Garden of Evil

1954

1h 40m

IMDb RATING

6.1/10

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Western

A trio of American adventurers marooned in rural Mexico are recruited by a beautiful woman to rescue her husband from Apaches.

Directors

Henry Hathaway

Writers

Frank Fenton(screenplay by)

Fred Freiberger(story by)

William Tunberg(story by)

Stars

Gary Cooper

Susan Hayward

Richard Widmark

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Top cast

Hooker

Leah Fuller

Fiske

John Fuller

Luke Daly

Cantina Singer

Víctor Manuel Mendoza

Vicente Madariaga

Antonio Bribiesca

Bartender …

Manuel Dondé

Cantina Waiter (uncredited)

Arturo Soto Rangel

Priest (uncredited)

Salvador Terroba

Victim (uncredited)

Fernando Wagner

Steamboat Captain (uncredited)

Directors

Henry Hathaway

Writers

Frank Fenton(screenplay by)

Fred Freiberger(story by)

William Tunberg(story by)

All cast & crew

Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

***Unique 50’s Western takes place in coastal Mexico and the volcanic interior*** A desperate woman (Susan Hayward) hires three gringos and a Mexican to help save her husband (Hugh Marlowe) trapped in a gold mine several days away in the volcanic jungles of Mexico. The men she enlists are played by Gary Cooper, Richard Widmark, Cameron Mitchell and Víctor Manuel Mendoza. Rita Moreno has a memorable bit part singing a song at a saloon. "Garden of Evil” (1954) is an unusual 50’s Western in that it takes place completely in former Aztecan areas of Mexico. The sceneries of the coast, jungles, deserts and (authentic) volcanic zones are magnificent and augmented by Bernard Herrmann’s score, which was his only one for a feature-length Western. The movie was remade as “Find a Place to Die” 24 years later, one of the few truly worthwhile Spaghetti Westerns due to its somber tone and quality characters rather than caricatures typical of Italo Westerns. This is basically a trail movie (the Western version of a road movie) in that a lot of the story consists of a small group traveling the imposing wilderness, similar to “The Train Robbers” (1973), but with jungle footage. The film runs 1 hour, 40 minutes, and was shot in Mexico as follows: The “colonial town" of Tepatzlan; the jungle areas alongside the Los Concheros River near Acapulco; Parícutin Mountain, which was surrounded by black volcanic sands; and the village of Guanajuato; meanwhile interior scenes were shot at Churubusco Studios in Mexico City. GRADE: B

Wuchak30 Dec, 2019