Review: The Bravados

Gregory Peck (in one of his more successful attempts at playing a darker character), a stranger in town, is seeking the four men who raped and killed his wife; two white men, a half-breed, and an Indian. He thinks he’s found his men in psychotic rapist Stephen Boyd, Albert Salmi (both white men), Lee Van Cleef (a half-breed), and Henry Silva (an Injun), who are all about to be hanged. But with the hangman (Joe De Rita) really a conspirator, the men escape, and a posse is formed to track them down. Peck too, searches for the men, but on his own bloody quest for revenge/justice. But at what cost? And are those really the right men? Well, they sure are a disreputable lot, Boyd especially (though Silva is later shown to be a loving family man, a nice and surprising detail for a film made in the 50s). Joan Collins plays the one person in town already known to Peck, a former flame who sees trouble in his eyes.

There’s a genuinely good little western inside this moody 1958 Henry King (“Twelve O’ Clock High”, “Beloved Infidel”, “The Black Swan”) flick, but it only shows up in fits and starts. It begins well, with Peck in fine form and an excellent small part for Curly Joe De Rita (of The Three Stooges), but then it kinda sags for a while in the middle, killing the tension. It picks up towards the end as Peck finally starts to mow down the accused men (Silva and Van Cleef are especially fine, though Boyd is much better than usual), and is left to deal with the consequences and nagging doubts. The ending, when it comes, is a real kick in the guts. But the mid-section is just so slow, with a generally uninteresting side romance-of sorts with Collins, ultimately unnecessary outside of the introduction of a religious/redemption motif to the story. Scripted by Philip Yordan (“Broken Lance”, “Johnny Guitar”, “The Harder They Fall”, “El Cid”, “The Fall of the Roman Empire”), from a Frank O’Rourke (“The Professionals”) novel, the film is a veiled attack on the McCarthy witch-hunts of which Peck was vehemently opposed. I really wish I liked this.

Rating: C+