Angel and the Badman (1947 American Western film)

Angel and the Badman is a 1947 American Western film written and directed by James Edward Grant and starring John Wayne, Gail Russell, Harry Carey and Bruce Cabot.

The film is about an injured gunfighter who is nursed back to health by a young Quaker woman and her family whose way of life influences him and his violent ways.

Angel and the Badman was the first film Wayne produced as well as starred in and was a departure for this genre at the time it was released. Writer-director James Edward Grant was Wayne's frequent screenwriting collaborator.

Cast

John Wayne and Gail Russell
John Wayne as Quirt Evans
Gail Russell as Penelope Worth
Harry Carey as Marshal Wistful McClintock
Bruce Cabot as Laredo Stevens
Irene Rich as Mrs. Worth
Lee Dixon as Randy McCall
Stephen Grant as Johnny Worth
Tom Powers as Dr. Mangram
Paul Hurst as Frederick Carson
Olin Howland as Telegraph Operator Bradley
John Halloran as Thomas Worth
Joan Barton as Lila Neal
Craig Woods as Ward Withers
Marshall Reed as Nelson
Paul Fix as Mouse Marr (uncredited)
Hank Worden as Townsman (uncredited)
Louis Faust as Hondo Jeffries (uncredited)
Symona Boniface as Dance Hall Madam (uncredited)

Production
Filming
Principal photography took place from mid-April through late June 1946, in Flagstaff and Sedona, Arizona, and in Monument Valley in Utah.

Soundtrack
"A Little Bit Different" (Kim Gannon and Walter Kent) by Joan Barton
"Darling Nelly Gray" (Benjamin Russell Hamby) by Joan Barton and Lee Dixon

Production credits
Director – James Edward Grant
Producer – John Wayne
Writer – James Edward Grant
Music – Richard Hageman (musical score)
Cinematography – Archie Stout (photography)
Art direction – Ernst Fegté (production design), John McCarthy Jr. and Charles S. Thompson (set decorations)
Second unit director – Yakima Canutt
Editor – Harry Keller
Musical director – Cy Feuer
Sound – Vic Appel
Costume design – Adele Palmer
Special effects – Howard and Theodore Lydecker
Makeup supervision – Bob Mark
Hair stylist – Peggy Gray

Song
In 1993, Johnny Cash wrote and sang a song inspired by this film called "Angel and the Badman".

Reception
Upon the film's release, The New York Times reviewer wrote, "Mr. Wayne and company have sacrificed the usual roaring action to fashion a leisurely Western, which is different from and a notch or two superior to the normal sagebrush saga." The reviewer continues:

James Edward Grant, who wrote and directed the story, has included the gun fights, slugging melees and scenic pursuits necessary to fill out the yarn. But mainly, he has portrayed the change in Quirt Evans, a feared triggerman of the frontier southwest, who, when wounded, is not only nursed to health but subtly won over by Penelope Worth and her Quaker philosophy.

The reviewer concludes, "John Wayne makes a grim and laconic, converted renegade, who is torn by love, a new faith and the desire for revenge on an arch enemy. Gail Russell, a stranger to Westerns, is convincing as the lady who makes him see the light."

Remake
The film was remade in 2009 for the Hallmark Channel by Terry Ingram, with Lou Diamond Phillips playing Quirt Evans and Wayne's grandson Brendan in a cameo appearance. The remake also stars Deborah Kara Unger as Temperance, Luke Perry as Laredo, and Terence Kelly as Thomas.

Angel and the Badman also inspired two other successful "fish out of water" films: Witness (1985) starring Harrison Ford,[8] and The Outsider (2003), starring Tim Daly and Naomi Watts.