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.

In this Western, Robert Taylor as Jake Wade is the alpha male and wardrobe has dressed him in midnight blue from head to toe except for the silver bullets in his gun belt that function as a kind of accessory. There was a time when Taylor and Richard Widmark rode on the wild side together. Widmark managed to break Taylor out of jail. Now Taylor has ridden miles to do the same for his former friend. After their escape, before they split up, Widmark wears an oily smile. He doesn't seem particularly grateful for what Taylor has done. In fact, the narcissistic Widmark demands to know what Taylor did with the loot from their last robbery. "I buried it somewhere and there it stays." Widmark genially asks Taylor for a gun so he can kill him on the spot. No dice. Throughout, Widmark gives a better performance than the ligneous Robert Taylor, whose default expression is a scowl, but that's not saying much.Taylor rides off by himself and returns to the town where he removes his dark blue pea coat and reveals a dark blue shirt sporting another accessory, the silver badge of a marshal -- or maybe it's a sheriff's badge. I get the two titles mixed up because it never makes any difference which is the correct one anyway. A heterosexual, Taylor has a fiancée in town, the beguiling Patricia Owens, a red head with pupils like big black glistening olives. Over dinner, which is barely touched, as usual in these stories, they have an argument. Taylor wants to get married, pull up stakes, and move farther West, no doubt thinking about that smirk on Widmark's face. Owens sensibly asks why but of course he can't tell her without revealing his miscreant past.Things go from bad to worse. Widmark and half a dozen compañeros show up in town and kidnap Taylor and Owens with the objective of forcing Taylor to take them to the place where the stolen stash is buried. There follows a long journey through forests, over mountains, through what appears to be Zabriskie Point in Death Valley, to the ghost town where the treasure is. There are snide remarks from Henry Silva and some of the other goons about Owens' figure but Widmark is thinking only of pelf, after the acquisition of which he intends to slaughter Taylor and do God knows what with Owens. Of course, Taylor makes some plucky escape attempts but they only prove to be brief delays. Nice atmospheric shooting during some of these scenes. Death Valley is nonpareil. The ragged hills are tinted with lavender. On a chilly September night in Death Valley I stopped the car next to a sidewinder (Crotalus cerastes) who was curled up on the slightly warmer black pavement. He was sluggish enough for me to pick him up by the tail, whirl him over my head, and fling him off into the sand and out of danger.When they finally reach the ghost town, it's beautifully bleachly dilapidated -- only a handful of empty weathered buildings and outhouses, a leaning water tower, a neglected cemetery, disarticulated wagons and other artifacts, and a main street with scattered creosote bush. It's the kind of setting that a child would be delighted to explore. The child probably wouldn't like the fact that the place is surrounded by hostile Indians. The Indians stage an attack that was pretty brutal for its time, but they are finally driven away and all the thugs expect Widmark are killed by arrows. This leave Taylor and Widmark for the final shoot out on the desolate street. Guess who wins. Widmark wins! He ravages the girl, desecrates Taylor's body, ties it behind his chariot, and races around the walls of Troy.

"The Law and Jake Wade" doesn't rank up there with many of Director John Sturges' other classic westerns (The Magnificent Seven and Gunfight at the OK Coral for example) however it is very entertaining western nonetheless, due in large to its small cast of veteran performers and the crisp direction of Sturges.The film opens with Jake Wade (Robert Taylor) breaking his former partner convicted killer Clint Hollister (Richard Widmark) out of jail. It seems that Hollister had done likewise for Wade in an earlier time. We learn that the two had rode together robbing banks and stagecoaches and that the two had split up when an attempted robbery had gone wrong.Wade had escaped with $20,000 buried it and settled in a small town where he became town marshal and acquired a girl, Peggy (Patricia Owns) in the process. Hollister had maintained his criminal ways leading to his arrest.Hollister and his gang which includes Orleso (Robert Middleton), trigger happy gunman Rennie (Henry Silva), Wexler (DeForest Kelley) and Burke (Eddie Firestone) trail Wade to force him to bring them to the missing money. They take Peggy along in order to force Wade to comply. They bicker and fight among themselves along the way until they reach a ghost town where the money is hidden. A lively Commanche attack ensues and some of the party don't survive. Eventually the long awaited showdown between Wade and Hollister takes place and........................................Robert Taylor and Richard Widmark play well off of each other. Taylor the grim faced anti-hero (we never learn if he really has reformed) and the sneering vengeful Widmark brings back memories of his early villain roles. Taylor had been a "pretty boy" leading man early in his career but had gravitated towards westerns later on as had many of his contemporaries.The supporting cast is excellent. Robert Middleton who usually played a sadistic villain, has a more sympathetic role this time around. Henry Silva and DeForrest Kelley are quite good as no good bad hombres. Patricia Owens has little to do other than play the helpless heroine. As a sign of the times, it is interesting to note that not one of the bad guys lays a hand on the comely Owens despite being nasty sorts and out on the lonely trail together.This is a good western.

The John Sturges western "The Law and Jake Wade" is a solidly made, entertaining 1950's era oater that stands out as one of the earliest 'take-me-to-the-buried-treasure' plots. Indeed, Robert Taylor is rather wooden as Jake Wade, but after all, Taylor is the hero and Wade is a lawman who represents the status quo. Richard Widmark said in an interview that he thought the movie was bad but he enjoyed the character of villainous Clint Hollister. The cast is uniformly excellent,especially De Forest Kelly with his Southern drawl and Henry Silva as the crazed kid Rennie. Aside from one obvious studio bound scene around a night camp fire, this western was filmed in the rugged outdoors at Lone Pine, California, and in Death Valley."The Law and Jake Wade" opens traditionally with a lone horseman riding through scenic terrain until he enters a clapboard western town and reins up in front of a marshal's office. Quietly, Jake Wade (Robert Taylor of "Quo Vadis") dismounts and walks into the office and thrusts the muzzle of a shotgun into the lawman's back. Clint Hollister (Richard Widmark of "Kiss of Death") is lounging in the calaboose when he spots Jake with a shotgun in the marshal's back. "Well, who'd have thought," he marvels as his old friend forces the lawman to unlock the cell. Hollister complains about the terrible food that he has been served and slugs the lawman, knocking him out cold. As he is buckling on his gun belt, two deputies walk in unexpectedly, and he cuts loose on them with lead. Jake Wade, who has been trying to get them both out of town with the least amount of commotion, knocks the gun out of Clint's hand. They ride out with the townspeople firing shots at them. As it turns out, Jake and Clint once rode together as partners in crime. Their lawless days came to an end when Jake thought that he had gunned down an innocent child during a daylight robbery. Jake took the loot from the robbery and never looked back. Indeed, he rode away and buried the money and then created a new life for himself. Now, he serves as a lawman himself with a prospective bride-to-be, Peggy (Patricia Owens of "Seven Women from Hell"), awaiting marriage. Jake rides with Clint for a ways then decides to split up. Clint is happy to see Jake but he feels betrayed by Jake's stashing the loot and leaving the gang. Jake explains to Clint that he saved his old outlaw buddy from a date with the noose because Clint had rescued him from being hanged in the old days. Clint wants to shoot it out now with Jake, but Jake refuses to give him a gun.When Jake returns to town, he spots a suspicious cowboy, Rennie (Henry Silva of "Sergeants Three"), loitering on front street. Later, Jake dresses up in his best suit and rents a buggy to visit Peggy. They quarrel because Jake wants her to move with him away somewhere else. Peggy doesn't want to leave and storms away from a dinner table. Jake rides back to town and an inquisitive Rennie visits him at the jail. Something about Rennie spooks Jake, and he slugs the kid without warning. Before he realizes it, another old friend Ortero (Robert Middleton of "Cattle King") pulls a derringer on him. It seems that Jake's deputy had locked up Ortero for sleeping off a drunk in the gutter, but he forget to frisk him. The rest of Clint's gang arrive, including Wexler (De Forest Kelly of "Star Trek"). Wexler isn't too happy with Jake either for pulling out on them and taking the money. Jake explains that he took the money, buried it, and refused to look back. Clint wants Jake to take them to where he buried the loot. Initially, Jake says no until Clint takes Peggy hostage, and Jake has to lead them to the loot."Bad Day at Black Rock" director John Sturges doesn't waste a moment in this character-driven epic. Everybody has that tough leathery look and these are no-nonsense characters. No sooner have they left for the badlands where the loot is buried than they learn that the Indians are on the warpath, adding to their woes. Jake tries to escape at one point, but Clint is just too sly for him. Eventually, when they reach the ramshackle ghost town where Jake buried the money, we learn he stashed it in the local cemetery, anticipating a similar burial of stolen gold in Sergio Leone's "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly."Three-time Oscar winning lenser Robert Surtees of "PT-109" and "Thirty Seconds over Tokyo" photographed this western in widescreen and it looks terrific! Some of the long shots will just blow your mind, but then anybody who watches Sturges' westerns will know that the director loved to shoot really long, long shots. Ferris Webster, another Sturges' favorite, edited "The Law and Jake Wade." The screenplay by William Bowers of "Support Your Local Sheriff" provides some flavorful dialogue. Widmark excels as the villain. The last shoot-out seems to prematurely end, still "The Law and Jake Wade" ranks as one of those memorable, widescreen western from the 195os. Okay, "The Law and Jake Wade" isn't the greatest western ever made, but it is competently-down, suspenseful and a wonderful way to burn 86 minutes.