Review of Return of the Bad Men

All the baddest of the bad men appear in this oater from The Sundance Kid (Robert Ryan) to Cole Younger (Steve Brodie) to Billy the Kid (Dean White). Only one man can deal with this passel of hombres: that would be reluctant Marshal Vance Cordell, played by square-jawed hero Randolph Scott. He's the one man in the wild west who could say about a cup of coffee (not whisky), "Mmm, that hits the spot!" Many visual and plot cliches that reappear in arguably the greatest western of all, "High Noon" (1952) are used here: the trapped good guy looking out through the broken window, the burning hay used to smoke him out, the admiring youngster (Gary Gray), the duel between leading ladies, Jacqueline White in the lady-like Grace Kelly role and Anne Jeffreys as "Cheyenne" in the ethnically dubious, hot-blooded rival part, later given to Katy Jurado. Like Lon Chaney Jr., we get a loyal sidekick in Gabby Hayes. This movie moves along well, but, of course, it does not carry the thematic depth and superb skill sets of the later film, but as the second feature, it's fine.