Episode 125 - Garden Of Evil

The “Garden Of Evil” presents a fairly straight-forward and borderline run-of-the-mill story, set to an outstanding soundtrack and spectacular visuals. Gary Cooper puts in his usual excellent portrayal of a western gun man, Hugh Marlow gives a convincing performance as a desperate prospector, Richard Widmark plays the cranky suspicious card shark, Cameron Mitchell portrays a man with a sorted past and a soul that needs redeeming, Victor Mendoza plays a solid Mexican local trying to get the most of the adventure, and Susan Hayward carries them all away with her incredible performance as someone that will stop at nothing to achieve her goals. The music by Bernard Hermann, the on location scenery and Susan Hayward’s performance are clearly the stars of the show. Henry Hathaway does a competent job in the director’s chair. The movie is entertaining in the old Saturday double-feature sort of way.