The Badlanders (1958)

A watchable but ultimately slightly mediocre film. Basically a Western adaptation of The Asphalt Jungle, it has Alan Ladd as “Dutch”, a mining engineer being released from prison after being framed for a crime, and Ernest Borgnine as another prisoner released at the same time. Together they plan to rob a mine (owned by a corrupt mine owner who had a part in both of their sentences) then sell the gold back to said mine owner.

I haven’t actually seen The Asphalt Jungle (or read the book of the same name) but I have skimmed the wikipedia page, which makes me eminently qualified to comment on the differences between it and this film. I think the issues with this film come from adapting it both too strictly and too loosely.

On the “too strictly” front: there’s characters that have a limited part in this film (the “femme fatale” mine owner’s lover who tries to seduce Ladd and “Sample”, the shady go-between for Ladd and the mine owner) that seem to have plots that don’t quite finish and it’s not clear what purpose they serve in the film. It looks like they were more significant characters in the source material and remain in this because the story wasn’t quite distilled down enough.

On the “too loosely” side, the ending seems quite disjointed and doesn’t really fit. The Asphalt Jungle looks to have a much bleaker ending. This film appears to follow the “bleaker” plot until quite late, then add “and everything was resolved in a big old-west-style shoot-out and they all lived happily ever after”. It isn’t quite as jarring as I make it seem: ultimately it does fit the genre. However when I was watching it it seemed slightly odd, and in hindsight (having read about the film it remade) it makes sense why.

With all that said, it is an broadly enjoyable watch. Delmer Daves is always a talented director (I particularly liked the way he shot the old abandoned mine workings) and makes the most of the story given. The lead actors do their job well. It just feels like something that could have been excellent but missed, rather than a bad film.