About Angel and the Badman (1947)
The story behind the film
By the mid-1940s John Wayne was a major star, and Angel and the Badman was the first film he produced himself. He gave the writing and directing job to his friend and frequent screenwriter James Edward Grant, and the result is an unusual Western: one that is more interested in peace than in gunfights.
Wayne plays Quirt Evans, a notorious gunslinger who collapses, wounded, outside the homestead of a Quaker family. The Worths take him in, and their daughter Penelope (Penny) nurses him back to health. As he recovers, Quirt falls in love with Penny and is drawn to her family's gentle, non-violent way of life — but his past is close behind, in the form of the outlaw Laredo Stevens, who has a score to settle, and Marshal McClintock, who is waiting for Quirt to slip up and hang.
Cast & crew
- Written and directed by James Edward Grant; produced by John Wayne
- John Wayne as Quirt Evans
- Gail Russell as Penelope "Penny" Worth
- Harry Carey as Marshal Wistful McClintock
- Bruce Cabot as Laredo Stevens
- Irene Rich as Mrs. Worth
- Released by Republic Pictures
Why it's worth watching
Angel and the Badman is a gentle, romantic and often funny Western with a genuinely different message. Much of the drama comes not from shootouts but from Quirt's struggle between the man he has been and the man Penny believes he can become. Gail Russell is luminous as Penny, whose quiet certainty unsettles him far more than any rival gunfighter, and the scenes on the Worth farm — sharing meals, attending a Quaker meeting — are warm and charming.
Harry Carey, a Western star from the silent era and an old friend of John Ford's, is excellent as the patient marshal who keeps turning up with a rope.
If you only know Wayne from his later, tougher roles, this is a lovely surprise: one of his most relaxed and vulnerable performances.
Fun facts
- The film was a departure for the genre: its climax deliberately subverts the expected final showdown.
- Harry Carey's son, Harry Carey Jr., later became a regular in John Ford and John Wayne Westerns.
- Colourised versions of the film exist; Starlite TV broadcasts the original black-and-white version.
Public-domain status
The film's copyright was not renewed 28 years after release, so it entered the US public domain in 1975 and is listed among US public-domain films. See "Rights & source" below.