DAY OF THE BADMAN  has a real case of iron-poor tired blood in the lazy direction from Harry Keller and walk-through-get-paid performances. The script isn’t all that bad, with a judge having to deal with a mean outlaw family (as opposed to the right neighborly kind) who want their killer brother sprung from custody. The magistrate also has to hassle with his fiancee being bird-dogged by the sheriff.  The abrupt showdown finale is too unexciting to wait for over the 82 minutes it all takes to roll out.

Fred MacMurray plays it all with one expression and stoically manages a Winchester slug in his arm like it was just a nick from a BB.  Suggestive-eyed Marie Windsor looks great in color. With Joan Weldon, John Ericson, Robert Middleton, Edgar Buchanan, Eduard Franz, Skip Homeier, Peggy Converse, Robert Foulk, Ann Doran, Lee Van Cleef and Christopher Dark.  Silent but surly Chris Alcaide, as Bad Guy #5, never removes his cigar, even during a shootout, so I’ll tip my hat for that gesture.

From 1958, one of nine boring westerns Fred MacMurray headlined in the decade. It trailed way back in the pack at #132 for the year, with a poor $900,000 take. In case you need a nap, the other Fred Westerns are The Moonlighter, The Far Horizons, At Gunpoint, Face Of A Fugitive, Gun For A Coward, Quantez, Good Day For A Hanging and The Oregon Trail.  Who knew?  Now you do. Guard the knowledge.