A solid no-nonsense director, virtually the post-World War II master of the adventure movie (The Great Escape, 1963) and the big budget Western (Gunfight at the OK Corral, 1957), John Sturges excelled in staging exquisitely timed action sequences framed in visually exciting compositions. Actor Robert Ryan made a perceptive observation in 1955 when co-starring in Sturges' splendid Bad Day at Black Rock that the picture demonstrated "...the first good use of CinemaScope," a particularly perceptive comment considering that the process was still in its infancy.

Sturges, who began at RKO in the 1930s as an editor, had an instinctive knack for the new widescreen formats of the fifties, as evidenced by the aforementioned classic and The Law and Jake Wade (1958), wherein reformed outlaw Robert Taylor is methodically stalked by his psychotic ex-partner Richard Widmark (the latter in a role reminiscent of his landmark Kiss of Death debut in 1947). With sinister support from the likes of Henry Silva, Robert Middleton and DeForest Kelley, The Law and Jake Wade intertwines nail biting tension with breathtaking anamorphic photography to create a new kind of adult Western for fifties audiences, one that explores the psychology of the characters while depicting their acts of violence.

In the book, Peter Bogdanovich on the Movies (George Allen & Unwin), Sturges expressed his views on the genre: "Western characters must not be glamorized. I'm a Westerner myself, and I can tell you I don't go for that Stuart Lake baloney. You can't make a Western if it's pretty. The men look like chorus boys, for Christ's sake. Always use a lot of back lighting, and don't let the star talk too much. John Ford, you know, made John Wayne a star by not letting him talk. But the absolute must for a Western is isolation. The man must be God. And you've gotta take issues that can only be resolved by guns."

Director: John Sturges
Producer: William Hawks
Screenplay: William Bowers, based on the novel by Marvin H. Albert
Cinematography: Robert Surtees
Editor: Ferris Webster
Art Direction: Daniel B. Cathcart, William A. Horning
Cast: Robert Taylor (Jake Wade), Richard Widmark (Clint Hollister), Patricia Owens (Peggy), Robert Middleton (Ortero), Henry Silva (Rennie).
C-87m. Letterboxed. Closed captioning.

by Mel Neuhaus