KnotMissPriceless Why so much hype?

Cubussoli Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

Solemplex To me, this movie is perfection.

Hattie I didn’t really have many expectations going into the movie (good or bad), but I actually really enjoyed it. I really liked the characters and the banter between them.

jarrodmcdonald-1 THE LAW AND JAKE WADE was directed by John Sturges, and it uses some of the same sets seen in Sturges' earlier MGM western BAD DAY AT BLACK ROCK. So in a way, despite the different story, it has a slightly derivative feel to it. Richard Widmark is a perfect nemesis to Robert Taylor in this picture, but it's never really explained why Taylor puts up with him and why he'd want to go back in the last scene and not just let him die alone. The final shoot-out seems contrived and unnecessary, except for the point of giving the audience some climactic ending. Taylor appears to have been battling a cold or bronchitis, and his line deliveries are a bit congested in some scenes. I wouldn't mind it if there had been a line of dialogue referencing it, but I suppose we cannot have a western hero "sick" in any way. I gave the film a score of 8 out of 10. It has some sturdy elements for fans of the genre and these stars to enjoy, but it's far from being the type of classic it could and should have been.

DKosty123 John Sturges work behind the camera is solid, and the beauty of this film in front of the camera shows it. Robert Taylor is only three years older than Richard Widmark, though he appears much older. Even though the rest of the cast features De Forest Kelly, the focus here is almost entirely on the 2 big stars.The love interest in Patricia Owens, is not just forgettable, but her role is really a minor one here. She is there as Taylor's love interest, but becomes more of a prop than anything in this movie. Owens is engaged to Taylor but is more of hindrance than help for most of the film, questioning him from the beginning. Then finding out to her dismay the whole movie who she is really trying to hitch too.Widmark wants money hidden by Taylor after one of their heists. They were gang members together, as well as soldiers in the Civil War. They meet in the beginning of the film when Taylor saves Widmark from the noose to return a favor. While their characters are filled out, most of the others are just there going along most of the movie. Think the script could have been better but it is an average film in an era where Westerns were being cranked out on an assembly line in films and on TV.

school_account Let's face it, Robert Taylor is an awful actor. It just seems like somebody needed to fill this role quickly and grabbed a paunchy old stage hand from sweeping the floor, saying you'll do ! The guy just can't act ! How did he get by for so long in Hollywood with no talent, when there were other superb actors around like Spencer Tracy , Kirk Douglas, Richard Widmark etc... Robert Taylor must have read many scripts turned down by the proper actors of Hollywood just to get work.He is actually billed as the lead in this movie ! Even John Wayne on a bad day could act this man under the table. The definition of a Superstar is the star that carries the movie. Without Richard Widmark's presence billed as second lead, this movie would have fallen completely flat. Is this movie really directed by the same man who made "Bad day at Black Rock" and "The Great Escape" ? John Sturges must have been having an off day. Although he didn't have much to work with. The poor script and leading man to name but two. In Bad day at Black rock you have of course the master and arguably the best screen actor there has even been , Spencer Tracy. In this movie you have Robert (the statue) Taylor. Without a good leading man a movie is sunk before it begins.John Sturges should have been more like William Wyler in his approach to directing Robert Taylor. To at least coax a mediocre performance from the man, rather than this exhibition of rocking horse excellence. Nice to see Dr McCoy though, playing yet another heavy, he is a very good actor, obviously, although he never liked beaming down to planets.

JohnHowardReid When "Bad Day at Black Rock" was released back in 1955, director John Sturges was hailed as the master of Cinema-Scope suspense. Despite a somewhat unconvincing climax (mostly caused by Spencer Tracy's refusal to spend any more time on location, which meant that the scene had to be shot on a studio sound stage), the film was hailed by all as a gem of jeopardy. Certainly Millard Kaufman's taut script and a fine array of support players led by Lee Marvin and Ernest Borgnine helped. Some critics feel that Sturges' abilities gradually declined after this and that he never topped "Bad Day...", but to me "The Law and Jake Wade" proves these suspicions wrong. How brilliantly Sturges uses CinemaScope here to obtain his effects! The very landscapes (and there are a great many of them, thanks to extensive location shooting) seem not only hostile and threatening, but they are made to close in on our protagonists like a prison. The few interiors reinforce this motif. Prison cells and the eerie, cramped quarters of a ghost town are relieved by just one dinner-table scene, which is the only sequence in the movie which doesn't quite succeed. (An ill-judged, distorted close-up of Robert Taylor doesn't help).Perhaps most of the instant-information dialogue in the earlier scenes is a bit too obviously pat, but otherwise the William Bowers script is not only tautly exciting, but offers excellent opportunities to support players like Middleton, Silva and Kelley. In the flashier star role, Richard Widmark pulls out all stops to impress, but I found the less flamboyant, more subtly skilled acting of Robert Taylor more appealing. It's difficult to maintain sympathy as the good guy when you're on the receiving end all the time and your opponent has all the snappy dialogue, but Taylor comes through this ordeal with flying colors. And the writer does relent at the end when he hands Taylor a neat rejoinder to Widmark's aggrieved protest, "I was going to hand you your gun!" Taylor replies: "But then you always liked me much more than I liked you!"