Platicsco Good story, Not enough for a whole film

Livestonth I am only giving this movie a 1 for the great cast, though I can't imagine what any of them were thinking. This movie was horrible

Helllins It is both painfully honest and laugh-out-loud funny at the same time.

Brenda The plot isn't so bad, but the pace of storytelling is too slow which makes people bored. Certain moments are so obvious and unnecessary for the main plot. I would've fast-forwarded those moments if it was an online streaming. The ending looks like implying a sequel, not sure if this movie will get one

vincentlynch-moonoi As the line in the song goes, "Whatever happened to Randolph Scott?" I really admired Scott in his pre-Western days. And, although I (along with the rest of America) grew very tired of Westerns by the end of the 1950s, I always looked to Randolph Scott Westerns as being pretty good for the genre. Here, however, I have to agree with a handful of our other reviewers who find this film a confusing mess! Let's see, some sheriffs are good guys, some are bad guys; some outlaws are good outlaws, others are bad outlaws; and some good sheriffs hang out with outlaws. That about sums this movie up. Oh, and I almost forgot that practically every real outlaw ever mentioned in cowboy movies is in this film...even though there is no historical evidence they were together in the period of lawlessness in what became the Oklahoma panhandle.So, is there any reason to watch this confusing mess? Well, yes. Gabby Hayes, certainly the best cowboy sidekick in the business, is prominent in the film...although not exactly as a sidekick, but rather as one of the orneriest of the bunch who seems to be treading a fine line between the good guys and the bad guys. And, it's still nice to watch Randolph Scott, even if the plot is shaky. And, one of my favorite character actors -- Ray Collins -- is along, although I don't see this as one of his better roles.There are lots better Westerns out there...and lots worse. This film is in that middle ground -- not memorable, but "decent" (at least in terms of keeping your interest). But this is FAR from "Rio Bravo" or "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence".

oldblackandwhite Most of the best movies were made in the 1940's, and that includes most of the best Westerns. 1946, a particularly good year for Hollywood pictures, saw the production of a number of spectacular, top-dollar "A" Westerns which have since become classics, such as My Darling Clementine, Duel In The Sun, and Canyon Passage. While the more modestly produced Badman's Territory starring rugged second-tier leading man Randolph Scott was not designed to compete with those aforementioned blockbusters, it was tremendously popular in its own day, spawned a sequel, attained a durable popularity, and is now a minor classic in its own right. It also set Scott on the trail to greater stardom and top box office drawing power as a Western only specialist.I first saw Badman's Territory in the edited-down re-release version when I was a kid in the early to mid-1950's. They didn't waste a good Western back in those days, and this picture was shown repeatedly as a Saturday matinée. The same 79-minute version started showing up on television also in the 'fifties. For this reason, I suppose, it has come to be thought of as a low-budget "B" movie for kiddies. The overly cute plot device of having a large number of notorious real-life old West outlaws anachronistically thrown together in the same place and time may bolster that impression. Actually Badman's Territory was more of a medium budget production with authentic, well turned out sets and costumes, with a large cast, and assigned to reliable medium budget director Tim Whelan. The original 98-minute running time tells you it was not a "B" picture in the context of a programmer. Though Scott was a second magnitude star, he was near the top of that class. He was billed ahead of John Wayne in the two pictures they made together in the 'forties.Though this was apparently his first Western, Whelan handles the project nimbly, getting one of Scott's best performances out of him. He likewise skillfully manages Gabby Hayes, as marshal Scott's outlaw likable sidekick. Gabby is as cantankerous and amusing as ever but not quite so over-the-top and distracting. Badman's territory is fast paced, precisely edited, colorfully scored by Roy Webb, handsomely filmed in beautiful, old nitrate black and white by Robert De Grasse with lots of starkly shadowed night scenes giving the picture a touch of the noir mood. The cinematography may be difficult to appreciate now. The Warner Archive DVD version is far from perfect with lots of "snow" spots showing up from time to time especially in the night scenes. But it is pretty good over all and as good as we are likely to get. Since the original prints and reprints were shown over and over again as already mentioned, its not likely a completely clean copy can be economically reconstructed. I can remember watching films just as beat up in the movie house as a kid, especially with those re-releases. By the time they made the rounds to the theater in the small town where I lived, they had been run through many projectors.Too much has been made of the James Boys, the Dalton gang, and Sam Bass all impossibly getting together in one picture. Such time and place compression to get historical personages together in a fictional setting is a time honored, if dubious, literary device going back as far as Homer's Iliad. But no one has even bothered to mention that the evil U. S. Marshal (Morgan Conway) persecuting Scott started out as a captain in the "Texas State Police" with the time being about 1890. Only a Texan up on his state history would know, but Texas has not had a state police since the late 1870's. But it was appropriate in the context of this movie to make the, brutal bloodthirsty marshal a member of that much despised organization, which was regarded as a gang of repressive bully boys enforcing scalawag Governor E. J. Davis' brutal dictatorship. His police force was disbanded as soon as he was voted out. But that's another story, and you'll have to watch another movie if interested -- try Wild Bill Elliot opus, The Fabulous Texan (1947). None of this is worth fretting about in any case. Only the hopelessly literal-minded care about a Western dotting its historical P's and Q's. This is a fiction, for entertainment purposes, and most of us when wanting to be entertained by a movie, do not let a small matter like a character (Jesse James in this case) actually being dead for ten years get in our way.And Badman's Territory does answer in the entertainment department. Scott and love interest Ann Richards seem to have good chemistry. This was when he was still young enough, his leading ladies didn't look like his granddaughters. Solid supporting cast includes, as well as Hayes, Ray Collins of Perry Mason fame, tall James Warren as Scott's wavering brother, and pretty Isabel Jewell as Belle Starr. Outstanding are movie and real-life bad boy Lawrence Tierney as a tough but gentlemanly Jesse James, the ubiquitous Nestor Paiva as Sam Bass, and Andrew Tombes as a boozy, absent-mined doctor.Intelligent script, engaging story, sharp, colorful dialog, fast moving with lots of action, though not overly violent, Badman's Territory is a top-notch Western in every way. Slick, smooth, satisfying entertainment from one of the platinum years of Old Hollywood's Golden Era.

Michael Morrison Hollywood and History do not, as a rule, go well together.Once again a western movie is damaged by over-saturation of big-name outlaws -- real people but who lived and died very differently from the script's portrayal.Frankly, I watched with trepidation, but was soon more than placated by the very high quality of cast -- and, shucks, the presence of Randolph Scott alone will usually save any movie.Here he is assisted by Gabby Hayes, in an unusual but surprisingly moving characterization, and by an actress of whom I know nothing, Ann Richards, a very lovely woman, but whose allegedly English accent never did sound quite right. Turns out she is from Australia.The bad guys were played by some, not just veterans, but champions, people such as Lawrence Tierney, Tom Tyler, Steve Brodie, and Nestor Paiva.A character named Belle Starr just captivated, just stole each scene she was in, and looking later at the list of players I realize why: She was played by the great Isabel Jewell.Several more wonderful actors did not even get credit, and once more we have to pause and say a little prayer of thanks for IMDb.com. There are John Hamilton, Buddy Roosevelt, Kermit Maynard, Emory Parnell, who even has some lines, and Elmo Lincoln.The great and unheralded Bud Osborne has a pivotal role early in the film, but no credit.Despite the foolishness in using some of the outlaw names, the script has a lot of very good dialog, and it moves, with lots of characters having lots of action."Badman's Territory" is, finally, a very good movie.

Panamint Old-fashioned: yes, but in the best sense of the phrase. This film has a kind of charm, without being too cornball. It isn't slow but is perfectly well-paced. The black-and-white photography is not as good as some Scott westerns but this is not a scenery type of western story. The sound recording must have been done on the cheap, but it doesn't really matter because this is a western and it surely wasn't made for the purpose of selling a soundtrack.Movies of all eras (especially today) substitute macho posturing or posing instead of manhood as it was defined in the old days. In contrast, there are two scenes in this film that offer good examples of how things might have really occurred back then. First, the scene where Scott's character just walks squarely into the corral and shoots the horse thief contains no dialog and doesn't need it (good representation of an old corral by the way). The other scene shows Gabby's character refusing to submit to the lawman's demands, knowing that he is about to be shot. He is shot with minimal dialog in a room quietly occupied by the two men alone.The fine line that was walked (and sometimes crossed over) between lawman and badman in the lawless areas of the west is well depicted in this film. I have used words like "depicted" in this review because the movie is intended as entertainment, not historical accuracy.Randolph Scott, Gabby and others in the cast did more than merely stroll through what could have been just another formula western. They give a good effort and movie fans are the beneficiaries.