I don't know what the producers had in mind, if anything, when they framed this Western. The title, "The Fiend Who Walked The West" sounds like a science fiction or horror movie. So does the background behind the opening credits: a silhouette of what appears to be Nosferatu, the vampire. And the music is from Herrmann's score for "The Day The Earth Stood Still." All of that -- whatever its intent -- could be disregarded if the movie were in any way original, but it isn't. It's a cold-blooded remake of the peerless noir tale, "Kiss of Death."
Even THAT could be disregarded if it were any good but it's inferior in every respect. In the part of Victor Mature, the put-upon and manipulated felon, we have Hugh O'Brian. He struts when he walks, his hips thrust forward, and when he's on screen all I could think of was that he resembled a more than usually supple totem pole. The guy has had a long career on film and TV. He was in "Twins" in 1988, and he STILL looked handsome and fit. There's no excuse for that.
And in the Richard Widmark part, the giggling murderer, we have baby-faced Robert Evans, later His Excellency Robert Evans, producer of such classics as "Chinatown." Evans has been excoriated for his performance, but it's not that terrible. It's that Widmark was incomparable. Widmark created an integrated personality that was cynical and sadistic, whereas Evans comes across as consistently weird. If Widmark insulted his women in public, Evans beats them to death. Add that Hollywood has greased Evans' hair and slicked it back. It has such a sheen to it that one feels it might glow in the dark. I can find no fault with the Argentine-born Linda Crystal. Who could? She's not as virginal as Colleen Gray in the original, but she's extremely appealing, both as a woman and an actress. Joe MacDonald's photography is at least up to par, which is saying a lot. He was pretty good.
The film ought to be judged on its own, I realize, but even so it's confusing and vague in its motivations and character. For instance, I don't know how Evans is able to figure out that O'Brien's escape from prison was a fake. He intuits it. It's especially disappointing because Harry Brown had a hand in writing the screenplay. He was a published poet and novelist ("A Walk in the Sun") and won an Academy Award for "A Place in the Sun."
There is no moral difficulty either. The good guys are good and the bad guys are bad. And a typical Hollywood ending is imposed on the story. It lacks all nuance. There is no scene that equals that in the original when Brian Donlevy, as the DA, cons convict Victor Mature into cooperating by comparing photos of their children. Showing the kids is part of a subtle scam to get Mature to be a snitch. In "The Fiend Who Walked the West," on the other hand, the sheriff, Stephen O'Malley, is on the side of the angels and nobody gets a chance to say to him with an arid smile, "Your side of the law is just as dirty as ours."
Even THAT could be disregarded if it were any good but it's inferior in every respect. In the part of Victor Mature, the put-upon and manipulated felon, we have Hugh O'Brian. He struts when he walks, his hips thrust forward, and when he's on screen all I could think of was that he resembled a more than usually supple totem pole. The guy has had a long career on film and TV. He was in "Twins" in 1988, and he STILL looked handsome and fit. There's no excuse for that.
And in the Richard Widmark part, the giggling murderer, we have baby-faced Robert Evans, later His Excellency Robert Evans, producer of such classics as "Chinatown." Evans has been excoriated for his performance, but it's not that terrible. It's that Widmark was incomparable. Widmark created an integrated personality that was cynical and sadistic, whereas Evans comes across as consistently weird. If Widmark insulted his women in public, Evans beats them to death. Add that Hollywood has greased Evans' hair and slicked it back. It has such a sheen to it that one feels it might glow in the dark. I can find no fault with the Argentine-born Linda Crystal. Who could? She's not as virginal as Colleen Gray in the original, but she's extremely appealing, both as a woman and an actress. Joe MacDonald's photography is at least up to par, which is saying a lot. He was pretty good.
The film ought to be judged on its own, I realize, but even so it's confusing and vague in its motivations and character. For instance, I don't know how Evans is able to figure out that O'Brien's escape from prison was a fake. He intuits it. It's especially disappointing because Harry Brown had a hand in writing the screenplay. He was a published poet and novelist ("A Walk in the Sun") and won an Academy Award for "A Place in the Sun."
There is no moral difficulty either. The good guys are good and the bad guys are bad. And a typical Hollywood ending is imposed on the story. It lacks all nuance. There is no scene that equals that in the original when Brian Donlevy, as the DA, cons convict Victor Mature into cooperating by comparing photos of their children. Showing the kids is part of a subtle scam to get Mature to be a snitch. In "The Fiend Who Walked the West," on the other hand, the sheriff, Stephen O'Malley, is on the side of the angels and nobody gets a chance to say to him with an arid smile, "Your side of the law is just as dirty as ours."