vincentlynch-moonoi This is a rather impressive Western, far above average. The Technicolor photography is excellent, as is the outdoor scenery.There's also an excellent cast. Dana Andrews is the lead, and this is one of his better roles. Brian Donlevy is the second male lead, who is a little more crooked a businessman than most realize. Susan Hayward is excellent and quite beautiful as the fiancé of Donlevy. The beautiful Patricia Roc plays Andrew's love interest (this was her only Hollywood film, although she was a very popular actress in British films). Ward Bond is the real heavy here; one of my favorite character actors. Hoagy Carmichael plays an oddball businessman, although I never understood how Hollywood took an interest in him, other than for his music (which is highlighted here with his great song "Buttermilk Sky"). Lloyd Bridges and Andy Devine also have good supporting roles.I guess what keeps this from being a great film is that the plot just sort of wanders along (but then again, that is sort of what real life does) with no real apparent direction. Still, it's pretty interesting stuff...but it doesn't end up where you think it's going at all. In fact, it seems like all of sudden it's suddenly over.Lots of good stuff here, even if the plot moving forward is a little weak...particularly the ending.

writers_reign Alan Jay Lerner wrote several screenplays so may well have been a movie buff and if he saw this in 1947 he may well have retained subconsciously the title of one of the four Hoagy Carmichael songs that feature, namely I'm Getting Married In The Mornin', only for it to surface some nine years later as the first line of Get Me To The Church On Time from My Fair Lady. There is, in fact a fair lady on hand in the shape of Patricia Roc - provided with the bizarre credit 'introducing', not really apropos given that she'd made twenty something films in England since 1939. There's a second, even fairer lady in the shape of Susan Hayward, cast somewhat against type as a virtually demure bride- to-be (a role, let's face it, better suited to Roc) as opposed to her usually feisty virago. The cast is interesting to say the least with Dana Andrews, Andy Devine, Brian Donleavy, Carmichael, Ward Bond and Llyod Bridges among others. Although he's included most of the classic 'Western' ingredients Tourneur opts to let them simmer on a low light rather than throwing them into a saucepan and turning the heat up. I'm guessing it requires repeated viewings to really appreciate.

Steffi_P The 1940s were a time of transition in the Hollywood movie. This was the age of the film noir, and often those darker, more pessimistic forces were starting to creep into the most unlikely of genre flicks. This being a relatively new phenomenon, often not everyone in the production was on the same wavelength and you could get some odd mismatches of tone. Canyon Passage opens with a town drenched in rain, a sorry-looking figure on horseback weaving his way amid the houses; very different to the usual triumphant ride in from the plains that would kick off your average Western. And yet, this opening is accompanied by very typical, upbeat Western music. Plot-wise, post-production-wise, this is a run-of-the-mill mid-budget horse opera. The only difference is the way it looks.A lot of this is probably down to director Jacques Tourneur. Canyon Passage was one his first features after leaving Val Lewton's horror-orientated B-unit at RKO, and the clinging darkness of the pictures he made there has stayed with him. Lots of directors have habitually used claustrophobic shot compositions, but the form of Tourneur's are eye-catchingly unique, often putting actors up against the edge of the frame or placing very large objects right before the camera. He often fills the foreground but rarely uses actual close-ups. This can have some unusual effects. When Dana Andrews introduces Susan Hayward and Patricia Roc to each other, Andrews is foreground, centre-screen, his back to the camera, with the two ladies framed either side of him. This very odd-looking set-up sticks out, immediately establishing in the mind of the viewer that there will be some kind of rivalry between the women, doing so with greater impact than a more typical shot would provide. This is perhaps Tourneur's greatest asset – being able to give a very stylised look to the whole picture but still making the key individual moments stand out. This is, I guess, very much a cornerstone of good horror direction as well.And despite the focus on cramped interiors and dismal towns, Canyon Passage does not neglect that outdoors that is quintessential to the Western genre. Whilst we don't see much of the open plains, this is in fact one of the most beautiful depictions of the mountains and pine forests of the West. Normally the baroque stylings of a director such as Tourneur don't really suit the Western, but the screenplay of Canyon Passage is so bland, its cast so unremarkable (the only standouts being the coolly dramatic Hayward, the loveably dismal Hoagy Carmichael and the sheer oddity of seeing Ward Bond play a villain) that this is one way of making it worth watching. This could never really have been a masterpiece, but its fresh and engaging appearance raises it above the average.

ildimo1877 Frequently termed as "psychological", this find of a western, directed by the great Jacques Tourneur less than a year before Out of the Past, is way beyond this kind of terminology. In fact there's no psychology at all, unless you count as such what the spectator compulsively does in need to explain character actions. Tourneur however, not for a moment indulges in narrative superficiality. Instead convolutes a series of deeds, juxtaposes numerous characters, focuses obsessively in directing the glances between the characters (always in medium shots), complexes his camera movements and setups in a way as to convey western dialectics rarely seen before or after. From a presentation of the settler's phase in mid 19th century American west, to a thinly disguised homosexual relationship and from a discussion of frontier justice to an elliptically thoughtful apology on the American Indian issue, Canyon Passage (no canyon in the film…) is the archetypal Western film of actions (but no action, apart from the final Indian attack) defining human character and motive. Tourneur's first (and gloriously shot) colour film.