3 Bad Men

After John Ford scored a major hit with his 1924 westward expansion epic The Iron Horse, he returned to the Old West and the theme of the settling of the frontier two years later with 3 Bad Men. George O'Brien stars as Dan O'Malley, a hard-working Irish immigrant who heads west to stake his claim in the Dakota Territory, and silent movie beauty Olive Borden is Lee Carlton, the daughter of a Southern colonel. The titular three bad men are outlaws who sign on as Lee's self-appointed guardians when her father is murdered by rustlers, and they play matchmaker after they hire the courageous and chivalrous Dan as another hand. It's a classic American tale of immigrant opportunity, outlaw redemption, and two-gun justice in the face of a corrupt sheriff (a slick, sleazy Lou Tellegen) who uses his office to cheat, rob, and murder the naïve settlers. The third act is a thrilling dramatization of the Dakota land rush of the 1870s, with hundreds of civilians on horseback and in wagons racing to stake out what they hope will be a gold-laden claim, or at least a homestead on which to start a new life. 3 Bad Men is rather sentimental, but it is also a rousing story of the American Dream on the frontier, set against a grand landscape. Ford scholar Joseph McBride, who here contributes an informative audio commentary, calls it Ford's finest silent movie. Recommended. (S. Axmaker)