The Lawless Breed, a western very loosely based on the life of John Wesley Hardin, was a milestone film for young Rock Hudson. Rock was 28 when he made this film for Universal and for the first time he was given first billing in a film. Universal also gave him veteran action director Raoul Walsh and a supporting cast that knew its way around the set of a western.<br /><br />John Wesley Hardin(1853-1895), one of the most notorious of bad men in the old west was also one of the few who actually got to put his story down for posterity. The film that you see is based somewhat on some of the incidents in Hardin's life. He was not as noble a character as The Lawless Breed would have you believe, but a whole lot of things attributed to him were probably pure hokum. The dime novels of the day worked their way into the popular culture for just about every character of the old west, good and bad. <br /><br />As shown here, the real John Wesley Hardin was shot in the back in a saloon after his release from prison. But the story goes that during a preview of the film, the audience reaction was so negative to seeing Rock Hudson shot down like a dirty dog that Universal felt compelled to tack on a happy ending. The film was really supposed to end with him dying on the floor of the saloon telling his son played by Race Gentry not to follow in his footsteps. What was added on was a scene with wife Julie Adams and Gentry loading the wounded Rock on the back of a buckboard and after a bit of dialog they ride off in the sunset.<br /><br />So one western legend got scrapped to start the career of a movie legend. Only in Hollywood.<br /><br />John McIntire has a nice dual performance as Hudson's circuit riding preacher father and as his uncle, a cattle rancher. And there was a gang of brothers that Hudson kept tangling with the entire film, the Hanleys played by such western familiars as Lee Van Cleef, Michael Ansara, Hugh O'Brian, and Glenn Strange. <br /><br />It's not a bad film despite the obviously tacked on happy ending for Rock's fans. John Wesley Hardin probably would have liked how it came out.