Night Passage
Thanks to ultracrisp Technirama photography of great mountainside and river gorge locations in Colorado,Night Passageis often terrific to look at; you can almost feel the autumn sun and brisk air.  This should have been another classic Western pairing James Stewart with director Anthony Mann.  But after choosing the locations, cast, and crew, and directing the precredit sequence, Mann abruptly resigned.  He found Borden Chase's screenplay an "incoherent" rehash of relationships and setups from their previous films, nor was he encouraged by Stewart's determination to play the accordion and sing.  Stewart's an ex-railroad cop who became a pariah by letting a prisoner--Audie Murphy's "The Utica Kid"--escape.  The two cross paths again in a ghost town where Dan Duryea, doing a zany version of his loony outlaw fromWinchester '73, has holed up with his gang.  Replacement director James Neilson, a newcomer destined for bland Disney servitude, fosters a lot of flatfooted standing-around.--Richard T. Jameson