The Law and Jake Wade
Directed by John Sturges
Written by William Bowers from a novel by Marvin H. Alber
1958/USA
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
First viewing/Netflix rental
[box] Clint Hollister: Well, did you say a few words over the boys?
Ortero: Yeah…good-bye.
Clint Hollister: Very touching.[/box]
It’s always fun to watch Richard Widmark play a villain. Otherwise this is run-of-the-mill Western fare with some nice vistas of the Rocky Mountains.
Jake Wade (Robert Taylor) and Clint Hollister (Widmark) were in the same unit during the Civil War. Afterwards, they and some of there friends took to robbing stagecoaches. They were caught after a successful robbery and Clint was taken into custody. Jake broke Clint out of jail and then took off with the loot. Jake reformed and is now a marshall. When Clint is apprehended, Jake breaks him out of jail to repay Clint’s previous favor.
Clint is determined to get what he considers to be “his” money. With the original gang, he abducts Jake and his fiancee and forces him to lead them to where the loot is buried. The rest of the movie covers their journey, the pair’s various escape attempts, and the inevitable show-down. With Henry Silva as a mean, crazy hombre as per usual.
I have liked Robert Taylor in a few films, where he is grim and hard, but mostly he is fairly bland as here. Widmark is smart and fairly subtle. There are a lot of dead spots during the journey. It’s watchable though.
Trailer
