The Bravados (1958)

Director:

Henry King

Writers:

Philip Yordan (screenplay)
Frank O'Rourke (novel)

Release Date:

1 August 1958 (West Germany)

Genre:

Western

Tagline:

A Powerful Western Tale of Revenge and Redemption

Plot:

Jim Douglas has been relentlessly pursuing the four outlaws who murdered his wife, but finds them in jail about to be hanged...

Plot Keywords:

Outlaw Gang | Small Town | Sheriff | Revenge | Rape

Awards:

2 wins

Cast

Gregory Peck	...	Jim Douglass
Joan Collins	...	Josefa Velarde
Stephen Boyd	...	Bill Zachary
Albert Salmi	...	Ed Taylor
Henry Silva	...	Lujan
Kathleen Gallant	...	Emma Steimmetz
Barry Coe	...	Tom
George Voskovec	...	Gus Steimmetz
Herbert Rudley	...	Sheriff Sanchez
Lee Van Cleef	...	Alfonso Parral
Andrew Duggan	...	Padre
Ken Scott	...	Primo, Deputy Sheriff
Gene Evans	...	John Butler
Ninos Cantores de Morelia Choral Group	...	Themselves (as The Niños Cantores De Morelia Choral Group)

Runtime:

98 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (DeLuxe) (as De Luxe)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

4-Track Stereo (Westrex Recording System)

Certification:

West Germany:16 (f) | Norway:16 | USA:Approved (certificate #19005) | Finland:K-16 | Sweden:15 | UK:A (original rating) | UK:PG (video rating) (1989)

Filming Locations:

Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico

Company:

Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation

Quotes:

Jim Douglass: You're wasting a lot of good lumber. A tree does just as well.
Sheriff Sanchez: They were sentenced to be hanged - not lynched!

Movie Connections:

Referenced in C'era una volta il West (1968)

Losing A Moral Compass

John Wayne's Ethan Edwards, Jimmy Stewart's Howard Kemp, or any number of roles Kirk Douglas has played have nothing of the intensity of Gregory Peck's Jim Douglas in The Bravados.

Peck is perfect casting for the part because he's playing against type. If Atticus Finch's wife had been a homicide victim, I think this is how we would see him. Totally lose a moral compass and become a relentless stalker. It's what makes The Bravados work, because we identify Gregory Peck with an innate decency.

Peck's house was robbed and his wife raped and murdered by intruders. Peck has a line on them, they're four killers who've been caught and scheduled to hang for a bank robbery in a town several miles away where a bank teller has been killed.

But they escape with the help of the hangman, Joe DeReda soon to become a stooge. These are a quartet of the nastiest villains ever, Stephen Boyd, Albert Salmi, Lee Van Cleef, and Henry Silva all of whom have played villains with relish on the big screen. One of them, Boyd, in fact is a rapist, they take young Kathleen Gallant the daughter of the town's dry goods merchant along as a hostage.

Charles Bronson never executed bad guys with as much relish as Peck did. They are convicted murderers who've escaped, there's no law to answer to.

Peck may be doing some public service homicides, but there's a higher law he must answer to for the preservation of his own soul. In fact the ending brings quite a twist to the tale.

The Bravados is one of six films directed by long time 20th Century Fox director Henry King who is most known for doing nine films there with Tyrone Power. In fact the first couple that Peck did were probably properties that were meant for Power, but Darryl Zanuck switched them for his new up and coming leading man.

This one however is all Gregory Peck's film, I'm not sure Power could have done a better job. Peck gets some able support from the villainous quartet and from Joan Collins as an old flame he finds that has settled in the town the four have savaged.

Special mention should go to Andrew Duggan as the priest in the town where apparently everyone is Catholic. Duggan does a good job as the padre who gives just the right spiritual advice and counsel to a troubled soul.

Themes like rape were not exactly subject matter for westerns before the Fifties. The Bravadoes succeeds both as Saturday matinée shooting and as serious adult drama. It shouldn't be missed when broadcast.