Best of the Badmen

Best of the Badmen is a 1951 Western film directed by William D. Russell that is set in Breckenridge Missouri during the post-American Civil War period. It stars Robert Ryan, Claire Trevor and Robert Preston. It was a loose follow-up to Return of the Bad Men (1948).

Plot
The plot centres around the James-Younger Gang and their activities.

Jeff Clanton, an Army major from Missouri, captures the survivors of the Confederacy's Quantrill's Raiders and convinces them to give themselves up and pledge their allegiance to the Union. Clanton pledges that they will be paroled, but Matthew Fowler, a carpetbagger who owns a powerful detective agency, is determined to arrest them for the reward. When one of Fowler's deputies wounds one of the captives, return fire kills the deputy. Clanton is unjustly arrested for murdering Fowler's deputy. Clanton is tried by a kangaroo court and sentenced to be hanged the following morning. He escapes that night and then leads the band of outlaws including Jesse James and the Younger brothers in a vendetta against Matthew Fowler's detective agency.

Cast

 * Robert Ryan as Jeff Clanton
 * Claire Trevor as Lily
 * Jack Buetel as Bob Younger
 * Robert Preston as Matthew Fowler
 * Walter Brennan as 'Doc' Butcher
 * Bruce Cabot as Cole Younger
 * John Archer as Curley Ringo
 * Lawrence Tierney as Jesse James
 * Barton MacLane as Joad
 * Tom Tyler as Frank James
 * Robert J. Wilke as Jim Younger
 * John Cliff as John Younger
 * Lee MacGregor as Lieutenant Blaine
 * Emmett Lynn as Oscar
 * Carleton Young as Wilson

Production
Parts of the film were shot in Paria, Johnson Canyon, Strawberry Valley, the Gap, and Kanab Canyon in Utah.