Wednesday, February 14, 2018

Review of "Angel and the Badman," VHS movie starring John Wayne and Gail Russell



Review of
Angel and the Badman, VHS movie starring John Wayne and Gail Russell

Three out of five stars
 This is not one of the best westerns starring John Wayne. It has the obligatory fight scene in a bar with Wayne and one of his friends taking on a group of opponents and there is some gunplay. However, the Wayne character does not go around shooting people.
  The plot is simple and predictable. Wayne plays Quirt Evans, the badman. His history is such that when he encounters the local lawman, the officer tells him, “I always looked forward to hanging you with a new rope.” When Quirt is injured while being chased, he encounters a Quaker family with a grown daughter named Penelope. They nurse him back to health and there is a growing love between Quirt and Penelope despite their different backgrounds and philosophies.
 Like all that follow the path of violence, Quirt never seems able to step completely out of it. The outlaws continue to pursue Quirt and he must decide whether to wield his gun again or give it up and win the girl. This is made more difficult as his enemies have no qualms with shooting him whether he is armed or not. They also do not care if Penelope gets in the way of a bullet.
 Since this is a Wayne movie made in the era where things must work out right, in this case they do. Events play out in a way where Quirt can get the girl and have a happy ending. Nothing memorable about that, yet in many ways a John Wayne character that is a farmer seems inappropriate.

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