Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.5
Extras		3.0
Overall		3.5

Garden of Evil Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman May 25, 2016

After a series of uncredited or unseen (due to being deleted from the final cut) performances, Susan Hayward got her big break playing a smallish role in 1939’s Beau Geste, a part whch had originally been announced for Frances Farmer, before Farmer decided such an underdeveloped character didn’t merit her attention. Hayward and Farmer actually co-starred together a couple of years later in the little seen but quite interesting thriller Among the Living, an early noir-ish film where Hayward played a blowsy seductress, exactly the kind of part Farmer had spent the early part of her career trying to avoid (Farmer was consigned to playing the part of the “nice” girl in the film). In 1947, Hayward received her first Academy Award nomination for Smash-Up: The Story of a Woman, a film directed by Among the Living’s helmsman Stuart Heisler and which a couple of film historians have mentioned could well have been inspired (at least in part) by what were then still much reported incidents documenting the sad trajectory of Farmer’s mental health and alcohol issues. (Interestingly, Marsha Hunt, one of the gaggle of “starlets” signed by Paramount at around the same time as Farmer and included in tons of early publicity material with her, plays a supporting role in Smash-Up. Hunt is still going strong at 98 as of the writing of this review.) One way or the other, Smash-Up was a breakthrough of sorts for Hayward, with the now prominent actress receiving recurrent Academy Award nominations every two or three years (until her final triumph for I Want to Live! in 1958). Hayward had an undeniably seductive persona, a kind of sensuous quality that strangely wasn’t as overtly sexual as it was suggestive. That “come hither” persona is firmly on display in the somewhat turgid Garden of Evil, a 1954 opus which reunited her with her long ago Beau Geste star Gary Cooper. Garden of Evil is an intermittently exciting film where the characters at least occasionally seem to want to sit around and discuss things ad infinitum instead of actually doing something about them, an odd choice for an early CinemaScope outing that was obviously meant to capitalize on some stunning locations and an at least perceived action adventure Western ambience. If the film’s narrative never really amounts to much, Hayward, Cooper and co-star Richard Widmark are all in top form, supported by a nicely colorful aggregation of character actors including Cameron Mitchell, Hugh Marlowe, Victor Manuel Mendoza and (in what amounts to a cameo) Rita Moreno.

Garden of Evil almost seems like it might be going The Treasure of the Sierra Madre route in its setup, with three drifters joining forces to forage for riches in the wilds of Mexico. The two films are, however, manifestly different, with this film’s trio of adventurers actually starting out in Mexico, courtesy of being stranded there for reasons which aren’t overly detailed. This threesome includes Hooker (Gary Cooper), Fiske (Richard Widmark) and Luke Daly (Cameron Daly). The three don’t actually know each other, but join together after a quick trip to a watering hole (featuring a gorgeous Moreno as the “lounge singer”) leads to a potentially lucrative detour.

That opportunity comes courtesy of panicked wife Leah Fuller (Susan Hayward), who bursts into the cantina begging for help to rescue her husband, who’s badly injured back at a mine the two have been prospecting. When Leah plops down a rather large stack of cash in front of Hooker, he immediately agrees to help, followed quickly by Fiske and Daly. A Mexican bystander named Vicente (Victor Manuel Mendoza) also joins in the rescue party, and the quintet is soon off galloping across some incredibly scenic if also fairly treacherous (if you can believe a few matte paintings) territory.

The film seems to be hinting at some kind of nefarious subtext at several key junctures, including the relatively early trip to the mine, where Vicente is seen marking the trail for some unknown reason. There are also underlying tensions with the three Anglos in the group, perhaps fostered by the realization that there’s an extremely attractive woman right in front of them who may soon be available if her wounded husband hasn’t pulled through. Alas, that possibility turns out to be moot, at least for a time, when the group finally arrives at the mine to find that Leah’s husband John (Hugh Marlowe) is in fact still alive, albeit badly injured.

And it’s at this point that The Garden of Evil tends to tip over into soap operatic nonsense, though with the threat of an Apache attack lurking in the background just to establish the film’s Western bona fides. It turns out the marriage between Leah and John is not exactly a bed of roses (and/or a mine full of gold), and their strife begins to play into the overall emotional tenor of the entire group. If getting to the mine has been a gauntlet, getting out with the badly injured John is going to be even more difficult, especially since those nasty Apache are lying in wait.

Garden of Evil has some gorgeous scenery and lots of star power, but its story is lumbering and the fact that the whole “Indian” (as they’re referred to in the film) menace is handled largely from a distance (until a climactic showdown) makes the threat the team is facing somehow less desperate seeming. There’s not a ton of romantic chemistry between Cooper and Hayward, but the film perhaps makes its biggest misstep in assigning the “hothead” role to Mitchell instead of Widmark. What’s left is an often ravishing visual experience but one which may not connect on the visceral level its crafters intended.

Garden of Evil Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Garden of Evil is presented on Blu-ray with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.55:1. This relatively early Fox CinemaScope feature was lensed by Milton Krasner and Jorge Stahl, Jr., and was obviously designed from the get go to exploit some of the stunning Mexican locales that provide so much of the film's literal and figurative color. Speaking of color (ahem), while the vast majority of this transfer has rock solid blues and reds, flesh tones can be occasionally on the sallow side, as several of the screenshots accompanying this review detail. That tends to be relegated mostly to the early scenes (though it recurs later as well), and is probably the only thing the palette police may have to complain about. Occasional opticals struggle with both detail and density (see screenshot 12), understandably looking a bit ragged when compared to the bulk of the presentation. Other, perhaps slightly less understandable, moments crop up at rare intervals where the image simply doesn't have the sharpness and level of detail of even other shots in the same sequence (see screenshots 14 and 17 for two examples). Contrast is generally excellent (a couple of day for night shots were a tiny bit undercooked to my eyes), and the grain field looks natural and encounters no resolution issues. Damage is virtually negligible (I noticed one or two tiny anomalies like a miniscule scratch that appears for a second by Widmark's eye when he's on a horse galloping down a river in an early scene).

Garden of Evil Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Twilight Time has given audiophiles a glut of listening options with this release of Garden of Evil, and all of them sound fantastic. A DTS- HD Master Audio 5.1 mix slightly ups the ante in terms of surround activity and (especially) low end for Bernard Herrmann's towering score from the also included DTS-HD Master Audio 4.0 mix (recreating the four track stereo presentation of the original theatrical exhibition). A DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 mix is also included, and just for good measure (and/or measures—that's a musical joke), Herrmann's score is presented in DTS- HD Master Audio 3.0 as an isolated track option. Fidelity is superb across the board, and there's none of the phasing quality that sometimes attends rejiggered surround mixes.

Garden of Evil Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Isolated Score Track is presented in DTS-HD Master Audio 3.0.


• Audio Commentary features John Morgan, Steven C. Smith, William T. Stromberg and Nick Redman.


• Travels of a Gunslinger: The Making of Garden of Evil (480i; 13:26) contains some wonderful reminiscences by Gary Cooper's daughter.


• Henry Hathaway: When the Going Gets Tough. . . (480i; 11:41) profiles this probably underappreciated director.


• Susan Hayward: Hollywood's Straight Shooter (480i; 6:55) is a brief overview of some of the actress' work.


• TV Spot (480i; 1:05) emphasizes the "miracle" of CinemaScope, but rather amusingly features anamorphically squeezed imagery.


• Original Theatrical Trailer #1 (480i; 2:54) follows suit by touting both CinemaScope and Stereo, promising greater "audience participation" as a result.


• Original Theatrical Trailer #2 (480i; 2:48) again promotes the exciting new technologies the film was displaying.

Garden of Evil Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Garden of Evil may not exactly be rip roarin' entertainment in the most raucous Western tradition, but it provides a nice showcase for Hayward as well as Fox's ultra-hyped CinemaScope widescreen glories. This release sports excellent technical merits and an appealing supplementary package. Recommended.