Garden of Evil (1954)

A ship full of fortune hunters bound for the California gold fields breaks down off the coast of Mexico, stranding a former sheriff named Hooker (Gary Cooper), a gambler named Fiske (Richard Widmark) and a bounty hunter named Luke Daly (Cameron Mitchell) in Porto de Miguel.

The three are bemoaning their bad luck when Fiske decides to tell Daly’s fortune with cards while they’re sitting in a saloon.

He draws a red queen, and in walks Leah Fuller (Susan Hayward) seeking help.

She and her husband have a gold mine in the wilds of Mexico, but he’s been trapped by a cave-in. She needs rescuers, and she’s willing to offer $2,000 per man.

The possibility of being led to a gold mine by a pretty redhead is too much for the three to pass up, and they sign on along with a Mexican named Vicente.

Little do they know they’re bound for a place the Indians consider sacred ground — the Garden of Evil, where a volcano buried a town and chased the white man from the country.

Getting to the gold mine isn’t easy; getting out will be even tougher. Leah’s husband John Fuller (Hugh Marlowe) has a broken leg. And the Indians are watching the tiny group’s every move.

Gary Cooper as Hooker, one of the man who agrees to try to rescue Leah’s husband in Garden of Evil (1954)

Susan Hayward as Leah Fuller, on a quest to save her husband in Garden of Evil (1954)

Review:

A mixed bag of a Western. On one hand, we have a beautiful looking film, a climatic showdown on the ledge of a canyon wall and the star power provided by the likes of Cooper, Widmark and Hayward.

On the other hand, there’s a script that has men tempted by a pretty girl and gold in long discussions about the meaning of life and what prompted them to make such a fool-hardy journey.

Yeah, don’t think too long about that either. It takes Leah days to summon help, days to travel back, yet her husband is somehow still alive and awaiting rescue, though bitter to the point where he thinks he’s been used by his wife as little more than a tool to find her a fortune.

Marlowe overacts badly in his role. Mitchell’s a bit better as the bounty hunter with a reputation for shooting them in the back, though his fistfight with Hooker — where he seems to repeatedly throw himself on a burning fire — mimics the film. Good idea, but it just comes off as a wee bit silly.

Rita Morena is sixth-billed, but has the tiniest of roles as a singer in the saloon where our adventurers gather after being stranded in Mexico.

Richard Widmark as Fiske, checking in on Leah in Garden of Evil (1954)

Hugh Marlowe as John Fuller, Leah’s husband, injured in a mine cave-in in Garden of Evil (1954)

Directed by:
Henry Hathaway

Cast:
Gary Cooper … Hooker
Richard Widmark … Fiske
Hugh Marlowe … John Fuller
Susan Hayward … Leah Fuller
Cameron Mitchell … Luke Daly
Victor Mendoza … Vicente
Rita Moreno … Singer

Runtime: 110 min.

Cameron Mitchell as Luke Daly, Richard Widmark as Fiske and Gary Cooper as Hooker, about to accept Leah’s offer in Garden of Evil (1954)

Rita Moreno as the saloon singer with Vicente (Victor Mendoza) looking on in Garden of Evil (1954)

Memorable lines:

Fiske to Hooker: “Hooker, what were you before you became an idiot looking for gold?”
Hooker: “An idiot without any.”

Hooker: “If earth was made of gold, men would be willing to die for a handful of dirt.”

Flake: “This is the way my luck’s running. I can speak two languages. But I’m trapped in a country that isn’t one of them.”

Flake: “I’ve found pretty women speak the same language everywhere.”
Hooker: “How about the ugly ones?”
Flake: “Never listened.”

Rita Hayworth as Leah Fuller, finding her husband alive upon her return to their mine in Garden of Evil (1954)

Hooker (Gary Cooper), Leah (Susan Hayward), Fiske (Richard Widmark), Vicente (Victor Mendoza and Daly (Cameron Mitchell) talk Apache signs in Garden of Evil (1954)

Luke Daly, when Leah is recruiting men to help rescue her husband: “Ma’am, the thing I’m afraid of, they haven’t found yet.”

Flake: “What did he (a priest) come here for?”
Leah Fuller: “For God. A little better reason than ours, wasn’t it?”

Hooker to Leah about Fuller: “You took him to far. You took him over his head. You made a coward of him, and he hates you for it. It could happen to any man — with a woman like you.”
Leah: “Any man?”
Hooker: “Well, almost.”

Hooker: “After all that any man says, it’s what he does that counts.”

Richard Widmark as Fiske, Gary Cooper as Hooker and Susan Hayward as Leah decide someone needs to stay behind in Garden of Evil (1954)

Gary Cooper as Hooker and Susan Hayward as Leah Fuller consider another rescue in Garden of Evil (1954)