ChitoRaffferty The musical score for this picture was pretty bad. I'm not saying if done right it would have been a difference maker (the film is mediocre). But goodness it sounded like they took samples from every bad TV score in the 50's --I heard it all before-- and tried to do their "Badlanders" score on the cheap. The film was ok. Ladd though clearly in decline did his best with a weak script. Katy Jurado as usual was a strong support presence.

DKosty123 Here we have Alan Ladd as "The Dutchman", educated criminal who wants to steal a pile of gold. With help from fellow ex-con Ernest Bornine, and others, they succeed. There are many perils along the way.There are fights, the Sheriff, the parole board, and the bad guys trying to steal the gold including a deputy. Neihimah Persoff is the dynamite guy, as they have to go into an abandoned shaft and blast the gold out at the same time as the regular mine next to this shaft. The blast is at 4PM.They must be on daylight savings time as they get a lot done after the blast and when the movie ends, it is still not sun down. The last parts of the film are where most of the action is after the opening fight in prison. Overall, the film is pretty satisfying with a couple of good looking women to keep our heros busy and one who helps save them in the end.

dbdumonteil It's Delmer Daves' next to last western and it shows ;even if Ladd and Borgnine make a good pairing,we begin to feel in "badlanders " what will come next;the scenes between Borgnine and the always reliable Katy Jurado (the hooker with a big heart) are full of finer feelings and Daves seems more interested in filming them than the -suspenseful,however-sequences in the mine ;after "the hanging tree" ,an ultimate western which also contains elements of melodrama ,all his career will consist of pure melodramatic stuff ("Parish" and "Susan Slade " are good examples,and quite entertaining and they were heralded by "kings go forth" )"badlanders "holds his movie balanced ,particularly in the scene when the Mexicans intervene in favor of the two heroes ;it seems that Ladd's love affair was botched intentionally or else the western buffs would have been disappointed;you can prefer,nevertheless, works such as "broken arrow" "3:10 to Yuma" or "the last wagon".

peter-2749 This is the kind of film that you want to find when you sit down on a Sunday afternoon to have some "TV time".Alad Ladd is as solid and dependable as ever with his usual "cool and unruffled" persona and is probably the least effective of all of the leads!Ernest Borgnine and Katy Jurado initially look like an unlikely pairing but as the film progresses they "gel" more and more. It would also appear to have been an inspired piece of casting as the actors themselves "paired up" during this film and married the following year of its release! For me the two are the real stand-out performers in this film.I don't want to say too much more on the other characters for fear of giving plot away but suffice to say there is not a stinker amongst them although I have to say that I felt Claire Smith as Ada Winton was a bit invisible to the point where I actually thought a the end of the film "Oh, is she back then; where did she come from?"One thing that has puzzled me however is who was the actress that played Vincente's wife? It looked as if it could have been a young Natalie Wood but despite a speaking role (of sorts), there is no credit for her. Whoever it was she has some of the most expressive eyes seen since the silent days!Overall however and enjoyable yarn with a good solid cast providing a good solid performance.