3 Bad Men is a 1926 American silentWestern film directed by John Ford.[1][2][3] Bob Mastrangelo has called it "One of John Ford's greatest silent epics." The film possibly inspired the title for Akira Kurosawa's 1958 film Three Bad Men in a Hidden Fortress, simply known as The Hidden Fortress in the rest of the world.[4]
Plot
Full movie
A discovery of gold in the Dakotas on Sioux lands in 1877 provokes a gold land rush. Numerous people come to Custer for their chance to claim land and possibly gold when the proclamation to explore the lands goes into effect, such as singing cowboy Dan O'Malley, the Carltons, and a group of three outlaws headed by "Bull" Stanley. On their way to steal a bunch of horses, the outlaws save Lee Carlton from a different set of outlaws, who kill her father. Instead of taking the horses for themselves, the three outlaws decide to head to Custer as her protectors. The town is plagued with vice and injustice, headed by the corrupt Sheriff Layne Hunter, who learns where gold is located and wants to find it before the settlers. Unbeknownst to the outlaws, he has also seduced and abandoned Bull's sister, Millie. Meanwhile, the three "bad men", tired of their life of crime, decide to arrange a marriage for Lee, who soon meets up with Dan. The three outlaws must deal with that unexpected romantic attraction, along with the looming sheriff's gang and the race of the settlers' wagons for gold. Dan and Lee find love with each other while the three outlaws kill the sheriff, before dying in their doomed last stand. Dan and Lee are married, and have a son, named Stanley Costigan Allen O'Malley, in memory of the 3 Bad Men.
Vester Pegg as Henchman shooting Lucas (uncredited)
Production
The film was shot over a fifteen-month period in 1925 and 1926. During the filming, three of the actresses involved, Olive Borden, Priscilla Bonner, and Grace Gordon, became ill with a form of paratyphoid fever, and had to be taken to the hospital.
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