Having just seen much of this on Talking Pictures, it struck me that much of the later part of the film was shot in darkness – and I thought that disappointing.

City Of Bad Men is yet another 50s Western, with a good script, great cast and good looking production values.

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It is said that Dale Robertson stayed away from acting classes in the early days of his career, but that doesn’t show – he comes over very well in Westerns. We all know him for  Tales Of Well Fargo on TV, however  City Of Bad Men is well worth seeing.

Jeanne Crain looks lovely as always – she is a good actress with many films to her name – particularly at this time in the mid fifties. I recall her well coming to England – and location in Africa – for ‘Duel in the Jungle’ 1954 and that great Western ‘The Fastest Gun Alive’ with Glenn Ford. Both of these came quite quickly after this Western

Harmon Jones didn’t direct many features before heading to TV. His five Westerns — The Silver Whip (1953), City Of Bad Men, A Day Of Fury (1956), Canyon River (1956) and Bullwhip (1958) — are a credit to him. 

City Of Bad Men was produced by Leonard Goldstein, who produced films for Universal and 20th Century-Fox.

Much of the film was shot on the Fox lot, with the titles and opening scene making good use of Vasquez Rocks. This was a common location for Goldstein’s Westerns — his Cave Of Outlaws (1951) and Duel At Silver Creek (1952) also used them.

One of the utility stunt men on the film was Jack Young.

Jack Young recalls: “I doubled Lloyd Bridges on that. I did the saddle fall when they shot him. I doubled Richard Boone for the fall into the boxing ring — and that hurt! It was a fake ring and they didn’t have any give in it. It was only about eight or nine feet, but it hurt!

The above comments just underline what goes into the making of a film such as this – particularly a Western – where such happenings must have been on regular occasions

The Technicolor in the film is as impressive as you’d expect