Benedito Dias Rodrigues Who are acquainted by Glenn Ford's characters will be surprised when see this movie,could be called Deveraux a mad dog...disturbed by the civil war when he command a massacre in the last and final battle a hundred soldiers even with a white flag in the hands....featuring also William Holden in top billing too,fine western!!! Resume: First watch: 1991 / How many: 2 / Source: TV-DVD / Rating: 7

grizzledgeezer "The Man from Colorado" is a film time has forgotten. I'd never heard of it, but decided to watch, because the story (not the script) was from Borden Chase, the man who gave us at two famous homoerotic Westerns ("Red River", "The Far Country" *).In this film, Glenn Ford's character has definitely entered the far country (if not the twilight zone). He suffers from what we would call post-traumatic stress disorder. We aren't shown what caused it, but it's assumed the stress of war is sufficient to push some men over the edge. That Doc Merriam (Edgar Buchanan) would find this plausible seems unlikely, as the belief didn't become common until WW I.The story opens with Ford killing a hundred Confederate soldiers waving a white flag in an attempt to surrender. (It isn't clear whether Ford sees the flag, but Holden finds it.) Ford writes an entry in his journal acknowledging his apparent mental illness.There's no point in going into further details, but Chase spins a story of some complexity that's more interested in the characters' relationships than of simple events. The ending is abrupt and not very satisfying, but it resolves all the issues. I suspect Chase wrote something more complex and interesting, ** but you know how studio people are.Good performances all-around, especially from Ray Collins and Edgar Buchanan. Definitely worth at least one viewing.* In case you never noticed, Walter Brennan's character is in love with Jimmy Stewart's. It was called a bachelor marriage.** I wouldn't be surprised if Chase had written a complete script, but the studio changed it in ways he didn't like, and he requested a story credit rather than a script credit.

dougdoepke Best friends Owen and Del, along with local men, are mustered out of the Union army at Civil War's end. Trouble is Big Ed has grabbed the men's gold-bearing land while the men were gone, and now, as a judge, Owen has to enforce the law in Big Ed's favor. This splits the community into warring factions.Gritty, character-driven western. We know at outset that Owen (Ford) is a flawed character when his Union detachment shells surrendering Johnny rebs. In fact, Owen hides his killer instinct behind an uptight rendering of authority, whether as a colonel or as a federal judge. Ford plays the authoritarian part so grimly (count the smiles—I stopped at zero), it's hard to see how the charming Caroline would be attracted to him. Nonetheless, the interplay between best-friends Ford and Holden is involving and forms the story's core. Alliances between the various factions are sometimes hard to keep up with, but are more unpredictable than usual. And I especially like that final maneuvering around the bridge that I didn't see coming.Columbia Studios popped for a lot of extras, along with fine special effects, especially when the burning wall comes down. Funny, though, how mountainous Colorado looks like greater LA. Too bad Columbia didn't pop for sending the crew at least to Lone Pine and the Southern Sierras. All in all, it's a very different kind of horse opera that avoids the usual clichés, with Ford at his absolute grimmest. Clearly, however, he and Holden are on their way up the Hollywood ladder.

bkoganbing Back in the day William Holden and Glenn Ford both had a unique contractual arrangement with Columbia Pictures. When unknown Bill Holden was up for the lead in Golden Boy, Harry Cohn cast him in return for Paramount selling 50% of his services to Columbia. Holden served two studio masters at the time he was making The Man from Colorado and would for another decade. Glenn Ford was Columbia's bread and butter leading man at the time and right after The Man From Colorado, Cohn sold half of Ford's contract to MGM and Ford also had two studio masters.What it meant for these two was that all projects had to be cleared through both studios and that Holden and Ford if they did an outside loan out would also have to be cleared from both. Not that their respective studios didn't keep both these guys very busy.Holden and Ford had done a well received western, Texas, for Columbia back in 1941. Texas was a rather lighthearted film about two cowboys turning to different sides of the law in post Civil War Texas, though it did feature the death of one of them.The Man from Colorado is also a story about the activities of Union Army war veterans. But The Man from Colorado doesn't have any light moments whatsoever. It's pretty grim tale about one of them developing a real taste for sadism and killing as a result of the war. Ford's the sadist here, it's one of the few villain parts he ever did and it works I think because he is so against type. He did very few parts like this, Lust for Gold is another, but his public wouldn't accept him in these roles. Some of the town businessmen led by Ray Collins just look at the war record and decide Ford would make one fine federal judge. A real law and order type. They get a lot more than they bargain for.In Texas Holden had the showier role of the young cowboy who take the outlaw route. Here however he's the best friend who stands by his former commanding officer even though he both sees the man has issues and Holden loses Ellen Drew to Ford. Holden takes the outlaw path after giving up his marshal's job when Ford starts running roughshod over due process. The other really standout performance in this film is that of James Milliken who plays one of Ford's former soldiers who turns outlaw and in fact humiliates him in one of the few funny moments in The Man From Colorado. Ford conceives a burning hate for him that results in tragedy all around.Ford and Holden were considering another joint project in 1981 when Holden died. I would like to have seen that one come to pass.Try to see The Man From Colorado back to back with Texas.