CANYON PASSAGE (1946)

On loan from R.K.O. after graduating from the Val Lewton horror unit, director Jacques Tourneur made his first color film and his first Western with this A-list effort for Universal.  (Then right back to R.K.O. for classic noir next year in OUT OF THE PAST/’47. https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2008/05/out-of-past-1947.html)  Long unsung, now highly rated, CANYON’s a handsome (lenser Edward Cronjager), location-heavy production with a strong cast and an even stronger, if unconventional storyline, the rare Western you can’t summarize as ‘Stranger Comes To Town.’  Instead, Dana Andrews is an ambitious outfitter for wagon trains & growing towns, always on the road and looking to expand his trading store into a NorthWest franchise.  Currently, he’s heading back to base with gal pal Susan Hayward, ‘near’ fiancée of guy pal/financial partner Brian Donlevy, banker to the town’s gold prospectors, now in serious debt from his gambling addiction, looting client’s gold dust out of his vault and writing I.O.U.s right & left.*  And while there’s a lot of sexual tension between Hayward & Andrews, both parties are already ‘claimed,’ Hayward by Donlevy; Andrews by the equally lovely Patricia Roc.   Add to these domestic troubles tension with the local Native Americans fully aware they’re being systematically displaced by a growing community (every new home a stealth attack), before they are all but forced ‘onto the warpath,’ after local psychopath Ward Bond (chillingly unhinged) rapes & murders one of their own, a pretty girl he’s caught swimming.  Plus another murder in town after Donlevy is about to come up short on the victim’s gold deposits.  Lots of situations, yet Tourneur is so well organized, he’s got plenty of time to work in Andy Devine (and his two kids) as sidekick & local cupid; for young Lloyd Bridges to show himself as hotheaded vigilante; and Hoagy Carmichael as local troubadour, commenting on the action thru song.  Confidently handled in fluid, rangy takes (the opening reels particularly, a masterclass of ‘invisible edits' and tracking shots), the complicated story and interpersonal relationships never feeling rushed or phony.  The film’s rapid critical rise over the last decade entirely justified.

DOUBLE-BILL/LINK: Tourneur went on to make more traditional Westerns, but another rather untraditional one, STARS IN MY CROWN/’50 may be his best in the genre.  And with a plot you can reduce to Stranger Comes To Town.  https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2014/07/stars-in-my-crown-1950.html

ATENTION MUST BE PAID:  *Donlevy’s addiction, believable, melancholic, nuanced & non-hysterical, neither actor’s meal nor award-hungry showcase.  It may be unique in Hollywood films.