The Man from Colorado

The Man from Colorado (1948) is a fairly typical Hollywood Western. Henry Levin's beatifully shot oater flirts with some dark thematic material, but ultimately turns into a routine shoot-'em-up.

Colonel Owen Devereaux (Glenn Ford) returns home from the Civil War a hero, and is elected Judge by the grateful citizenry. Only his second-in-command (and new Marshal), Del Stewart (William Holden), knows Owen's secret: he gradually went insane over the course of the war, ordering his troops to massacre surrendering Confederate soldiers. Owen's psychotic tendencies continue after the war, as he becomes a ruthless hanging Judge who sides with mine boss Ed Carter (Ray Collins) when the latter usurps small miners' claims. After a holdup leads to an innocent man's lynching, Del defects to the miners and initiates a showdown with his old friend.

The Man from Colorado begins with a decidedly dark cast. There's interesting thematic material, with returning veterans bilked out of their claims by an opportunist businessman and the ambiguities of business law. The character conflicts are interestingly established: Owen's struggle to remain sane, Del's conflict between the law and justice, the miners goaded into violence by Owen's unfair ruling. But in the second half, ambiguities fade and it becomes a much more conventional show, with Del changing sides and Owen turning unremittingly batty. After all the buildup, the last half hour seems a bit too neat.

Henry Levin is no John Ford but he turns in some fine work here. William Snyder's beautiful Technicolor photography is remarkable; even when the pace flags there's at least some nice images to look at. There are some nice setpieces, especially the nightmarish finale: Owen confronting Del and Company in the burning village is one of the most visually striking scenes in any Western.

Glenn Ford is excellent. He's undercut a bit by the same issue as Gary Cooper in Man of the West: we hear that he was a decent guy before the war, but only see him as a psychopath. Regardless, Ford handles Owen's transformation into a nutjob very well and makes him an interesting antagonist. William Holden (sporting the same blond dye job as Sabrina) is fine, but his character's conflict isn't fully realized. Ellen Drew goes through the perfunctory love interest motions. Among the supporting cast, standouts are Edgar Buchanan (Ride the High Country) as the amiable town doctor, Ray Collins (Citizen Kane) as a venal mine boss and James Millican (The Man from Laramie) as a deserter-turned-criminal.

The Man from Colorado is good but a bit underwhelming. Someone like Anthony Mann, Budd Boeticher or Sam Peckinpah could have made this story into a classic. As it stands though, it's still a respectable Western.