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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