Paramount had a hit putting Alan Ladd into a colour Western in Whispering Smith so they did it again for Branded. This could have been a minor classic because it's got a solid story and Ladd is very well cast - he's a gunfighter who is persuaded to impersonate the child of rancher Charles Bickford, abducted when he was four.
All the appropriate subplots are there - Charles Bickford wants an heir, Ladd has a partner keen to kill Bickford so they can cash in, Mona Freeman is the son's hot sister who Ladd falls in love with, Selena Royle is mom, there's the people from Ladd's past who are out to get him, he tracks down the missing son who turns out to be raised by a Mexican bandit...
But the film never gets the juice out of them. The script badly needed scenes of Ladd bonding with Bickford, Royle and Freeman, becoming a better person through knowing them; his character needed to improve somehow.
Even worse, the family disappears in the second half of the film which is about bringing back the son. Bickford and/or Freeman needed to go on the trip to get the son, and someone needed to go after Ladd. There's no real villain once Robert Keith is out of the picture since Joseph Calleila is basically benign.
Bickford is terrific, Royle a wet blanket, Robert Keith an engaging rogue, Peter Hansen terrible as the genuine missing son (blonde hair, Mexican accent), Joseph Calleila a decent bandit. Rudy Mate's handling isn't terribly vigorous. There is however some impressive colour photography and location work in Arizona.
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