The story concerns a gunfighter named Choya (Alan Ladd), hunted by posses and trusting of no one. He is such a loner that when someone asks him early on if he has any friends, he replies, "My guns." Any kinfolk? "My horse." He is even named for the Spanish word for cactus - when asked why, he answers soberly, "Ever try to pick one up?" Managing to approach this glum and scary fellow is the weasally T. Jefferson Leffingwell (an outstanding Robert Keith), who is proposing a get-rich-quick scheme. It seems that years ago, the son of a wealthy ranch owner was abducted and taken across the Rio Grande, where he grew up under the eye of a notorious Mexican bandit/landowner. His parents never knew this, however, and they searched for the boy to no avail. The boy had a distinguishing birthmark on his shoulder, and Leffingwell happens to know what it looks like. All Choya has to do is agree to be tattoed with an identical mark, memorize a few salient facts about the boy, and let himself be "found" by the family and taken in as their long-lost son. The only thing that will then stand in the way of an inheritance is a lethal "accident" to the ranch owner.
Choya goes along with the plan, but his heart starts to soften from the kindliness of his new family (led by the always-reliable Charles Bickford as the father, and featuring pretty Mona Freeman as a daughter). Ladd makes this change believable and sympathetic, and to its credit the movie does a good job of not presenting it mawkishly. When Ladd decides what new action to take, he does it with a straightforward conviction that makes it enjoyable to root for him. Ladd had not made many westerns by this point in his career, and Shane was still three years away. He inhabits the gunfighter's role extremely well, however, and uses much of his steely persona from classic noirs like This Gun For Hire (1942) and The Glass Key (1942). Branded even works in a startling scene in which Ladd uses Russian roulette to get some information out of a character, and you believe he would let the bullet fly.
But the best thing going for Branded is that it is simply a sight to behold. Photographed in Technicolor in the mountains of Arizona and Utah, the movie is never less than stunning visually, with breathtaking clarity and beauty from one frame to the next. The colors of the mountains, costumes and sets are vivid, and the movie has a crispness of pace which prevents it from being just a series of pretty pictures. Considering this is the work of cameraman-turned-director Rudolph Mate, it's no surprise really.
This, after all, was the man who shot The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928), Vampyr (1932), Stella Dallas (1937), That Hamilton Woman (1941), Cover Girl (1944), and Gilda (1946) - all famously beautiful pictures. The Polish-born Mate received five Oscar® nominations in five straight years for his cinematography, though he never won the award. He turned to directing in 1947, and his best films were probably The Dark Past (1948), D.O.A. (1950), Branded, When Worlds Collide (1951), and The Violent Men (1955). While his films as director were not always successful, they did always look great.
Branded could use a bit of restoration - there are several brief light leaks scattered through the movie on the left side of the frame. But this is actually a minor distraction, as the color overall has held up nicely. Paramount's DVD is a no-frills affair - just the movie and an appealingly low price. It's well worth it.
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by Jeremy Arnold
