Colorado Territory

Plot synopsis:
Notorious outlaw Wes McQueen (Joel McCrea) breaks out of jail and heads off to the Colorado Territory to meet the man who arranged the escape, his old friend Dave Rickard (Basil Ruysdael). Along the way, the stagecoach he is riding in is attacked by a gang of robbers. When the driver and guard are both killed, McQueen kills or drives off the remaining gunmen, earning the gratitude of the other passengers, dreamer Fred Winslow (Henry Hull) and his daughter Julie Ann (Dorothy Malone). Winslow has bought a ranch sight unseen and looks forward to making his fortune.
McQueen arrives at the ghost town of Todos Santos, where Reno Blake (John Archer) and Duke Harris (James Mitchell) are waiting for him, along with Reno's part-Indian girlfriend, Colorado Carson (Virginia Mayo). After looking them over (and not liking what he sees), he heads off to a nearby town to meet an ailing Rickard, who asks McQueen to pull off one last big train robbery so they can both retire.
With the exception of Rickard, McQueen distrusts everybody else in the gang, including ex-private detective Pluthner (Harry Woods), who recruited Reno and Duke, and Homer Wallace (Ian Wolfe), the railroad informant. McQueen wants to go straight, but agrees to do the job out of gratitude and friendship.
While waiting for the robbery, McQueen decides to keep Colorado with him to avoid stirring up trouble between Duke and Reno. Although Colorado falls for him and tells him so, McQueen still dreams of marrying Julie Ann and settling down. When he visits the Winslow ranch, he finds it a poor, arid place. Winslow warns him that Julie Ann loves Randolph, a rich man back east. Winslow took her away because Randolph would never have married so far beneath him socially. McQueen, however, is undeterred.
The day of the robbery, a suspicious McQueen talks to Wallace's wife and discovers he has betrayed the gang for the reward money. Forewarned, McQueen uncouples the passenger cars in which the sheriff and his men are waiting in ambush, leaving them behind. Duke and Reno, as prearranged with Pluthner, also try to double cross McQueen, but he is prepared for them too. He gets the drop on them, takes the money, and leaves the pair handcuffed together for the sheriff to capture and later hang. He and Colorado go to split the money with Rickard, only to find Pluthner over the old man's dead body. McQueen kills him, but is shot in the shoulder.
A wounded McQueen heads to the Winslow ranch, where Winslow helps Colorado remove the bullet, even after he is told who McQueen really is and what he has done. McQueen overhears Julie Ann tell her father they should turn him in for the reward money. Winslow, though, lies to the sheriff and posse when they show up.
McQueen realizes he loves Colorado and asks her to marry him. They plan a new life in Mexico, but are found hiding out in Todos Santos. He gives her the money, telling Colorado to bury it (she leaves it near the collection box for the mission). McQueen drives off her horse so she cannot follow him, then makes a desperate dash for the border. He is trapped in a long-deserted cliffside Indian settlement, but is too good a marksman for his pursuers to rush him. Colorado eventually arrives on foot.
The sheriff comes up with a devious plan. After stationing an Indian sharpshooter, he and all but two of his men ride away to a (fictional) back entrance. As the lawman had hoped, Colorado grabs a gun from one of the men, orders them to walk away, and takes the two remaining horses to McQueen. He emerges and is wounded by the sharpshooter. When the posse returns, Colorado shoots back, and the two lovers die in a hail of gunfire.

Tags: tragedy

Review:
Raoul Walsh was perhaps the most entertaining director of the '40's, with movies like "Objective, Burma!", "They Died with Their Boots On" and "Gentleman Jim" behind his name, plus he also made some good early westerns.
Sounds like the perfect guy to direct a movie like this, especially since this movie is a western remake of his earlier directed movie classic "High Sierra", with Humphrey Bogart and Ida Lupino.
It makes this movie also real perfect to watch for persons who don't like spaghetti-westerns.Leave it up to director Raoul Walsh to tell a story well and entertaining.
Perhaps Errol Flynn was expected to play a role in this, since he worked a lot with Raoul Walsh in the '40's but instead the main part is played by Joel McCrea, who was an expert at playing characters in westerns.
Perhaps a bit too much of a good heart to make the story entirely believable but that's just common and entirely fitting for '40's movie-making standards.An interesting to watch- and spectacular entertaining noir-western, that just like its original version "High Sierra", deserves to be seen.8/10http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/.
Outlaw Wes McQueen (Joel McCrea) gets sprung from a Missouri jail on the day before he is to be transported to Leavenworth by his old gang who need him for a big train robbery somewhere out in the Colorado Territory.
One of the film's best plot lines is the jealousy that comes to the surface of Reno's character as Mayo's Colorado Carson is clearly taken with the cool McQueen played by McCrae.
Joel McCrea stars as the outlaw Wes McQueen who makes one last train robbery in Raoul Walsh's exceptional and sprawling Western remake of his own "High Sierra." As many commentators have pointed out, "Colorado Territory" is a major improvement over "High Sierra", a better-than-average Bogart vehicle marred by John Huston' tepidly moralizing screenplay.
Although "Colorado Territory" is devoid of the psychoanalytic verve of Walsh's "Pursued"(arguably his greatest Western), it is nonetheless a brilliant and memorable film that needs more following and appreciation..
It stars Joel McCrea, Virginia Mayo, Dorothy Malone and Henry Hull.
Music is by David Buttolph and cinematography by Sidney Hickox.Raoul Walsh remakes his own High Sierra from 1941 but supplants it into a western setting - with tremendous results.McCrea plays outlaw Wes McQueen who springs from prison and vows to go straight, but with a price on his head he is coerced into one last railroad robbery.
Cast can't be faulted either, McCrea a genuine horseman is firmly at home in a Western setting, Mayo and Malone positively light and sex up the screen, while classy performer Hull lends weighty support.High end Western staples are adhered to, with robbery actions, fights, stunts, villainous betrayals and back stabbers, these marry up to the noirish cement of a man unable to escape his fate, his past weighing heavy on his shoulders, there's a doom laden feel permeating the story.Rarely mentioned when talk turns to film noir Westerns, but it should be as it's one of the best.
But it is half-breed Virginia Mayo, tough as nails but as loyal a woman warrior as ever walked the Earth, who steals the film's acting honor's from her excellent co-star..
Made the same year as his classic, "White Heat," this western also ends with an "On Top o' the World" finale.Joel McCrea is an intriguing actor.
Colorado Territory is undoubtedly one of the best films directed by Raoul Walsh.In fact it's sort of a remake of a film Walsh directed 10 years before this one  High Sierra with Humphrey Bogart and Ida Lupino.
Colorado Territory's story revolves around a very sympathetic outlaw Wes McQueen (Joel McCrea) who is finally caught and put in jail but obviously not for a very long time, cause his former companions devise a plan to rob the train and are most certainly in need of him to be able to pull it off successfully.
After Wes succeeds in doing so he finds a refuge in a distant abandoned village in the mountains where he meets his partners together with a spirited and beautiful woman Colorado (Virginia Mayo) who ends up falling in love with him not knowing that his heart already belongs to another very different woman Julie Ann (Dorothy Malone) who in her turn, doesn't know about Wes McQueen being one of the most sought after outlaws in the west.
In Colorado Territory, Virginia Mayo definitely takes the cake for the best babe ever in a Western.
Finally was able to view this semi-famous film (due mainly, I suspect, because of the Raoul Walsh/remake of HIGH SIERRA connection).
The thing I was struck by was the darker, more devious Malone character in the role Joan Leslie had in HIGH SIERRA and also feeling that maybe Joel McCrea was miscast; his screen persona is the 'stalwart and true' type and not an out and out bandit.
Scathing Dialog that evokes Film-Noir (as does the Story), solid Performances by the entire Cast, Excellent and slightly askew Locations and Settings, Gunplay and Violence that doesn't Pull Punches, a Hard-Boiled tone with an Ending that is Downbeat and foreshadows the Cynical Mann, Boetticher Fifties Standouts in the Genre.Yes, the Story is a Remake of High Sierra (1941) also done by Director Raoul Walsh, but this is every bit as Powerful in its Western Setting, and in some respects even more so.
Well, my trend for seeking out quality Westerns will continue after seeing this film.The story is essentially as follows - Joel McCrea (Wes) is sprung from jail to pull one last train robbery for mastermind Basil Ruysdael (Dave).
Joel holes up in a deserted town with his gang that consists of thuggish John Archer (Reno), slimy intellectual James Mitchell (Duke) and initially not wanted saloon girl Virginia Mayo (Colorado).
But, there are plenty of double crosses to come.Comparisons have regularly been made to the film High Sierra (1941), of which this is a re-make set as a Western.
Virginia Mayo,(Colorado Carson),"The Girl From Jones Beach",'49, tried to give him affection along with Dorothy Malone,"Basic Instinct",'92,who offered him an entirely different life.
Compelled to press on, our hero senses trouble down the trail.It's a great story, first told in "High Sierra" (1941) as a film noir with gangster Humphrey Bogart in the lead role.
However, considering how good HIGH SIERRA was, Colorado TERRITORY can't help but come up a bit short even if it is still a good film.Joel McCrea gets the unenviable task of repeating Bogie's role, though in this case the film is set in the Old West.
It's worth seeing, but unless you are a huge Western or McCrea fan, it's skip-able.By the way, in an unusual move, director Raoul Walsh was at the helm of the original AND this re-make..
In 1871, notorious outlaw Joel McCrea (as Wesley "Wes" McQueen) breaks out of jail with a hacksaw, and heads for the western "Colorado Territory" where he hopes to go straight.
Then, McCrea makes the decision to join fellow thieves John Archer (as Reno Blake) and James Mitchell (as Duke Harris) in one last heist If you think the last train robbery for McCrea goes without a hitch, you'd be wrong.First thing McCrea finds problematic is pretty "half-breed" Virginia Mayo (as Colorado Carson), who hangs out with the gang.
In this westernized version of "High Sierra" (1941), director Raoul Walsh corralling the cast and crew through a rollicking train robbery and aftermath.****** Colorado Territory (6/11/49) Raoul Walsh ~ Joel McCrea, Virginia Mayo, Dorothy Malone, James Mitchell.
He pretty well followed the plot line of High Sierra and had every character in there, but the dog who was an alleged jinx.It could have been a better film and the trouble is with the miscasting of Joel McCrea.
The women here are Virginia Mayo and Dorothy Malone playing the parts that Ida Lupino and Joan Leslie did in High Sierra.
Frank Puglia plays a Franciscan Friar who winds up the real "winner" in this film.The ending is different than High Sierra and I think Walsh took some inspiration from Duel in the Sun. I won't say more..
W.R. Burnett's book "High Sierra", filmed in 1941 with Humphrey Bogart as a jewel thief, gets a rousing (and uncredited) western reworking here, with the main character's vocation changed to train robber.
Virgina Mayo (she of the glassy-eyed stare) does what she can in the insane role of an ex-dance hall girl, Dorothy Malone is completely lost in the underwritten part of a well digger's daughter who wants a better life, and John Archer and James Mitchell are two cardboard villains.
Wild west baddie Wes McQueen consents to participate in just one more heist before reforming and settling down, but is double-crossed by his partners, and prospective girlfriend.Why Raoul Walsh thought he could go one better on his 1941 masterpiece 'High Sierra' is beyond me, and 'Colorado Territory' is a pretty poor Western remake of a great action movie, none too subtly disguised and most of the time just going through the motions.
Following the success of the noir-western Pursued, the formula here was to take an old noir movie, High Sierra, which Raoul Walsh also directed and rework it as a western.
Now, the movie: Joel Mccrea and Virginia Mayo are miscast.
But this remake takes the Humphrey Bogart/Ida Lupino/Joan Leslie original and transposes it to a vast western landscape with McCrea as a gunman on horseback planning his last heist with a corrupt gang of thieves.It's hampered by some odd miscasting.
She stands by her man, even when she learns that he's found a new sweetheart--DOROTHY MALONE in a terribly underwritten role that paints her as a good/bad girl whose loyalty is questionable when tempted by money.It's an okay western, routine in many ways, but fans of McCrea should enjoy his performance.
Produced for Warners in 1949 by Anthony Villiers and tightly directed by Raoul Walsh this was the vintage director's reworking of his own classic 1941 Bogart gangster hit "High Sierra" as a western.
Written for the screen by John Twist it was based on W.R. Burnett's novel "High Sierra" and crisply photographed in glorious Black & White by the great Sid Hickok.Outlaw Wes McQueen (Joel McCrea) is broken out of prison by an old accomplice and mentor (Basil Ruysdael) to plan and execute one last job - the robbery of $100,000 from the southbound Denver & Rio Grande train.
It is a great cinematic moment!Besides the marvellous monochrome cinematography of Sid Hickock, filmed in and around Gallup New Mexico, the picture is also buoyed by a terrific score by the ever underrated David Buttolph featuring a sweeping and arching main theme and some great action music especially for the train chase sequence.A good western "Colorado Territory" was never available on DVD before but now thanks to the Warner Archives label it has just been released in a clean and sharp transfer..
CONTAINS A LOT OF SPOILERSµµµµµµµµµµµµµµµµµµµµµµµµµµµµµµµµµµµµµµµµµUnlike the precedent user,I do think that "Colorado territory" is superior to the former "high sierra".Raoul Walsh was absolutely right to rework his screenplay and to turn it into a western.It's worth to make a comparison point by point between the two works.Humphrey Bogart is superior to Joel McCrea,who does not posess the intensity and the madness that his part demanded,and his partnership with Virginia Mayo who has shone since her first appearance in the deserted village  is unbalanced.Bat all that remains outdoes the whole of "high sierra".The characters are more detailed than in the original story:Virginia Mayo's ("proof positive of Allah's existence" a sheik would have said)character has more substance than Ida Lupino's (it's not this excellent actress's fault though):a mixed-race girl,with Indian blood in her veins,she acts ,mainly in the last third as some kind of priestess of some pagan cult in this lost village whose secrets she seems to know intimately:about this subject,just compare the ominous Indian chants which are bad luck with the dog in the 1941 movie.Virginia Mayo radiates and recalls some of Jennifer Jones 's best parts (Vidor's"duel in the sun" which the ending recalls,and Powell's "gone to earth").Both are romantic actresses par excellence,but Mayo is more nervous,more rebellious (see her parts in Wyler's "best years of our lives" and chiefly Walsh's (again)"White heat")Although it's a "men" movie,it's easy to see that it's actually the female parts Walsh favors:Dorothy Malone's character is much more credible than the crippled girl of the first version who made "High sierra" verge on melodrama.Once again,admire the work of the scenarists:the equivalents are stunning;Bogarts pays for the crippled girl's surgery,McCrea saves Malone and her father's lives ,then gives them a lot of money to dig a well.Malone's character (she could be one of King Lear's daughters) will be more ungrateful than her predecessor,trying to play the obnoxious role of Judas so that she will get rich and marry a high society man -whom we never see-.The landscapes are used in a phenomenal way.The old town in ruin where MCQueen (McCrea) talks about Martha ,a dead woman he wanted to marry when he was young,where this girl,Colorado (Colorado territory!)feels from the start she won't escape anyway.Her fate is sealed:"you can escape from jail,she says,but you can't escape from yourself".These lovers are the stuff legends are made.And Walsh ,in his very last scene ,turns the tragedy in a faux happy end .The beaming monk rings the bells: the death of the couple brings life again in this silent place.'They were so happy" the monk says .People do not need to know if they still are.They became part of the legends the Indians tell by the moonlight.Try to see "high sierra" and "Colorado territory"in a row.The latter can appeal,in spite of his very clever dialogue,to the most demanding western buffs:the scenes on the train are filmed with mastery and the very first scene with the old lady,is,to quote her,"mischievous"..
In others, such as this, he is doomed to die trying.Fugitive badman Wes McQueen(Joel McCrea) and feisty tomboyish femme fatal Colorado(Virginia Mayo) have high hopes of 'busting out' of his past baggage and making a new start together as ranchers in Mexico, hopefully out of reach of pursuing US lawmen.
Yep, he's her man and she will follow him to the grave.Although officially a remake of "High Sierra" in a western setting, McQueen seems loosely modeled on Jesse James, who reputedly was planning to give up his outlaw ways after one more robbery, when he was assassinated by a gang member.
Western noir, Joel McCrea and Virginia Mayo at their best..
Virginia Mayo as 'Colorado' and Dorothy Malone as 'Julie Ann' were both in their 20s.'Colorado Territory' is a western noir, and the story bears a strong similarity to the 1941 Bogart movie, 'High Sierra.' In both movies a career criminal is sprung from jail and expected to do a big heist, he gets involved with two other men plus a woman, he threatens to kill the two men if they don't straighten out, he at first dismisses the woman only to eventually fall in love with her, he gets seriously wounded, he is chased up a mountain by the law, he vows to never do jail time again, he holds them off with a rifle, a sniper gets to a higher position to try to capture him.SPOILERS FOLLOW.
Director Raoul Walsh's classic gangster film High Sierra, made in 1941, consolidated Humphrey Bogart's rising star after his breakthrough film The Maltese Falcon.
If anything, Colorado Territory tops High Sierra in cumulative impact: McCrea and Mayo bring an intense, dark romanticism wholly befitting their rush to doom and Walsh's treatment of the landscapes that both dwarf them and swallow them up is outstanding.
This remake of Bogarts High Sierra is a good film vehicle.
It centers around a train robber (Joel McRae) who breaks out of jail, finds out the love of his life has died, & then is enlisted in trying to make one more big score robbing a train.During this stretch he meets 2 women (Virginia Mayo & Dorothy Malone)who make him forget his dead lover, and who both make different plays for him.
This is probably Walsh's best movie ever, partly due to his wonderful guidance of the actors, partly due to the stunning screenplay full of excellent dialogs.The story get's a lot of power by neglecting nearly all western clichés: The "good" guy who we suppose to be innocent, is a bandit.
And the hero picks not the good girl, but her, telling her "You are not aiming high".The criminal mastermind behind the hold-up is a likable, mortally ill old man, drinking himself to death while his job.
Raoul Walsh does his usual yeoman-like job of directing this mediocre Western with Joel McRae as an outlaw trying to make one last big haul by robbing a train, Dorothy Malone as the young woman he thinks he loves, and Virginia Mayo as the girl who is, as he finally realizes, made for him.Walsh also directed the original story, "High Sierra", with Humphrey Bogart, Joan Leslie, and Ida Lupino in the same roles.
"Colorado Territory" absconds with the story but leaves John Huston's felicitous script behind as scraps.Walsh has never directed a dull film, and this isn't dull.
Raoul Walsh Western, High Sierra (1941) remake, features Joel McCrea, Virginia Mayo.
Directed by Raoul Walsh, based on the W.R. Burnett novel High Sierra, this remake of the 1941 film, with a screenplay co-written by Edmund H.
The cast also includes Virginia Mayo, Dorothy Malone, Henry Hull, James Mitchell, Morris Ankrum, and Ian Wolfe, among others.McCrea plays the outlaw with a price on his head that escapes from prison and vows to go straight.
At any rate, I thought both Joel McCrea and Virginia Mayo performed exceptionally well and I liked the idea of him having to choose between two totally opposite female personalities in Julie Ann and Colorado.
It is considered to be a remake of Humphrey Bogart's "High Sierra", and plot similarities are quite obvious (and both were directed by Raoul Walsh).