The Bad Man (play)

The Bad Man
Written by	Porter Emerson Browne
Date premiered	August 30, 1920
Place premiered	Comedy Theatre New York City, New York
Original language	English
Genre	Comedy
Setting	Gilbert Jones ranch house on border with Mexico

The Bad Man was a 1920 Broadway three-act comedy written by Porter Emerson Browne, produced by William H. Harris, Jr. and staged by Lester Lonergan. It ran for 342 performances from August 30, 1920, to June 1921 at the Comedy Theatre. It was included in Burns Mantle's The Best Plays of 1920–1921.

“THE BAD MAN” was one of the early successes of the season. Produced at the Comedy Theater August 30, 1920, it ran through till June. It declares a certain timeliness of theme in that in it Porter Emerson Browne employs the former Mexican bandit, Francisco Villa, as a hero of the proceedings, though he thinly disguises him under the name of Pancho Lopez. The scene is a cattle ranch near the Mexican border in Arizona. Gilbert Jones, a young American, is the ostensible owner of the ranch, but the $10,000 with which he bought it was borrowed from his uncle, Henry Smith of Bangor, Me., who is living with him. A year after the purchase young Jones enlisted in the American army, saw service in France, and when he returned found his property practically worthless. Mexican bandits had stolen most of his cattle and such crops as had been planted had failed. In an effort to save the property he mortgaged the ranch to Jasper Hardy, the sheriff of the county, and the play opens the day the mortgage is to be foreclosed by Hardy.

It was adapted into three films of the same name, The Bad Man (1923), The Bad Man (1930), The Bad Man (1941).

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