Colorado Territory

Just before the advent of "adult Westerns" comes this curio. Raoul Walsh's noir-inflected oater Colorado Territory (1949) tries to add darkness to a familiar Western plot, but the result proves underwhelming.

Wes McQueen (Joel McCrea) escapes from a Missouri jail and flees to Colorado. He soon falls in with outlaw leader Reno (John Archer) in a convoluted train robbery. Though Wes falls for preacher's daughter Julie Ann (Dorothy Malone), he also develops feelings for half-caste femme fatale Colorado (Virginia Mayo), who has her own agenda. Wes and his uneasy partners waste no time backstabbing each other, leading our antihero squaring off against a massive posse.

Colorado Territory is a remake of Walsh's High Sierra (1941). Transplanting that gangster film's story to the Old West works well enough, but the movie never really comes into its own. Walsh's big action scenes are uninspired, with obvious rear projection grating against location work. The character dynamics yield few surprises, and Wes's bid for redemption never grows as compelling as it should be. With its morally compromised hero and downbeat ending Colorado's unusually dark for a '40s Western, but that's not enough on its own.

Joel McCrea seems awkwardly cast in a role originated by Humphrey Bogart. Villains John Archer and James Mitchell aren't especially effective, either. Virginia Mayo offers the best turn: Colorado veers towards stereotype, but Mayo invests her with both poignancy and sex appeal. Character actors Morris Ankrum, Henry Hull and Frank Puglia provide dependable support.

Colorado Territory is decent but unremarkable. Perhaps being a remake of a bona fide classic held Walsh back, but either way it feels like it could be much better.