Best of the Badmen

Though RKO Radio Pictures was, in 1951, still faithful to the concept of “B” westerns starring Tim Holt, the studio was more than capable of turning out an “A” oater from time to time. Best of the Badmen stars Robert Ryan as a former Union officer who persuades a fictional vigilante group which closely resembles Quantrill’s Raiders to lay down their arms and seek out new and honest lives. Ryan is undercut by shifty Pinkerton man Robert Preston, who wants to collect the rewards on the heads of the ex-vigilantes; to that end, he frames Ryan for murder. With the help of Preston’s embittered wife Claire Trevor, Ryan escapes and turns outlaw with the men whom he’d earlier convinced to turn honest. Best of the Badmen was produced in Technicolor, enhancing its already potent box-office appeal., Frontier drama set during the chaotic aftermath of the American Civil War, in which a former Union officer is forced to seek shelter with an outlaw gang that includes the legendary James and Younger brothers. The colonel and the badmen together are pitted against a corrupt detective whose mission is to send them all to the gallows., A former Union officer is double-crossed by a man who wants to collect the bounty on vigilantes the officer has convinced to go straight.