Best of the Badmen is a 1951 Western film directed by William D. Russell that is set in Breckenridge Missouri during the post-American Civil War period. It stars Robert Ryan, Claire Trevor and Robert Preston. It was a loose follow-up to Return of the Bad Men (1948).

Best of the Badmen
Film poster
Directed byWilliam D. Russell
Written byRobert Hardy Andrews
Screenplay byJohn Twist
Produced bySamuel Bischoff
StarringRobert Ryan
Claire Trevor
Jack Buetel
Walter Brennan
Lawrence Tierney
CinematographyEdward Cronjager
Edited byDesmond Marquette
Music byPaul Sawtell
Distributed byRKO Radio Pictures
Release date
  • June 9, 1951 (1951-06-09)[1]
Running time
84 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

Plot

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The plot centres around the James-Younger Gang and their activities.

Jeff Clanton, an Army major from Missouri, captures the survivors of the Confederacy's Quantrill's Raiders and convinces them to give themselves up and pledge their allegiance to the Union. Clanton pledges that they will be paroled, but Matthew Fowler, a carpetbagger who owns a powerful detective agency, is determined to arrest them for the reward. When one of Fowler's deputies wounds one of the captives, return fire kills the deputy. Clanton is unjustly arrested for murdering Fowler's deputy. Clanton is tried by a kangaroo court and sentenced to be hanged the following morning. He escapes that night and then leads the band of outlaws including Jesse James and the Younger brothers in a vendetta against Matthew Fowler's detective agency.

Cast

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Production

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Parts of the film were shot in Paria, Johnson Canyon, Strawberry Valley, the Gap, and Kanab Canyon in Utah.[2]

References

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  1. ^ "Best of the Badmen: Detail View". American Film Institute. Retrieved May 19, 2014.
  2. ^ D'Arc, James V. (2010). When Hollywood came to town: a history of moviemaking in Utah (1st ed.). Layton, Utah: Gibbs Smith. ISBN 9781423605874.
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