Acensbart Excellent but underrated film

Matho The biggest problem with this movie is it’s a little better than you think it might be, which somehow makes it worse. As in, it takes itself a bit too seriously, which makes most of the movie feel kind of dull.

Kinley This movie feels like it was made purely to piss off people who want good shows

Dana An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

Michael O'Keefe Choya(Alan Ladd)is a drifter that shows up at the Lavery ranch. Mr. Lavery(Charles Bickford)is led to believe that Choya is his long lost son that was kidnapped some twenty-five years ago. He and his partner (Robert Keith)plan on conning Lavery out of his ranch and fortune. He is showered with affection from Mrs. Lavery(Selena Royle)and her daughter Ruth(Mona Freeman).The drifter now wants no part of the scheme to rob his "new family". Choya has second thoughts and heads to Mexico on a tip of the whereabouts of Tonio(Peter Hansen), the Lavery's real son. Nice western. Also in the cast: Joseph Calleia, Tom Tully and Milburn Stone.

bkoganbing While on the dodge from a shooting scrape, gunfighter Alan Ladd meets up with a pair of drifters, Robert Keith and John Berkes. They want him to pose as the long lost son of a prominent Texas rancher Charles Bickford who was kidnapped as a child and never heard from again. John Berkes is a tattoo artist and he gives Alan Ladd a tattoo that looks like a birth mark the child had. It works all too well as Ladd is welcomed into the home of Bickford and wife Selena Royle. In addition there's a sister in the home played by Mona Freeman and Ladd is not developing brotherly feelings for her.In the end he can't go through with fleecing these decent people and Ladd sets out to set things right.Branded was Ladd's second starring western after Whispering Smith and he proved to be equally well received here. The urban Ladd of the films Paramount put him in starting with This Gun for Hire gradually gave way to a western character and he would do more of them of varying quality over the rest of his career. The best of which was that immortal classic Shane.In one sense though Ladd's character is very much like Raven in This Gun for Hire. Both of them were orphans with great big chips on their shoulders. Imagine Raven a little earlier than when he met up with Veronica Lake and got into the home of a couple like Bickford and Royle and you have a pretty good idea of what Ladd's character Choya is like in Branded.Acting honors however go to the ever dependable Joseph Calleia as a Mexican bandit chief and to Robert Keith. Keith usually was a good guy in most films, a typical role for him would be the father of the Tuttle girls as he was in Young at Heart. He completely plays against type as a slime ball bottom feeder who turns out to be far more despicable than even we originally think.Branded is a good western and Alan Ladd and the cast members should be proud of their work in this one.

alexandre michel liberman (tmwest) At the beginning of this movie someone asks Ladd if he has any friends, he answers "my guns" and if he has any kinfolk to which he replies "my horse". He gets involved in a plot, impersonating the kidnapped son of a rancher who was missing since he was five. However, he falls in love with Mona Freeman who was supposed to be his sister. This was an unusual role for Ladd to play, and it adds a lot to the film, because you don't quite know what to expect from him. There is here everything you can ask from a good western: an interesting story, colorful, and a lot of action. It was the first western directed by Rudolph Matte. I saw Branded when it was released in the fifties ,with crowded matinées. I enjoyed it and still enjoyed it when I saw it recently.

helpless_dancer Con artist passes himself off as a rancher's long lost son. He and his partner stand to make a cool million if the plan works. Meanwhile, the real son is making his way home through harsh country with the threat of death nearby all the way. Exciting western filmed in beautiful mountain country.