Cinema: The New Pictures, Jan. 15, 1951

Branded (Paramount) takes place in a Technicolored Old West where men are men and Alan Ladd is Alan Ladd. More intricately and outlandishly plotted than most westerns, it differs from the usual Ladd movie by giving its hero a real reason for displaying his torso.

Ladd plays a tough badman who, when asked if he has any friends, replies through his teeth: "My guns." In a scheme to pose as the long-lost son of a wealthy rancher (Charles Bickford), he takes off his shirt twice: first to let a tattoo artist fake a birthmark on...

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