CANYON PASSAGE

 One of the most beautiful Technicolor films ever made as well as one of the most unjustly neglected of westerns "Canyon Passage" may be Jacques Tourneur's masterpiece. Actually it doesn't feel like a western at all with its rambling narrative and its Oregon setting, (no Monument Valley vistas here). With Hoagy Carmichael warbling through several scenes it's almost a musical western while the relationships between its principal protagonists, (Dana Andrews, Susan Hayward, Brian Donlevy and Patricia Roc), is surprisingly complex.

Indeed, this is a western that breaks several rules, (and it's nice seeing Ward Bond as a dastardly villain), being set in a believable community with characters you can empathize with and with first-rate performances throughout. The fact that violent action is largely absent until near the end only adds to its autenticity. A great film that cries out out for rediscovery.