Redwarmin This movie is the proof that the world is becoming a sick and dumb place

Supelice Dreadfully Boring

Nicole I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

Skyler Great movie. Not sure what people expected but I found it highly entertaining.

wmcarmody_1 I remember catching this little gem a while back on TCM very early in the morning. I've always enjoyed Berry, the proverbial "they don't make them like this anymore" kinda guy. It was a while later when I happened upon an article written about "The Most Undeserved Oscars Ever". It was based on the writers point of view, I guess, with some strong arguments to back up Their points. The most puzzling, was the Best Actor Oscar handed out to John Wayne for "True Grit". This was the writers point, and it's a GOOD one. The point is, John Wayne did an almost dead-on impression of Wallace Berry's "Bad Bascomb" through the entire movie, and got an Oscar for it....? I didn't give it a second thought until a recent viewing of "True Grit", and, well, It's pretty apparent. As to whether Mr. Wayne deserved the Oscar or not, I think it's amusing that the only time He didn't act like "John Wayne", he got an Oscar, and for doing an impression of Wallace Berry! Check it out for yourself, and you'll see it, too. I love both movies, but "True Grit" will never look the same to me again.

C.K. Dexter Haven By all accounts, Wallace Beery was a coarse and miserable A-hole off camera. It's no surprise the man lacked refinement, just look at him, but I hope he wasn't quite the jerk biographers have painted him since his death in 1949. I've always enjoyed watching Wallace Beery movies, if his personality was something less than desirable in real life you'd never know it from many of his films, where the man is just simply...lovable. And if it was only that way on screen, then that's all that really matters I guess. Beery played a persona that made him a good living, and he always delivered the goods once the cameras rolled.In Bad Bascomb, Beery is hilarious. He spits as many mouthfuls of funny dialogue as he spits his food. He also shows himself to have been a far better actor than he's remembered for as he emotes menace, sweetness, redemption and morosity with his craggy mug as good as any actor of his day. I defy anyone to dislike Beery in this film.The movie itself is at times unbalanced...moves between a children's film and a more conventional western, with all its back shooting nastiness, a little unseamlessly. But it was all shot outdoors on location and as Wagon Train movies go, this one has a fairly authentic look to it.Maybe not a great western, but it's great fun to watch Beery and Margaret O'Brien play off each other. The kind of sweetness reminiscent of Edmund Gwenn and Natalie Wood in Miracle in the 34th Street. One of Beery's must see roles. Well worth your time if you come across it on TCM.

aimless-46 Director S. Syvan Simon's 1946 film "Bad Bascomb" is truly amazing. As a western it is awful, almost as bad as the cheapest of the Republic features. Yet for all but the most cynical viewers the film is a real treat simply for the wonderful scenes between nine-year old Margaret O'Brien and 60 year-old Wallace Beery (and nicely complemented by Marjorie Main in a supporting role). These are so well written that they seem to have come from a different writer than the rest of the film. And fortunately their scenes together make up a sizable portion of the total.O'Brien was simply the cutest child actor in cinema history. And not only did she instinctively know how to act but she worked hard to master accents for her roles and she took direction very well. In "Bad Bascomb" Simon had her turn up the cuteness meter even higher than when she played Lady Jessica opposite Robert Young and Charles Laughton in "The Canterville Ghost". He knew exactly what he was doing because Beery's gruff and blustery performance balances it out quite nicely. Their scenes mostly involve her setting him up to deliver a series of absolutely priceless lines. The story (which is almost irrelevant) begins with Beery's title character being thwarted when his gang attempts a bank robbery. Bascomb and his sidekick Bart Yancy (J. Carol Nash) escape and attempt to leave the area with a Mormon wagon train heading for Utah. They discover gold hidden on the train and Yancy enlists a band of Indians to attack the wagons. This results in another of those silly ride-around-the-circled-wagons Hollywood Indian attacks and some additional action as Beery rides to a nearby fort so the cavalry can come and save the day. Like "Angel and The Badman" (made just a year later), the outlaw Beery is gradually won over by the loving girl although in this case it taps into fatherly rather than romantic love. The day-to-day journey of the wagon train is done very well but the larger scale action sequences are rather lame. Beery has an "obvious" double for the horse riding scenes and almost everything that involves physical movement. Nash's character is a bit discordant, as Yancy has a lot of nice guy moments that simply don't fit with what is supposed to be his true nature. And there is a "Shane" ending that probably should have been reworked. I suspect that the producers were trying to target two very different audiences with this film and ended up hurting its basic unity.But ultimately these defects don't really matter because of the slick performances of O'Brien, Beery, and Main. It's sentimental and contrived but it works. Then again, what do I know? I'm only a child.

smorose I found this a very interesting movie, and enjoyed Beery in his role. I was just surprised with the ending, I was expecting the Federal Officer to turn his back and let Beery return to the Wagon Train, but it ended with him riding off with the Officer. Not a traditional ending. Hope I didn't blow the ending for anyone.