Many motion pictures work on two levels – the way they read and the way they look. This is especially true of B-movies in the 1950s, when the studios would buy any old pulp screenplay and allocate a minimal budget with recycled sets and costumes, and yet turn over total creative control to a seasoned and professional director who used to be a big shot. This was the situation with virtually every Raoul Walsh picture from this period. He'd long since had his day, and his bosses gave him little more than turkey-material to shoot, and yet he continued to imbue every picture with the intensity and romanticism that had always been his hallmark.The Lawless Breed supposedly chronicles the career of real-life outlaw John Wesley Hardin. It announces itself as the result of "new research", and just as they used to say in Police Squad, only the facts have been changed. Hardin's two love interests, the names of people he killed, the number of children he had, not to mention his general character are all completely made up. Writers William Alland and Bernard Gordon have essentially invented a fictional character and given him Hardin's name. But the point of this is not to tell it as it really happened – this is a classic Western after all. The point is to give you a picture of the Old West and a typical Western hero as posterity has remembered them.And this is what makes it the sort of project Walsh would really get his teeth into. For Walsh, there was romance and nostalgia in the open plain. Look at how he begins the picture with rather confined shots of the town, with foreground business and buildings bordering the frame. Then when we cut to Hardin's childhood we are hit with the beauty of the wide open spaces. As opposed to the yellows and browns of your average Technicolor horse opera, this is an abundantly green West, and Walsh seems to have worked closely with cinematographer Irving Glassberg and art directors Bernard Herzbrun and Richard Riedel to bring this tone to the fore. Green here represents freedom, hope and the good life, and it either covers the screen or retreats to a distant corner as appropriate, even worked in as a reminder during indoor scenes, such as the tree outside the window when he visits Jane by night. In his monochrome pictures Walsh would often use lighting to chart the hero's rise and fall (They Died with their Boots on (1941) is a good example), and here he uses colour to the same effect. The bold greens give a warm and homely feel to Hardin's cherished dream of a farm, and whenever he drifts away from that dream we turn to stark off-whites.In the leading role Rock Hudson is a middling success. He's just too steady and self-assured to convince as the young, hot-headed outlaw. On the other hand, he develops very well into the older and wiser Hardin, and as he would later show in Giant (1956) his forte seems to have been playing middle-aged. As is typical in a Walsh Western, the rest of the cast are an appropriately motley bunch, with no shortage of dusty faces and grizzly whiskers. Even though their performances aren't exactly outstanding, John McIntire hits the right notes in his dual role as Hardin's father and uncle, and Julie Adams is tough and unglamorous enough to portray both the saloon lass she starts out as and country wife she becomes. Also worth a mention is a young Lee Van Cleef, in one of his numerous third-baddie-on-the-left appearances before he became a big star in Italy. Although Hugh O'Brien is ostensibly the leader of the Hanley clan, it's clear Van Cleef's menacing presence was being noticed, as he is given all the most threatening lines and bits of macho business.There's no escaping the fact however that as written The Lawless Breed is a rather lacklustre affair. The dialogue throughout is either corny or simply dull. A set-piece like Hardin continuing to play cards after being given an hour to get out of town doesn't seem able to decide whether it is being played for tension or for laughs. And yet there is a precious handful of moments which Walsh has been able to stage with pure and compelling visuals, such as the confrontation with the Hanleys on a windswept street or the ageing hero's bittersweet return to his home and family, and these are absolutely stunning. And such is Walsh's devotion to the feel of the picture even the most boring of scenes looks nice and fits in with the tone of the whole piece. The story may be a poorly-written rough-shod ride over the truth, but in its imagery The Lawless Breed has a beauty that is engaging and sincere.

Rock Hudson made his starring debut in Raoul Walsh's western saga "The Lawless Breed" about the life of notorious gunman John Wesley Hardin. "Circus World" Bernard Gordon penned the screenplay ostensibly based on Hardin's autobiography. Hudson delivers a robust performance, even to the point of playing Hardin as an older man. Nevertheless, not even a veteran director like Walsh who knew his way around oaters could do much for this solemn, rather dreary affair about the evils of lawlessness. The supporting cast is good, especially John McIntire who plays a duo role, and Julia Adams plays Hardin's dancehall girl wife. Glenn Strange, Hugh O'Brien, and Lee Van Cleef are a devilish trio that dog Hardin for the first half-hour until things settle down. The second half deals with Hardin being imprisoned for his crimes."The Lawless Breed" opens at the state penitentiary in Huntsville, Texas, as an older, but wiser John Wesley Hardin (Rock Hudson of "Bend of the River") leaves jail Sentenced to 25 years, Hardin has been paroled after 16 years. Before he climbs aboard a train to take him back to Alabama and his horse breeding ranch, Hardin stops off at the local newspaper office. He gives the editor a copy of his handwritten autobiography and asks him to read it and get back to him. Consequently, "The Lawless Breed" reverts from a chronological sequence of events to a flashback and remains that way for most of its 83 minutes.During the first half, we learn that John Wesley is a reckless boy who doesn't get along with his preacher of a father that loves to wield a bullwhip on his son. Wes Hardin's father was a preacher and a circuit rider. According to Wes, his father "was a strong, God-fearing man who carried his Bible like a six-gun and fought with the devil wherever he found him." When his intolerant father discovers that his son has purchased a revolver from his winnings at poker, he whips him and then storms out of the barn. An orphan who lost her family during the Civil War, Jane Brown (Mary Castle) has been living with the Hardins and cooking for them. Wes and she grew up together and he calls her as "the prettiest girl in Texas." Wes promises Jane that he wants to get a place of their own with green grass, water that runs all year around and a white painted house.Later that evening, after curfew, Wes rides into Bonham to sell his law books after his father has given him a whipping. He sits in on a card game with three fellows, among them Gus Hanley, and beats them. Gus objects that he didn't deal him a certain card. Gus (Michael Ansara of "Soldiers Three") pulls his pistol, but Wes beats him on the draw and kills him. Holding the shotgun-toting barkeeper at bay, Wes exits with his winnings. No sooner does he leave the saloon than he runs into trouble from the army of occupation. The Yankee troops try to corner him in town, but he eludes them. Gus' three brothers, Ben (Glenn Stranger of "House of Frankenstein"), Ike (Hugh O'Brien of "Red Ball Express"), and Dirk (Lee Van Cleef of "High Noon") show up to claim Gus' corpse. The U.S. Army vows to bring John Wesley to trial. Dirk steps forward and warns the army officer. "Mister, you ain't going' to need no witnesses," Dirk stipulates," 'cause there ain't going to be no trial." After he escapes from Bonham, Wes rides out to his Uncle John's ranch. John Clements is half brother to John Wesley's father. Wes joins Clements and his sons Jim (Dennis Weaver of "Gunsmoke") and Joe (Richard Garland) on a cattle drive to Abilene. The Hanleys Brothers trail Wes to Abilene and Wes kills Dirk in a gunfight. Walsh stages this brief shoot-out in a way bolsters the drama because the wind is blowing hard and objects attached to the surrounding buildings are making a lot of noise. Afterward, Wes resumes gambling in the saloon while he awaits the completion of a wedding dress for Jane. Wild Bill Hickok (Robert Anderson of "High School Hellcats") gets the drop on Wes, but Wes outfoxes the legendary lawman and Hickok allows him to stay in town for an hour.An hour later, Wes pulls out and returns to his father's ranch. Jane refuses to elope with Wes because she has promised Wes' father that he will marry them. Wes' father refuses to marry them until Wes is cleared of killing the Hanleys. The Army is pulling out and J.C. Hardin calls on a judge to clear things up. Wes agrees to turn himself in, but Ike prods a lawman, Sheriff Charlie Webb (George Eldredge of "Dead Reckoning"), into arresting Wes. When Wes resists arrest, Webb shoots him in the back. Wes kills him and Ike Hanley and heads back to his father's ranch. Jane refuses to have anything to do with Wes because he is a killer. The posse shows up at the Hardin ranch. The wounded Wes manages to escape but one of the posse kills Jane by accident. Hardin and his new girlfriend settle in Alabama under assumed names and live peacefully until certain Texans decide that Hardin must be found at any cost and incarcerated. Hardin receives a 25-year sentence, but the governor releases him after 16 years.Presumably, Universal Studios didn't give "The Lawless Breed" a big budget because there are no major set-pieces. The narrative plays out in saloons, ranches, and on the trail, but there aren't any sprawling scenes of carnage, etc. Formulaic pretty much summarizes the narrative. John Wesley is presented as a man wronged for a murder that he did not commit. His youthful vigor got him into later trouble and somebody in his life important to him died when a posse attacked his home.

Chronologically situated between The World in his Arms and Blackbeard the Pirate, and a year after the fine adventure Distant Drums (1951), this is a Raoul Walsh minor but right western, play by soft Rock Hudson and beautiful Julie Adams. Correct, ascetic, vivacious -like the majority of Walsh movies- it tell us the lawless John W. Hardin story based on his autobiography. A entertaining film with no problems or pomp. Nimble. It has got efficacious supporting actors.

It was made to a formula and revolves around most of the cliches in the Western handbook but it was hard not to enjoy this film.It is based on the life of the famous Texan John Wesley Hardin. His youth was shaped by the Civil War and by his preacher father. When his father forbids him to practise shooting young Wes reckons its about time to leave home and seek his fortune. Almost immediately he kills a local gunslinger and plunges into the life of a rootin tootin cowboy, gambler and outlaw.It has a classic opening a dignified man walking out of the prison gates, shaking hands with the warden and sniffing the air of freedom. It has an equally recognisable ending, back at the ranch to see how his wife and family have managed during the long years of incarceration. The final scenes of the film are lovely, it won't spoil the film to say he learned from his experiences and lived a long and happy life.There is nothing new in this film. Although it claims to be an autobiography, it is one of countless 1950's Westerns with a theme of a young man seeking adventure and finding redemption. The real strength of the movie is its star Rock Hudson, barrel chested and manly, who shoots, rides, kisses, gambles and drinks as well as any of his contemporaries. One of the baddies is a young Lee Van Cleef who easily steals scenes from his fellow wrong-doers.It won't change your life, the way "Shane" might have done but it won't hurt you to watch it, and to remember Rock Hudson in the way he should be remembered.