After being freed from prison, The Dutchman (Alan Ladd) and John McBain (Ernest Borgnine) return to Prescott, the mining town where their problems began.
The Dutchman is a geologist and an expert at finding gold. The mine owner he worked for framed him for stealing a gold shipment rather than paying him the promised share of the gold he found.
McBain owned the land where Prescott’s richest mind is located. But he was cheated out of the land, and sent to prison for killing a man in a fight over it.
Now the Dutchman wants to get even; McBain just wants a job as a cowhand. And both find they’re unwelcome in Prescott.
Naturally, they wind up throwing in together.
The Dutchman’s devious plan calls for sneaking into a closed portion of the mine, blasting out several bags of gold and swapping it to Cyril Lounsbery, the man who married the homely woman who owns the mine, but wouldn’t mind dumping her for a the much younger and much prettier woman he hides in a hotel room. If he could just get a big payday.
That’s what the Dutchman and his partners, McBain and a Mexican powder monkey named Vincente, are offering.
In return, they want $100,000. But to get the gold, they’re going to have to blast it out of a mine with rotting timber.
And even if that goes as planned, will Lounsbery hold up his end of the bargain?
Alan Ladd as Peter Van Hoek, aka The Dutchman, returning to Prescott for a measure of revenge after spending time in prison in The Badlanders (1958)
Ernest Borgning as John McBain, trying to make a new life for himself as a stint in Yuma Prison in The Badlanders (1958)
Review:
“The Asphalt Jungle” goes west in this film, which means we’ve got a plot more unusual than in most Westerns of the period. But the result is just so-so. Let’s just say this isn’t one of the better Alan Ladd Westerns.
Speaking of unusual, lovely Claire Kelly has one of the strangest female roles you’ll find in a Western. She’s that girl-on-the-side that Lounsbery hides in a hotel room. He literally keeps her locked in that room, all so she can’t meet other men. This marked her only Western.
A more familiar female face is that of Katy Jurado, who plays a whore named Anita who McBain befriends, then falls for. The love scenes / talk between them is borderline ridiculous and help undermine the film.
Kent Smtih as Cyril Lounsberry, the man who’s married into a fortune and still wants more in The Badlanders (1958)
Anthony Caruso as Comanche, the half-breed hire gun working for Lounsberry in The Badlanders (1958)
Directed by:
Delmar Daves
Cast:
Alan Ladd … The Dutchman
Ernest Borgnine … John McBain
Katy Jurado … Anita
Claire Kelly … Ada Winton
Kent Smith … Cyril Lounsbery
Nehemiah Persoff … Vincente
Robert Emhardt … Sample, bar owner
Anthony Caruso … Comanche
Adam Williams … Leslie
Ford Rainey … Warden
John Daheim … Lee
Runtime: 85 min.
Katy Jurado as Anita, fearful McBain is about to find out about her real occupation in The Badlanders (1958)
Claire Kelly as Ada Winton, the mistress Loundsberry keeps locked in a room so she can’t meet other men in The Badlanders (1958)
Memorable lines:
Sheriff to the Dutchman: “Unless you want to see your own gravestone on your way to hell, you’ll be on the next stage.”
Lounsbery to Ada: “Would you love me if I wasn’t rich?
Ada: “Not as much. Would you love me if I wasn’t pretty?”
John McBain: “Seems like everybody around here is stealing from everyone else.”
Anita to John McBain: “You think I’m 16 years old and only dream of a man as pretty as a postcard. No. I see inside. And what I see inside is very good. I want you to stay here for a long time.”
Alan Ladd as Peter Van Hoek, aka The Dutchman, catching his first glimpse of the girl who’s always locked away in her room in The Badlanders (1958)
Adam WIlliams as Leslie, the hot-shot young deputy doing Lounsberry’s bidding in The Badlanders (1958)
Robert Emhardt as Sample, the man who runs a saloon and helps Loundsberry with his business interests in The Badlanders (1958)
Karl Swenson as the marshal who wants The Dutchman out of town as soon as possible in The Badlanders (1958)
Nehemiah Persoff as Vincente, the powder monkey, and Anna Navaro as his wife, alarmed when Lounsberry and his men come calling in The Badlanders (1958)
Ford Rainey as the warden, offering the Dutchman some advice and a five-dollar gold piece as he leaves Yuma Prison in The Badlanders (1958)
Richard Devon as the wise-cracking prison guard whose life The Dutchman saves in The Badlanders (1958)
Alan Ladd as Peter Van Hoek, aka The Dutchman, and Ernest Borgnine as John McBain, about to be released from prison in The Badlanders (1958)
Ernest Borgnine as John McBain with his new love Anita (Katy Jurado) in The Badlanders (1958)
Alan Ladd as Peter Van Hoek, aka The Dutchman, and Ernest Borgnine as John McBain, joining forces for a quick score in The Badlanders (1958)
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