COLORADO TERRITORY (1949)

Director Raoul Walsh had the rare opportunity of remaking two of his own 1941 successes.  ‘Gay ‘90s’ romance THE STRAWBERRY BLONDE faithfully, if unmemorably musicalized into ONE SUNDAY AFTERNOON/‘48, and the contemporary gangster-on-the-lam HIGH SIERRA westernized as COLORADO TERRITORY.  (NOTE: Just out on a Criterion 2-disc set with SIERRA and an excellent 90" Walsh bio.)  But if SUNDAY is rightly written off, this sharp repurposing is a considerable achievement of its own, well shot and scored, too (Sid Hickox; David Buttolph*).  With Joel McCrea, Virginia Mayo & Dorothy Malone in for Humphrey Bogart, Ida Lupino & Joan Leslie, the basic outline remains (outlaw plans a last job to set himself up with an unworthy girl of his dreams), the subtle and not-so-subtle changes may work even better here.  (All but Henry Hull, equally lousy playing different roles in both films.)  McCrea, in one of his last sexy turns*, is just about perfect as a doomed sadder-but-wiser wanted man, ignoring a tarnished girl for a fresh-faced ingrate.  Malone, even with limited screen time, a revelation when she lets her guard down.  Mayo, here a classic ‘good’ bad girl, was always at her best for Walsh whose next film, WHITE HEAT let her be all bad, then all good in CAPTAIN HORATIO HORNBLOWER/’51.  SIERRA remade yet again in 1955 as I DIED A THOUSAND TIMES (WarnerColor & WideScreen, but no Walsh); third time wasn’t the charm.  https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2017/08/i-died-thousand-times-1955.html

ATTENTION MUST BE PAID:  *Buttolph has a great ominous music cue shortly after the big train holdup (tremendously clear action from Walsh BTW) when McCrea goes to see his partner as Native Americans chant in the background.

SCREWY THOUGHT OF THE DAY:  *After Cecil B. DeMille had McCrea hitch his pants up too high back in UNION PACIFIC/’39, McCrea’s sex appeal rode ever after on the placement of his waistband.