The movie's not a western in the usual sense. Instead, it's more like a pondering of character and life-styles set in modern Mexico. Manuel and Maria are in an arranged marriage, she being passed along like a piece of property, he being a budding farm entrepreneur. They are above all "respectable", and the feeling is that this is what holds the marriage together. Then, into their settled life arrives escaping train robber Santiago. But he's not a typical robber. We know that from his buddy's moving death scene. There Santiago shows something of a poetic sensitivity, proving he's not without his own sense of values. In fact, he's more a free spirit than a criminal type, even giving away much of his loot to deserving strangers. Ironically, however, he appears unfree to be anything but free! It's Santiago's free-wheeling effect on the young couple's brittle marriage that makes up the storyline. Kennedy, of course, was one of that era's premier actors. Here, his bravura performance effectively dramatizes Santiago's free spirit gusto. On the other hand, as the young couple, Iglesias and St. John appear over-the-top at times. Perhaps that can be rationalized by their emotional release from repressed lives. Nevertheless, the emoting does at times distract from story advancement.The notion of respectability is also pondered here. What the screenplay seems to be saying is that conforming lives are okay as long as one's humanity is not sacrificed in the process. In his own eccentric way, this appears the lesson Santiago imparts to the young couple. At the same time, religion gets much the same treatment, while criminal Santiago acts poetically as a kind of secular priest in easing his dying confederate into the great unknown.All in all, the movie's distinctive features come more from blacklisted writer Zimet's offbeat screenplay than from cult director Ulmer who's required to film in Technicolor instead of his b&w forte. Nonetheless, the movie's fully deserving of the Ulmer brand-- an offbeat 80-minutes that manages some depth over and above its tacky 50's title.

I don't have a high opinion of Edward G. Ulmer, who strikes me as a good visual stylist -- this movie is lit like a bullfighting poster, which is a nice touch. However, he had a tin ear and his great artistic ability was coming in cheap, whether it was a stylish studio effort, like THE BLACK CAT, or a porn movie in which he's cast his daughter. I'm not making up the latter. While I haven't seen it myself, a friend who hunts Ulmer's movies obsessively told me about his conversations with the daughter about it.In any case, Arthur Kennedy is a bandito who wanders onto the farm owned by peons Eugenie Iglesias and Betta St. John. Everyone gives moderate-length speeches, and everyone's life is changed. Kennedy does well with his speeches, despite apparently having Mel Blanc voice-coaching him as Speedy Gonzalez. Betta St. John yearns for something to happen and breaks crockery to make it happen. Iglesias vacillates between goodness and greed.It's a three-person play set in Mexico from a Gogol story -- I assume, set originally in Russia. Admirers of Ulmer will admire it. I think it's an OK programmer.

King of the cheapies Edgar Ullmer directed this modern west saga set in Mexico with something he normally didn't have at his disposal, technicolor. Even with that it's certainly one parsimonious production, but not bad.Although why he cast Arthur Kennedy replete with dyed black hair and a greasy beard as a Mexican bandit who knows. This was a role so right for Gilbert Roland. I guess he wasn't available.Nevertheless Kennedy gives it his best as the charismatic bandit who after losing one partner doing a job is ready for another. He takes refuge in the house of farmer Eugene Iglesias and wife Betta St.John. In one way or another he seduces both of them with what they see as a romantic life style. Both want to go off with him and leave the other.The Naked Dawn is a curious little film, deep in character rather than plot. But I think it would have been a classic with a Gilbert Roland or a Fernando Lamas in the lead.

An offbeat western ,with a Christian feeling when Kennedy promises his dying pal pastures of plenty when he gets to Heaven ;the same lines come back in the last sequence after the hero has been shot to death.This could fall in the ménage à trois routine -the peasant,Manuel ,and his lovely wife he treats like a dog-but it's not what you expect.It depicts an enclosed space ,where women are sold ("he bought me" );the outside world is only present in the characters' mind when Santiago tells Maria he can get her away from this place .A low-budget movie ,in which the obvious lack of means is not a problem;it reinforces the feeling of having ended up in a dump.