User reviews

While Cooper's career spanned ninety-two feature films, in which he appeared as everything from a masked Cossack to an Italian Renaissance explorer, a foreign legionnaire, a baseball great and countless sophisticated romantic adventurers, he is best remembered as a Western star...

'Garden of Evil' tells the story of three American adventurers (Cooper, Widmark, and Mitchell) who are stranded in a Mexican fishing village after the ship that was taking them to California is put out of commission...

All three were headed for the Californian gold rush... Instead, they are now in Puerto Miguel, approached by a woman in trouble, a Spanish-speaking American woman, Leah Fuller (Susan Hayward), who offers to pay them handsomely if they escort her through hazardous Indian territory to rescue her husband who is hurt and trapped in a gold mine up there in the hills...

The mention of gold makes them agree and, together with a Mexican macho man named Vicente (Victor Manuel Mendoza), begin their long, arduous journey...

Emotions become tense when Leah discovers Vicente marking trails and, later, finds herself fighting off the crude advances of one of the three soldiers of fortune...

When the group arrives at what the Indians call the Garden of Evil, a sacred grounds atop a high mountain where the mine is located, they found Fuller (Hugh Marlowe) still alive, but embittered and with a broken leg...

The group's troubles grow when they discover they are in danger, practically harassed by savage Indians...

"Garden of Evil" was Cooper first motion picture in CinemaScope... Along the way, he proves himself a powerful leader with a commanding performance...

Susan Hayward kept her thoughts and her affections pretty much of a secret, remaining skeptical about her motives... This was her second movie with Gary Cooper since her appearance in William A. Wellman's superb, high adventure 'Beau Geste,' and her third with director Hathaway...

Richard Widmark proceeds his ways of gambling with a neat line in cynical cracks; Cameron Mitchell fails in his unwelcome sexual advances; Hugh Marlowe uses a variety of both conscious and unconscious processes to deal with his angry feelings; Victor Manuel Mendoza gets intensely angry after being hit; and Rita Moreno delights the environment with her sweet voice...

Hathaway was one of the great Hollywood veterans still in harness, a versatile director whose Westerns have been as variable in quality as his other films... Filmed on location in Mexico, his 'Garden of Evil' is a beautiful spectacle to behold... The vistas are strikingly clear and vivid... The film is a well-done character piece, concentrating on the relationships of the characters as on the evil influence of gold...

... and I always round up when I'm at the halfway mark, just to explain. This is a fine watch in spite of the choppy script.

Cooper and Widmark's characters' boat breaks down on the way to the California gold fields--they have to stop in Mexico. They head to a local cantina. Susan Hayward comes in and says she is offering one thousand dollars in gold to anyone who will help her save her husband, who was trapped in a cave-in. She says the mine is right in the middle of cursed country called "Garden of Evil" - The film proceeds from there.

The uneven screenplay is credited to Frank Fenton. Bernard Herrmann contributed a score that supplies more drama than the screenplay; the handsome cinematography is credited to Milton Krasner and Jorge Stahl. Jr.

Widmark is especially good as the man who's not used to being a good guy. Cooper and Hayward are as effective as the script allows. The rest of the cast is adequate. Look for a young Rita Moreno in the cantina.

Critics yawned when the film was released, but it made a healthy profit, especially considering it cost around two million dollars to film. This is probably the most beautiful film Cooper made in the 1950's, and the most underrated.

This is a hugely underrated western as eccentric and individual as anything by Peckinpah or Boetticher. One of the early Cinemascope adventures from Fox, GARDEN OF EVIL has a superb cast at the top of their respective games, fantastic special effects, wonderful widescreen photography, and one of house composer Bernard Herrmann's very best scores (which is saying a mouthful). Best of all, it showcases an utterly unique screenplay full of strange, world-weary philosophy that sounds like Hemingway on acid. (Ironically, the chief writer, Fred Frieberger, is best known for producing the third and weakest season of the original STAR TREK -- notorious for its bad writing). At any rate, check this one out the first chance you get. Years of bad pan & scan showings on TV have destroyed its reputation -- but if you ask me, GARDEN OF EVIL is a gem waiting to be discovered, if not a cult waiting to be born!

Gary Cooper, Susan Hayward, and Richard Widmark are on a trip through the wilds of Mexico in search of gold. Hayward's husband was injured in a cave-in at the mine, and she has offered the party a share of the wealth if they will help her injured husband. It sounds simple enough, but there's only one small problem--a band of Apaches that are on the hunt for white scalps. However, the lure of the prospects of wealth spur the group on to the mine, and they reach the mine, save the husband, but now face the dangers posed by the Apaches.

Each character offers some sense of presence to the film; Cooper is able to portray the silent, strength of character person, while Widmark adds a philosophical, yet cynical, view of life in his role as Fiske, a gambler. Cameron Mitchell and a Mexican guide are along, with each hoping for the gold, and the good life it will bring. And, each person has to face the danger posed in the "Garden of Evil." Susan Hayward manages to keep the group together, but only till they reach the mine. After that, it becomes a tale of who will survive.

A trio of American drifters formed by a veteran ex-sheriff named Hooker (Gary Cooper) , a card player named Fiske(Richard Widmark) and a gunfighter , Luke Daly (Cameron Mitchell) going to California and marooned in rural Mexico are recruited by a beautiful woman named Leah Fuller (Susan Hayward) who offers a strong reward to rescue her husband named John Fuller (Hugh Marlowe) from vengeful Apaches . Fuller is wounded in a gold mine on a territory occupied by Indians. The three adventurers accompany the woman , but for the trip their feelings are turning .

Leisurely and deliberately paced , at times thrilling and tense classic Western whose plot follows hazardous trails , though sometimes is slow moving. Based on a story by F. Freiberger and Tunberg was filmed in Mexican scenarios , for that reason play some Mexican actors as Victor Manuel Mendoza and Rita Moreno as gorgeous dancer in her film debut. It's considerably boosted by the main cast formed by a perfect trio as Cooper , Hayward and Widmark who add stature to the screenplay . The amusing results to be the guessing in which order the main roles get killed off . This was the only Gary Cooper film shot in Cinemascope and his partenaire was Susan Hayward , both of them had formerly played when were very young ¨Beau Geste¨(1939) . Colorful cinematography perfectly remastered by Milton Krasner and Jorge Sthal , spectacularly filmed on Mexican landscapes , though also contains some matte paintings of the cliffs . Impressive and suspenseful musical score by the classic Bernard Herrmann , Alfred Hitchcock's usual . ¨Garden of evil¨failed in Box office and did't obtain success as public as reviews ; however , being today best considered .

The motion picture is professionally directed by Henry Hathaway . Henry was a craftsman and expert on Western genre as he proved in ¨Shoot out , True grit , Five card stud , Nevada Smith , Sons of Katie Elder , How the West was won , Rawhide , Brigham Young , Buffalo Stampede¨ and of course ¨Garden of evil¨. Rating : nice Western that will appeal to Gary Cooper fans.

This brooding western has an uneven pace and meanders in places but is no less interesting because of the star power of Gary Cooper, the film's centerpiece. The movie is a grim, spare adventure of a party of mercenaries who journey into Indian country for the promise of gold to save a woman's husband who's trapped in an abandoned mine. Susan Hayward has her own personal demons and searches for redemption for destroying her husband's self-esteem and private demons weigh her down throughout the picture. The film tends to preach at times and has a moral about gold, greed and sacrifice. Richard Widmark has a role that seems to have been tailored for him as a cynical cardsharp and quick-draw loner who's as much a mercenary as is Cooper but not quite as noble. Cameron Mitchell has a thankless role as a weak-willed bounty hunter who seems tough enough until his bluff is called. Rita Moreno appears briefly and warbles a pretty tune in a saloon, and Bernard Herrmann contributes a fine music score.

A bit of a waste of a terrific title, although it captures the sour tone of the piece, with some remarkably graphic violence; including a punch-up in which Coop's opponent eye-wateringly falls not once, not twice, but THREE times into a fire.

Handsomely shot on location in CinemaScope, with Susan Hayward as the haughty heroine with her hands on her hips (described by sneering Richard Widmark as "like something hammered out of silver"), an exotic young Rita Moreno (still recently going strong in Spielberg's remake of 'West Side Story') and a score by the one and only Bernard Hermann.

I'm having a problem understanding all the reviewers who call this film 'under-rated'. In fact, for me at least, the reviews it received are, if anything, a little too high. I love Cooper and Widmark generally as actors but Cooper's performance is wooden and he seems to be just reading his lines in places while Widmark is a caricature of the gambler/adventurer and comes across as unreal. Hayward is HORRIBLY miscast as a tough, resourceful woman and we never do see the love and devotion that is supposed to be driving her to rescue her 'husband'...she sure doesn't otherwise act like a devoted wife. The writing, despite the normally skilled writers is quite lackluster and bland and there are far too many long shots which do nothing for the story development and are just window dressing and filler using the lovely landscape shots. The scene involving Cooper putting a whooping on our young bounty hunter is laughably pathetic as he falls and STAYS down in the fire over and over......cringingly terrible and I couldn't help but laugh out loud. I think this movie was justifiably overlooked by time....it's a second rate effort by otherwise skilled actors and it's clear they didn't 'gel' at all.

Filmed on location in the volcanic deserts and banana jungles of central Mexico, this film quickly escapes Western routine through its effective use of complex characterization and unusual scenery. The sweeping musical score and other worldly backgrounds establish an epic atmosphere. The background painting used in the opening credits and again in the "gold mine" sequences strongly recalls the paintings of Frederick Churchward. Mysterious and unattainable Susan Hayward leads an odd assortment of morbidly pensive adventurers in a mortal quest. As the characters' hidden pasts unravel, they sacrifice themselves, one by one, to assure the party's escape from hostile Indians. We are reminded that a society's least wanted members may be its most most willing defenders. Beneath the big screen Western flash, this is a film about loyalty and responsibility. Cooper's ending speech says it all.

Three men are stranded in a tiny Mexican town when the ship they are on that is bound for California (during the Gold Rush) breaks down and they must wait for it to be repaired (which will take weeks). While in a cantina, these men (Gary Cooper, Richard Widmark and Cameron Mitchell) are approached by a frantic Susan Hayward who is trying to recruit men to follow her into Apache territory to rescue her husband who is trapped following a mining accident. Only these three men and a rather disreputable Mexican agree to go with her after promises of $2000 each for their services.

Along the way, it is slowly (and not unexpectedly) revealed that several of these men have larcenous intent and may be untrustworthy. This entire portion of the film seemed very ordinary and took very few risks--making it seem a lot like many other films of the genre (such as Cooper's THEY CAME TO CORDURA). Additionally, it unfolded rather slowly--so slowly that some may decide to just stop watching. This is sad because the last portion of the film works very well. Here, Gary Cooper and Richard Widmark are given good opportunity to finally flesh out their characters.

Overall, this is a slightly better than average Western. A good film for lovers of the genre, but rather skip-able to anyone else. However, the acting is good all around and the film ended well, so it's well worth a look.

By the way, one review says "where's the DVD?"--It was released some time back. Currently, it's bundled with two other Westerns (one, THE GUNFIGHTER, is amazing and worth the cost alone). Additionally, when I bought it, it came with these two other films AND several Mike Shayne detective films--all for about $12!! It's an amazing offer.

While Garden of Evil is not known to most film fans, it is a favorite of many. Everything about this film is great. The scenery, the music, the incredible cast. Unlike today's films it has lots of say about greed, heroism, love between men, loyalty, and betrayal. It also has more great lines than most movies - all

delivered brilliantly by Susan Hayward, Gary Cooper and Richard Widmark.Here are some as I remember them (not necessarily accurate). Susan to Coop: You need me. Because without me, Mister, you're lost. And when you're lost in this country, you're dead. Widmark to Coop: See that. Every night the sun goes down, and it always takes someone with it. Tonight it's me. Coop to himself: If the earth would made of gold, men would kill for a handful of dirt.

This should be on list of the ten best westerns, right up there with Shane and The Searchers

Something much more could have been made of this story, but apparently Henry Hathaway went ahead and directed this meandering tale without his usual enthusiasm for stark adventure laced with a morality tale about gold and its effect on men.

SUSAN HAYWARD rounds up three men to escort her through dangerous territory in Mexico, circa 1850s, so that she can redeem herself by rescuing her husband, hurt in a mining accident. Gold prospectors GARY COOPER, RICHARD WIDMARK and CAMERON MITCHELL agree to escort the woman, all of them aware of her allure and equally lured by the money she offers them for their help.

Once again, GARY COOPER gets to play his heroic man of a few words, rising to the occasion especially at the climax when he proves himself a true hero. Only fault here is that Cooper seems bored most of the time rather than just quiet.

SUSAN HAYWARD, on the other hand, gets to toss that mane of red hair frequently, striking poses that seem provocative while she remains as aloof as possible in the manner with which she treats the men. RICHARD WIDMARK plays the contrasting role to Cooper's hero, cynical and sneering when delivering his most pointed remarks. CAMERON MITCHELL gets to do some over-acting as an unpleasant man with his mind on seducing Hayward while chewing the scenery.

Although much of the film was shot on location in various Mexican locales, some of the night scenes have a strictly stagebound studio look that the CinemaScope camera cannot disguise. The talky script makes the story a lumbering one when it should be taut with suspense, although Bernard Herrmann's score captures some of the tension that should have been in the script.

Summing up: With neither Cooper nor Hayward at their best, there's something artificial about the whole thing.

Hooker (Gary Cooper), Fiske (Richard Widmark) and Luke Daly (Cameron Mitchell) are stranded in the dusty town of Puerto Miguel, Mexico when their ship breaks down. It will take weeks to fix. Leah Fuller (Susan Hayward) comes to town in need of men to rescue her husband John Fuller (Hugh Marlowe) who is trapped in their mine. Despite the threat of Apache attacks, the three Americans are lured by the promise of $2000 each and they are joined by Vicente Madariaga (Victor Manuel Mendoza).

This could be remade into a great modern dark gritty thriller. The adventure is there. The romantic entanglement could be remade into something creepier and more sinister. The combination of Widmark and Cooper is great. I don't really like some of the old fashion sensibilities. This could have been amazingly dark if the characters are more stripped down to their greedy selfish cores.

Given the choice between Gary Cooper, Richard Widmark, and Cameron Mitchell, who would you choose? Richard Widmark, duh! Watch Garden of Evil to see if Susan Hayward is as smart as you are. In the film, the three Americans are shipwrecked on the coast of Mexico, on their way to search for gold in California. Susan Hayward storms into town and offers $1,000 a piece if they ride with her back to a collapsed goldmine and rescue her husband. At first, Dick and Gary are only interested in the money, but soon they join Cameron's camp and start to notice the beauty of their travelling companion.

I love Susan Hayward, so I was looking forward to some seriously steamy scenes with her and hunky Richard Widmark, but it wasn't that kind of a movie. There are battle scenes against the Apaches, a mysterious storyline, and a love triangle that will keep you on the edge of your seat, but that's all. While Susan is tough and sexy, Gary is monotonous and boring. The fact that he's even in contention is a puzzlement. If you like Suzy or Gary, or 1950s westerns, feel free to rent this one. It's not my favorite though, probably because I've only liked Gary Cooper in a couple of films, and this isn't one of them.

The previous well done assessment of this film needs little further comment, except why has it not been put back into the loop as a wide-screen DVD? This movie is not one which plays often on the TV; I cannot recall having seen it in the last 30 years. The film and cast are excellent. Perhaps the film's flaw is the fact that it is not very well know as compared to some of the nonsense served up by John Wayne. Gary Cooper has made some really great films, and this is certainly one of them. Susan Hayward is always a delight for the eyes, and the Mexican scenery is most imposing. The one image which remains strongest in the mind about this movie is how, when, and where the Indians, single out which members of the rescue party are to be killed (one by one). I hope the industry which provides us with new DVD's every Tuesday will finally wake up and put this fine piece of work out on the shelf for sale where it belongs.

Above average western yarn complete with an array of fine actors and a script rich in symbolic metaphors.

The cast features the likes of Gary Cooper, Richard Widmark, Susan Hayward, Cameron Mitchell, and Hugh Marlowe. Characters are deep and well-defined, in a superior character study of some of the deadly sins that destroy a person's mind and kills them, both spiritually and physically. Hayward is spot-on in her portrayal of a gold-digging femme fatale who turns strong men to jelly without even trying. Throughout the film, however, there is a hint she may have been misunderstood. Each of the men has his own individual weakness and demons.

She hires four men to rescue her husband from a mine shaft where he has been injured, and is under siege from an Indian tribe. She offers them gold from that mine as a reward, and their greed seals the contract. Look for cleverly utilized symbolism; my favorite is the town wiped out by a volcano-except for two things: a church steeple that rises above the destruction, and a gold mine hidden underground below the destruction. As you watch the movie, you'll see many more.

The inevitable battle with the hostiles provides plenty of good, old fashioned western action. It also has the film's only real weakness: it's glaringly obvious who's going to "get it," and the order of when they meet their ends. Epitaphs of lower status characters are written on the wall as soon as their usefulness to the story is completed.

It's a worth-while story, and well told. Certainly western fans will like this, but other viewers will, as well.

From the boring, wooden dialogue to the overdramatic and contrived tensions between the main characters, this movie feels like a shameless attempt to cash in on it's own star power. It's supposed to be a parable about greed but the greed lies with the studio who produced it. The dialogue is really bad to the point in some places where it feels like they just cut in pasted from various B westerns. There are no sympathetic characters. Even the great Gary Cooper comes off as a caricature of his other roles in better movies like High Noon. After watching it, I can't even decide if Susan Hatworth's leading lady is supposed to be a self-sacrificing, devoted wife, or a cold and calculated sociopath. The one good thing about this movie is the cinematography. This is a beautiful movie with grand portraits of landscapes and sunsets. That said, the best way to enjoy this movie may with with the volume muted. :-)

Coop and two other Americans heading around the cape to California, find themselves stranded in a hole in the wall village on the Mexican coast for several weeks while the ship they are sailing dropped anker for repairs.

A desperate woman arrives at the cantina looking for men to help rescue her husband trapped in their gold mine. The mine is deep in Indian territory and she offers them $2000.00 each to follow her into a land where white men go in but few come out.

Following her deeper into the bowls of h___ they each plan on taking the lady and the gold for themselves......the Indians have made other plans.

Garden of Evil is just plane good entertainment. If you see it listed on TV make time to sit down and watch it. You won't be sorry.

This is one of thousands of great movies, western classics, drama and film noir that the bean counters in Hollywood have failed to put out on DVD. It's an even bigger shame that this movie didn't even make it to VHS.

A desperate woman (Susan Hayward) hires three gringos and a Mexican to help save her husband (Hugh Marlowe) trapped in a gold mine several days away in the volcanic jungles of Mexico. The men she enlists are played by Gary Cooper, Richard Widmark, Cameron Mitchell and Víctor Manuel Mendoza. Rita Moreno has a memorable bit part singing a song at a saloon.

"Garden of Evil" (1954) is an unusual 50's Western in that it takes place completely in former Aztecan areas of Mexico. The sceneries of the coast, jungles, deserts and (authentic) volcanic zones are magnificent and augmented by Bernard Herrmann's score, which was his only one for a feature-length Western. The movie was remade as "Find a Place to Die" 24 years later, one of the few truly worthwhile Spaghetti Westerns due to its somber tone and quality characters rather than caricatures typical of Italo Westerns.

This is basically a trail movie (the Western version of a road movie) in that a lot of the story consists of a small group traveling the imposing wilderness, similar to "The Train Robbers" (1973), but with jungle footage.

The film runs 1 hour, 40 minutes, and was shot in Mexico as follows: The "colonial town" of Tepatzlan; the jungle areas alongside the Los Concheros River near Acapulco; Parícutin Mountain, which was surrounded by black volcanic sands; and the village of Guanajuato; meanwhile interior scenes were shot at Churubusco Studios in Mexico City.

GRADE: B

Lovely Susan Hayward comes to town looking for a few good men. They're in short supply in that Mexican town so she takes what she can get. Her husband, Hugh Marlowe is trapped in their mine with a broken leg and surrounded by Apaches. She hires Gary Cooper, Richard Widmark, Cameron Mitchell, and Victor Manuel Mendoza to rescue him.

Of course it's the gold that's attracting these guys, but having Hayward along on the trail is certainly diverting enough. They arrive at the mine with husband and Apaches still there.

There's little suspense here, mainly because the men fill out the casting stereotypes we've come to expect from them. I can't say any more on that subject lest I spoil the viewing if you're at all interested.

I can't wrap myself around the concept that Marlowe was even alive after a few days journey to town and back. It's what makes the rest of the film somewhat ridiculous in my eyes.

Still the stars perform admirably and they are the reason for watching Garden of Evil.