For this Western Night gathering, Robert Nott brought CANYON PASSAGE (1946), a film both problematic and admirable.
It’s about the various business owners in a small Oregon mining town in the 1850s and the difficulties they face. The thing is, it plays like a skewed soap opera. Logan Stuart (Dana Andrews), a freight company owner, has a British girlfriend named Caroline (Patricia Roc), who loves him and the American West. But Logan is also attracted to Lucy Overmire (Susan Hayward) who fancies him, but is engaged to Logan’s best friend, George Camrose (Brian Donlevy), the local banker who apparently loves her but also has a gambling habit and uses his depositor’s gold dust to pay off his debts. Then there’s Honey Bragg (Ward Bond), a brutal lunkhead who acts on his wants to a fault, and Hi Linnet (Hoagy Carmichael) who sings songs and makes observations of the various shenanigans throughout. (One of the songs he sings, “Ole Buttermilk Sky,” was Oscar-nominated for best original song.)
The screenplay by Ernest Pascal (he wrote the 1939 version of THE HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES) is something of a meandering mess with all the myriad subplots. And yet, the film holds your attention. One reason is that director Jacques Tourneur, known for his horror films I WALKED WITH A ZOMBIE and CAT PEOPLE, was a master of creating terror in the mind of the audience without actually showing the vicious killings. There are more than a few in this movie such as when a character walks out of frame followed by another character with murder on his mind. Cut to the next scene and the first character’s dead body is discovered. During an Indian attack, one of the townspeople drops into a ditch and the Indians descend on him with knives. It’s a gruesome moment and we know what’s happening though we don’t see it.
Another compelling aspect is the stunning cinematography by Edward Cronjager. Scenes of crowded, muddy streets, timber-lined mountains, shadowy fireplace-lit interiors and more are mesmerizing. The film was shot on location in Oregon, including Crater Lake National Park, and at Universal Studios.
With a running time of 92 minutes, CANYON PASSAGE is available on Blu-ray.
Along with Robert, award-winning journalist and author of several books on Western films, including his most recent RIDE THE HIGH COUNTRY that examines the production, themes and legacy of the film that launched Sam Peckinpah’s career, our group includes Johnny D. Boggs, record nine-time Spur Award-winning author and Owen Wister Award winner whose work includes his latest, BLOODY NEWTON, Kirk Ellis, Emmy winning screenwriter and producer, and also author of the book RIDE LONESOME about the production, themes and historical relevance of the classic Ranown Western films starring Randolph Scott and directed by Budd Boetticher, Kirk’s wife, Sheila, and David Morrell, award-winning author and New York Times best-selling author of FIRST BLOOD, the novel that introduced the character Rambo.
Watch Official Trailer for Canyon Passage
