Borgarkeri A bit overrated, but still an amazing film

Livestonth I am only giving this movie a 1 for the great cast, though I can't imagine what any of them were thinking. This movie was horrible

Fairaher The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

Bessie Smyth Great story, amazing characters, superb action, enthralling cinematography. Yes, this is something I am glad I spent money on.

HotToastyRag Given the choice between Gary Cooper, Richard Widmark, and Cameron Mitchell, who would you choose? Richard Widmark, duh! Watch Garden of Evil to see if Susan Hayward is as smart as you are. In the film, the three Americans are shipwrecked on the coast of Mexico, on their way to search for gold in California. Susan Hayward storms into town and offers $1,000 a piece if they ride with her back to a collapsed goldmine and rescue her husband. At first, Dick and Gary are only interested in the money, but soon they join Cameron's camp and start to notice the beauty of their travelling companion. I love Susan Hayward, so I was looking forward to some seriously steamy scenes with her and hunky Richard Widmark, but it wasn't that kind of a movie. There are battle scenes against the Apaches, a mysterious storyline, and a love triangle that will keep you on the edge of your seat, but that's all. While Susan is tough and sexy, Gary is monotonous and boring. The fact that he's even in contention is a puzzlement. If you like Suzy or Gary, or 1950s westerns, feel free to rent this one. It's not my favorite though, probably because I've only liked Gary Cooper in a couple of films, and this isn't one of them.

Spikeopath It's gold rush time and en route to California, Hooker (Gary Cooper), Fiske (Richard Widmark), and Luke Daly (Cameron Mitchell) stop over in a small Mexican village. Here the three men hook up with Vicente Madariaga (Victor Manuel Mendoza) and are lured by a desperate Leah Fuller (Susan Hayward) to go rescue her husband John (Hugh Marlowe), who is trapped in a gold mine up in the mountains. Mountains where hostile Indians lay in wait, but the Apache are not the only thing to be worried about, the other is themselves.With that cast, Henry Hathaway directing, Bernard Herrmann scoring and CinemaScope inspired location work coming from a volcano region in Mexico: you would think that Garden Of Evil would be far more well known than it actually is. That it isn't comes as no surprise once viewing it for oneself.Hathaway's film has real good intentions, it wants to be a brooding parable about the effects of greed, a character examination as men are forced to question their motives. Yet the film is muddled and winds up being bogged down by its eagerness to be profound. That it looks fabulous is a bonus of course, yet with this story the locale seems badly at odds in the narrative. This is more Aztec adventure than Western, I kept expecting one of Harryhausen's skeletons, or a Valley Of Gwangi dinosaur to home into view, not Apache Indians, who quite frankly are miscast up there in them thar hills. Herrmann's score is terrific, truly, but it's in the wrong movie. It would be more at home in some science fiction blockbuster, or at least in some Jason & The Argonauts type sword and sandal piece.It has its good points, notably the cast who give compelling performances and some shots are to die for, with the final shot in the film one of the finest there is. But this is a wasted opportunity and proof positive that putting fine technical ingredients together can't compensate for an over ambitious and plodding script. 5/10

FightingWesterner Garden Of Evil is an entertaining and well made Technicolor/Cinemascope adventure that shows a part of Mexico's interior not usually shown in western pictures.The plot involves Gary Cooper and his treasure seeking pals being paid to rescue Susan Hayward's husband from a collapsed goldmine located in the supposedly cursed title area. Little do they know that the local superstitious natives are enraged at their encroachment.Things get a little odd with every character (save the always laid back Cooper) becoming very melodramatic, especially Hugh Marlowe as Hayward's husband. His performance crosses the line into overacting as every bit of dialog he mutters is in the form of a rant!Also on the verge of of overacting is Cameron Mitchell as the "kid" of the bunch. In my mind's eye he'll always be the older overweight actor I remember from numerous films of the late sixties and early seventies. It's very strange to see him young and lean.It was a good call on the part of the filmmakers to not show the furious natives until near the end and then only show brief glimpses. As the unseen menace, it really heightened the atmosphere of dread and helped build tension, making the eventual appearance of the Indians a frightening matter.The final act is exciting, scary, and suspenseful.

jpdoherty "If the world was made of gold men would die for a handful of dirt". So goes the theme of this somewhat unusual western directed by Henry Hathaway in 1954. With lovely locations in Mexico this was Fox's first western in the then new process of Cinemascope and Stereophonic sound and boasted a top notch cast in Gary Cooper, Susan Hayward and Richard Widmark.From a fine screenplay by Frank Fenton - Cooper and Widmark together with Cameron Mitchell and Victor Manuel Mendoza are four adventurers contracted by Leah Fuller (Hayward) to go back with her into the wilds of Mexico to rescue her husband (Hugh Marlowe) who is lying trapped and injured in a gold mine. They journey to the mine and perform the rescue but on their way back they are pursued by Apaches (a brilliant chase sequence) and must ward them off in a well staged attack on a hazardous cliff-face trail.A good adventure yarn if a tad slow in parts but the widescreen picture looks great and the small cast are excellent. Cooper as Hooker is at his laconic best, Hayward is as gorgeous as ever, Mitchell in a good part as a temperamental and impatient young gun, Mendoza as the likable and amiable Mexican companion and Widmark shines as Fiske the droll and garrulous gambler who cuts for highest card to see who goes and who stays behind.Beautifully photographed in Cinemascope and colour by Milton Krasner it is all excitingly handled by Hathaway. The picture also has an excellent score by the ubiquitous Bernard Herrmann. This was the only real western Herrmann ever tackled if you discount Burt Lancaster's early frontier epic "The Kentuckian" (1955) and some obscure episodes of TV's "The Virginian" in the sixties. Herrmann scored the film rather as a conventional adventure story and avoided the usual clichéd style of writing associated with westerns except perhaps the theme for Hooker (Cooper) where the composer hints at a "cowboy" tune with its wonderful long loping Americana tinged melody. But the score is mainly an intense and strident work full of suspense and foreboding. The main theme, first heard over the credits, is a brilliant defiant statement for full orchestra and is played in different guises throughout the movie. Particularly clever is the ominous figure on the octave flute which points up the unseen but ever watching Apaches. There is no love theme as such but tender music in the composer's gentlest manner underscores the Hayward character. All the stops are pulled out for the brilliant climactic music cue for the chase sequence (where the Apaches are in hot pursuit of the interlopers). It is a sensational swirling and thundering piece calling for some virtuoso playing from the magnificent Fox orchestra which they zealously deliver."Garden Of Evil" is available in a small Fox western box set along with two other western classics - the wonderful "Rawhide" (1951) and Henry King's "The Gunfighter" (1950). Enjoy!