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Best of the Badmen | |
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Directed by | William D. Russell |
Written by | Robert Hardy Andrews |
Screenplay by | John Twist |
Produced by | Samuel Bischoff |
Starring | Robert Ryan Claire Trevor Jack Buetel Walter Brennan Lawrence Tierney |
Cinematography | Edward Cronjager |
Edited by | Desmond Marquette |
Music by | Paul Sawtell |
Distributed by | RKO Radio Pictures |
Release date |
|
Running time | 84 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Best of the Badmen is a 1951 Western film directed by William D. Russell that is set in Missouri during the post-American Civil War period. It stars Robert Ryan, Claire Trevor and Robert Preston. It was a loose follow-up to Return of the Bad Men (1948).
The plot centres around the James-Younger Gang and their activities.
Jeff Clanton, an Army major from Missouri, captures the survivors of the Confederacy's Quantrill's Raiders and convinces them to give themselves up and pledge their allegiance to the Union. Clanton pledges that they will be paroled, but Matthew Fowler, a carpetbagger who owns a powerful detective agency, is determined to arrest them for the reward. When one of Fowler's deputies wounds one of the captives, return fire kills the deputy. Clanton is unjustly arrested for murdering Fowler's deputy. Clanton is tried by a kangaroo court and sentenced to be hanged the following morning. He escapes that night and then leads the band of outlaws including Jesse James and the Younger brothers in a vendetta against Matthew Fowler's detective agency.
Parts of the film were shot in Paria, Johnson Canyon, Strawberry Valley, the Gap, and Kanab Canyon in Utah. [2]
Alexander Franklin James was a Confederate soldier and guerrilla; in the post-Civil War period, he was an outlaw. The older brother of outlaw Jesse James, Frank was also part of the James–Younger Gang.
Robert Preston Meservey was an American stage and film actor and singer, best known for his collaboration with composer Meredith Willson and originating the role of Professor Harold Hill in the 1957 musical The Music Man and the 1962 film adaptation; the film earned him his first of two Golden Globe Award nominations. Preston collaborated twice with filmmaker Blake Edwards, first in S.O.B. (1981) and again in Victor/Victoria (1982). For portraying Carroll "Toddy" Todd in the latter, he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor at the 55th Academy Awards.
The James–Younger Gang was a notable 19th-century gang of American outlaws that revolved around Jesse James and his brother Frank James. The gang was based in the state of Missouri, the home of most of the members.
Gunfight at the O.K. Corral is a 1957 American Western film starring Burt Lancaster as Wyatt Earp and Kirk Douglas as Doc Holliday, and loosely based on the actual event in 1881. The film was directed by John Sturges from a screenplay written by novelist Leon Uris. It was a remake of the 1939 film Frontier Marshall starring Randolph Scott, which was until 1957 the definitive film of the gunfight story.
Thomas Coleman Younger was an American Confederate guerrilla during the American Civil War and later an outlaw leader with the James–Younger Gang. He was the elder brother of Jim, John and Bob Younger, who were also members of the gang.
Robert Ewing Younger was an American criminal and outlaw, the younger brother of Cole, Jim and John Younger. He was a member of the James–Younger Gang.
Jeffrey David Fahey is an American actor. He has portrayed Jobe Smith in The Lawnmower Man, Captain Frank Lapidus on the ABC series Lost and the title role of Deputy Marshal Winston MacBride on The Marshal.
Wayne Morris was an American film and television actor, as well as a decorated World War II fighter ace. He appeared in many films, including Paths of Glory (1957), The Bushwackers (1952), and the title role of Kid Galahad (1937).
American Outlaws is a 2001 American Western action film directed by Les Mayfield and starring Colin Farrell, Scott Caan, and Ali Larter.
Hour of the Gun is a 1967 Western film depicting Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday during their 1881 battles against Ike Clanton and his brothers in the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral, and the gunfight's aftermath in and around Tombstone, Arizona, starring James Garner as Earp, Jason Robards as Holliday, and Robert Ryan as Clanton. The film was directed by John Sturges.
Robert Joseph Wilke was an American film and television actor noted primarily for his roles as villains, mostly in Westerns.
Commodore Perry Owens was an American lawman and gunfighter of the Old West. One of his many exploits was the Owens-Blevins Shootout in Arizona Territory during the Pleasant Valley War.
The Great Northfield, Minnesota Raid is a 1972 American Western film about the James-Younger Gang distributed by Universal Pictures. It was written and directed by Philip Kaufman in a cinéma vérité style and starring Cliff Robertson. The film purports to recreate the James-Younger Gang's most infamous escapade, the September 7, 1876, robbery of "the biggest bank west of the Mississippi", in Northfield, Minnesota.
James Andrew "Dick" Liddil was an American outlaw who was one of the last surviving members of the James-Younger Gang. His surname is often misspelled as Liddel, Liddell, or Liddle.
Outlaw Trail: The Treasure of Butch Cassidy is a 2006 American adventure film, produced and directed by Ryan Little. It is loosely based on legends arising from the fate of real-life Western outlaw Butch Cassidy, the alias of Robert LeRoy Parker, whose gang robbed trains and banks in the 1890s. Cassidy fled to South America in 1901, where he is believed to have died in 1908.
Jesse Woodson James was an American outlaw, bank and train robber, guerrilla and leader of the James–Younger Gang. Raised in the "Little Dixie" area of Western Missouri, James and his family maintained strong Southern sympathies. He and his brother Frank James joined pro-Confederate guerrillas known as "bushwhackers" operating in Missouri and Kansas during the American Civil War. As followers of William Quantrill and "Bloody Bill" Anderson, they were accused of committing atrocities against Union soldiers and civilian abolitionists, including the Centralia Massacre in 1864.
The Desperadoes is a 1943 American Western film directed by Charles Vidor and starring Randolph Scott, Claire Trevor, Glenn Ford, Evelyn Keyes and Edgar Buchanan. Based on a story by Max Brand, the film is about a wanted outlaw who arrives in town to rob a bank that has already been held up. His past and his friendship with the sheriff land them both in trouble. The Desperadoes was the first Columbia Pictures production to be released in Technicolor.
James H. Timberlake was an American law enforcement officer, Civil War soldier, farmer and rancher who served as a deputy U.S. marshal for the Western District of Missouri. Timberlake is best known for being the chief enforcer and investigator against the James-Younger Gang, beginning in the 1870s, which culminated in the death of the outlaw Jesse James on April 3, 1882, at the hands of Robert Ford.
Return of the Bad Men, also known as Return of the Badmen, is a 1948 American Western film directed by Ray Enright and starring Randolph Scott, Robert Ryan and Anne Jeffreys. A loose sequel to the 1946 film Badman's Territory, it was followed by Best of the Badmen (1951). Written by the husband-and-wife team of Jack Natteford and Luci Ward, the film was shot at the RKO Encino Ranch. It was the final collaboration between Enright and Scott and Jeffreys' final picture for RKO.
The Great Missouri Raid is a 1951 American Western film directed by Gordon Douglas and written by Frank Gruber. The film stars Wendell Corey, Macdonald Carey, Ellen Drew, Ward Bond, Bruce Bennett, Bill Williams and Anne Revere. The film was released on February 15, 1951, by Paramount Pictures.