COLORADO TERRITORY

US, 1949, 93 minutes, Colour.
Joel Mc Crea, Virginia Mayo, Dorothy Malone, Henry Hull, John Archer, James Mitchell, Morris Ankrum, Basil Ruysdael, Frank Puglia.
Directed by Raoul Walsh.

Colorado Territory is an interesting, western. It is a remake (by the same director, Raoul Walsh) of the Humphrey Bogart vehicle, High Sierra. It was to be remade in the '50s by Stuart Heisler as I Died A Thousand Times. The film focuses on a former convict doing his last job. There is a contrast between his mixed blood girlfriend and the prim wife of a rancher: Virginia Mayo and Dorothy Malone. Familiar ingredients but efficiently done.

1. An interesting and enjoyable western? The outlaws? Robberies? Last stands? The passing of an era?

2. Black and white photography, the atmosphere of the West, towns, the ranches? Action sequences? Musical score?

3. The title and the outback West? Colorado and law and order? Justice?

4. Wes Mc Queen and his reputation, out of prison, in the West, his final hold-up? The encounter with the rancher? With Julie Anne? The relationship with Colorado Carson? The gang? The deserted Spanish village, the arrangements for the hold-up? The double-crossing actions of the gang? His winning out against them? The money? The posse chasing him? The last stand? The death of the outlaw?

5. Colorado and her place in the West, her blood, acceptance by society, non-acceptance? The contrast with Julie Anne? Her love for Wes? Following him? Helping him? Participation in the siege?

6. Julie Anne and her husband, setting up in the West, the prim and proper woman? Her passionate nature, her infatuation with Wes, disappointment?

7. The members of the gang, outlaws, teaming up with Mc Queen, turning against him, his outwitting them? The characters of western outlaws?

8. The ranchers. the law, the posses? The final shoot-out and its melodramatic action? In the spectacular West?

9. Themes of law and order, justice, the western outlaws, reform?