GARDEN OF EVIL
US, 1954, 100 minutes, Colour.
Gary Cooper, Susan Hayward, Richard Widmark, Cameron Mitchell, Hugh Marlowe, Rita Moreno.
Directed by Henry Hathaway.
Garden of Evil has biblical overtones in its title. However, this is a standard Western, enjoyable in its search plot and in the vigour of its stars. It was one of the first Cinemascope Westerns. Gary Cooper had made High Noon only two years before. Director Henry Hathaway has made numerous Westerns from the first colour Western, Trail of the Lonesome Pine (1936) to True Grit (1968) and Shoot Out (1971).
1. The meaning of the title as told by the priest in the film?
2. How good a Western was this? one critic said it was full of cliches, yet cliches excitingly done. Does this sum up the quality of the film or not? What conventions of the Western did the film use? Did it use them well?
3. How did the film illustrate the usual Western themes of greed, gold, heroism?
4. How did the film portray the usual Western theme of the nineteenth century drifter? How were the leading characters drifters?
5. Was the mission that they went on interesting, exciting, of sufficient importance to justify their going? How did the mission to rescue the man, John Fuller, give the structure for the film?
6. The character of Hooker - what kind of man was he, a hero, the upright Gary Cooper type of hero? His authority over the others, his taciturn nature, contrasting with the others, his respect for land and people, his knowledge of Indian customs, his helping of others and helping them to escape, his relationship to Leah?
7. Fiske - the Richard Widmark style gambler, his gambling nature, his motives for going on the mission, his relationship to Leah, his greed for gold, his heroism during the return, his cheating Hooker for some kind of self-respect, his death?
8. Luke Daley - the swaggering wanderer, a coward, his greed for gold, his impetuous reactions, the inevitability of his death?
9. Leah - was Susan Hayward's personality forceful enough to convince the audience that these men went on a mission on her behalf? Her motivation, her relationship with her husband? What was she trying to prove? What love was there? Her skill in leading the band? Her relationship with Fiske and with Hooker? Was her going off with Hooker credible at the end? Her husband - why was he so bitter? Did he try to prove himself to Leah and become more of a failure? The nature of his death?
10. The Mexican - what did he contribute to the cross section of the group going on the mission?
11. The importance of the scenery, the atmosphere for the film?
12. Did the film offer any insight into the nature of the West -life and death, isolation, the gambling of life and death, wealth and greed, the nature of heroism?
