to help save her husband (Hugh Marlowe) trapped in a gold mine several days away in the volcanic jungles of Mexico. The men she enlists are played by Gary Cooper, Richard Widmark, Cameron Mitchell and Víctor Manuel Mendoza. Rita Moreno has a memorable bit part singing a song at a saloon. "Garden of Evil” (1954) is an unusual 50’s Western in that it takes place completely in former Aztecan areas of Mexico. The sceneries of the coast, jungles, deserts and (authentic) volcanic zones are magnificent and augmented by Bernard Herrmann’s score, which was his only one for a feature-length Western. The movie was remade as “Find a Place to Die” 24 years later, one of the few truly worthwhile Spaghetti Westerns due to its somber tone and quality characters rather than caricatures typical of Italo Westerns. This is basically a trail movie (the Western version of a road movie) in that a lot of the story consists of a small group traveling the imposing wilderness, similar to “The Train Robbers” (1973), but with jungle footage. The film runs 1 hour, 40 minutes, and was shot in Mexico as follows: The “colonial town" of Tepatzlan; the jungle areas alongside the Los Concheros River near Acapulco; Parícutin Mountain, which was surrounded by black volcanic sands; and the village of Guanajuato; meanwhile interior scenes were shot at Churubusco Studios in Mexico City. GRADE: B

Susan Hayward always was a little better at playing the feistier characters, and with her "Leah" role here, she certainly has a good try. She manages to convince three disparate men to travel with her from Mexico to a cave deep inside Apache territory to rescue her gold-mining husband who is trapped there. "Hooker" (Gary Cooper), "Fiske" (Richard Widmark) and "Fuller" (Hugh Marlow) have the uneasiest of truces between them at the best of times, but off they all go on some set-piece escapades to deliver the man. Hayward does plenty of smouldering here, but the rest of the story is pretty devoid of much action. There isn't much chemistry going on as each try to outmanoeuvre the other, stay alive and hopefully reap the $2,000 reward money she has promised them (which she quite possibly hasn't even got!). It does look good, plenty of grand outdoor cinematography, some lovely sunsets etc., but the title of this western is probably the most intriguing thing about it. Pity, had the direction been a bit tighter and more inspired, this could have been much better. Watchable, though, just not memorable.

Susan Hayward always was a little better at playing the feistier characters, and with her "Leah" role here, she certainly has a good try. She manages to convince three disparate men to travel with her from Mexico to a cave deep inside Apache territory to rescue her gold-mining husband who is trapped there. "Hooker" (Gary Cooper), "Fiske" (Richard Widmark) and "Fuller" (Hugh Marlow) have the uneasiest of truces between them at the best of times, but off they all go on some set-piece escapades to deliver the man. Hayward does plenty of smouldering here, but the rest of the story is pretty devoid of much action. There isn't much chemistry going on as each try to outmanoeuvre the other, stay alive and hopefully reap the $2,000 reward money she has promised them (which she quite possibly hasn't even got!). It does look good, plenty of grand outdoor cinematography, some lovely sunsets etc., but the title of this western is probably the most intriguing thing about it. Pity, had the direction been a bit tighter and more inspired, this could have been much better. Watchable, though, just not memorable.