Colorado Territory (1949)

Directed by Raoul Walsh. Starring Joel McCrea, Virginia Mayo, Henry Hull, Dorothy Malone, John Archer, James Mitchell, Basil Ruysdaul, Morris Ankrun.

Director Raoul Walsh reworks his own gangster chronicle High Sierra as this passable Western. With Joel McCrea, the protagonist originally played by Humphrey Bogart is softened further into a doomed, inherently-decent outlaw, one whose smothered nobility makes him an easy mark for his partners who won’t think twice about double-crossing him, an overused motif in this story. Mayo is miscast as the half-Indian woman he loves named Colorado Carson; she also isn’t flatteringly made-up or photographed, which is curious since so much of the scenery and action is lensed by Sidney Hickox with an eye toward artistry. A third, more faithful version of the same story arrived in 1955 as I Died a Thousand Times.

57/100