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if their story seems completely bonkers, almost like a feverish work of fiction, you ain't heard nothing yet.

After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.

The story-telling is good with flashbacks.The film is both funny and heartbreaking. You smile in a scene and get a soulcrushing revelation in the next.

While it is a pity that the story wasn't told with more visual finesse, this is trivial compared to our real-world problems. It takes a good movie to put that into perspective.

In this one You get two Over-Rates for the Price of One. Director John Sturges and Actor Robert Taylor.Thankfully, this is a Sturges Film that is Rated Accurately. Slightly Above Average. Almost all of the Director's Movies, even the ones that are Considered Great, are really Only Slightly Above Average at best and Don't Hold Up all that well.Robert Taylor was a Movie Star and was Never Considered a Great Actor. Competent, with a Good Work Ethic, He was a Major Star for Decades. Here He's His Prototypical Wooden Self.Richard Widmark (playing Type as a giggling Psycho) seems to be Talking to a Wall as He Converses with Taylor. Henry DaSilva and DeForest Kelly, along with Patricia Owens are in Support and do OK.The Highlight of the Movie is the Indian Attack that is Staged Well and Violent for the Time, but the rest of the Movie is Stodgy and Lethargic with some Good Cinematography from Burt Surtees. The Post Indian Attack Drags On. Worth a Watch but Not a Must See. It can be Enjoyed by Western Fans.

The film is a little too short perhaps and the love interest subplot wasn't as well developed as it could have been. However, there is a lot to recommend The Law and Jake Wade. As a western and a film, it is fine and suitably tense, and I didn't mind the Indian attacks actually, they weren't outstanding but they weren't awful that they make you think "oh god this is appalling". Plus the climax, the Comache attack on a ghost town, I thought was well choreographed. The Law and Jake Wade is beautifully photographed, and the scenery is luscious. The score is lovely as well, and I was impressed with the clever screenplay and the acting. Robert Taylor I can find dull, like in Ivanhoe(that is of course my opinion) but he has enough charisma and grit to carry the picture, and Richard Widmark is all nasty and sneering as his adversary. John Sturges's direction is superb, and the story is very well-constructed. Overall, underrated and well done, not perfect but definitely worth watching. 8/10 Bethany Cox

The film begins with a man breaking into a jail (Robert Taylor) to rescue and old friend (Richard Widmark). Oddly, however, it turns out they aren't friends any more and you know that they'll soon reunite and blood will be shed. It turns out Taylor is a sheriff and Widmark is his old partner in crime. This, sadly, is about the only twist in the film that caught me off guard.Despite having Widmark and Taylor in the leads, this is yet another tired old Western--and in so many ways practically indistinguishable from the countless number made in the 1950s. That's because the film is so predictable and takes no chances--it's only assets are the stars. Plus, since it's by-the-numbers, you know that by the end of the film, there will be the clichéd shoot-out between Taylor and Widmark. And, in between, there is the rather dull girlfriend, the "hot-headed" young punk and an attack by addle-brained Indians--who, naturally, ride past the cowboys single-file in order to give them a better chance to shoot them! My advice is find a better Western to watch. While this one isn't bad, it sure isn't good. Plus seeing a middle-aged and paunchy Taylor playing the action hero is a bit of a stretch.My advice is to find a Randolph Scott western--particularly from the 1950s--his best and most exciting period. Now those are some westerns well worth seeing.

I just learned that Richard Widmark passed away at the age of 93. Widmark was on a short list of my all time favorite actors, sharing top billing with Fred MacMurray, George Peppard, and the brilliant (in my opinion) supporting actor Martin Balsam. The best actors seem to adapt their roles to themselves, so that they never lose their off-screen persona. Frank Sinatra was always himself in his movies, as was John Wayne. And so was Richard Widmark. Why do we like "bad guys" so much? Possibly because we get the feeling that in their private lives they are neither good nor bad, but rather, something even better: genuine. Richard Widmark never divorced. He outlived two wives, one marriage lasting 55 years until his first wife passed on. So we know he was not a loner, although his life style was private, as he never appeared on TV talk shows to promote his movies or himself. Buoyed by his inimitable personal qualities, he carved a unique niche for himself in film, and ran with it for a half- century.The Law and Jake Wade made a strong impression upon me, seeing it for the first time, as a 16-year old, shortly after its release in 1958. This film had a 3-D quality, and a horror film quality which really grabbed its audience, at that time. By 1958 the 3-D fad was long gone, but, I swear, when the Indians attacked Widmark's gang at night with bows and arrows, it seemed like 3-D revisited as the arrows seemed to be coming right through the screen at the audience. Even knowing it was a movie, I was petrified, so realistic is this scene. Unfortunately, this realism cannot be duplicated via DVD or any lesser medium. Abetting all this excitement is the contrast in style of Widmark and Robert Taylor. While Taylor had adopted family values and professional law man responsibility following his maverick Civil War renegading in partnership with Widmark, Widmark, as the years passed, would have none of the maturing and sobering process to which most men evolve, after having sown their wild oats. So that when Widmark and Taylor locked horns due to a conflict of interest and values, long after the war's end and the demise of their gang, there could be no reconciliation as their cross-purpose came to a head.Widmark's upbeat, anti-social mores neatly bounce off Taylor's low-key, conventional manner, right up to their inevitable show-down. And it doesn't matter whether Widmark prevailed in the end, his is the character which makes this an enduring film-going experience.*****