Matialth Good concept, poorly executed.

Zandra The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

Guillelmina The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

Darin One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.

cburgess-95885 While at RKO Pictures, French expatriate Jacques Tourneur directed three low budget horror films for producer Val Lewton: "Cat People" (1942), "I Walked With A Zombie" and "The Leopard Man." (1943). All three are still considered to be classics of their kind. In 1947, he directed "Out Of The Past" starring Robert Mitchum, Jane Greer and Kirk Douglas. So by rights, "Canyon Passage" should have been a superior Western. It had everything in its favour, a very good director, a top-notch crew and a script based on a novel by Ernest Haycox which was adapted for the screen by Ernest Pascal. The photography was by veteran Hollywood cameraman Edward Cronjager. Frank Skinner wrote the music. Singer songwriter and sometime actor, Hoagy Carmichael performed "Ole Buttermilk Sky" in the film that he composed with Jack Brooks and was a big hit in its day. Sadly I found the film a distinct disappointment, let down in great part by the wooden performances of the two male leads: Dana Andrews as Logan Stuart, a merchant cum entrepreneur, and Brian Donlevy as George Camrose, his gambling addicted erstwhile business partner. It's a moot point whether this is the fault of a weak script, an inattentive director or bad acting,but the fact remains "Canyon Passage" is a lesser film because of it. Thankfully, the film manages to rise somewhat above your average 'horse opera' thanks, in no small part to Susan Hayward as Lucy Overmire, George Camrose's fiancee, British emigre, Patricia Roc as Logan's girlfriend, Caroline Marsh, and a strong performance by a stalwart of John Ford's films, Ward Bond. Such solid actors as Lloyd Bridges, Rose Hobart, Stanley Ridges and Halliwell Hobbes, in turn ably supported them. "Canyon Passage" is a modest attempt to portray what life was like on the Oregon Frontier, and is still worth watching.

vincentlynch-moonoi This is a rather impressive Western, far above average. The Technicolor photography is excellent, as is the outdoor scenery.There's also an excellent cast. Dana Andrews is the lead, and this is one of his better roles. Brian Donlevy is the second male lead, who is a little more crooked a businessman than most realize. Susan Hayward is excellent and quite beautiful as the fiancé of Donlevy. The beautiful Patricia Roc plays Andrew's love interest (this was her only Hollywood film, although she was a very popular actress in British films). Ward Bond is the real heavy here; one of my favorite character actors. Hoagy Carmichael plays an oddball businessman, although I never understood how Hollywood took an interest in him, other than for his music (which is highlighted here with his great song "Buttermilk Sky"). Lloyd Bridges and Andy Devine also have good supporting roles.I guess what keeps this from being a great film is that the plot just sort of wanders along (but then again, that is sort of what real life does) with no real apparent direction. Still, it's pretty interesting stuff...but it doesn't end up where you think it's going at all. In fact, it seems like all of sudden it's suddenly over.Lots of good stuff here, even if the plot moving forward is a little weak...particularly the ending.

ildimo1877 Frequently termed as "psychological", this find of a western, directed by the great Jacques Tourneur less than a year before Out of the Past, is way beyond this kind of terminology. In fact there's no psychology at all, unless you count as such what the spectator compulsively does in need to explain character actions. Tourneur however, not for a moment indulges in narrative superficiality. Instead convolutes a series of deeds, juxtaposes numerous characters, focuses obsessively in directing the glances between the characters (always in medium shots), complexes his camera movements and setups in a way as to convey western dialectics rarely seen before or after. From a presentation of the settler's phase in mid 19th century American west, to a thinly disguised homosexual relationship and from a discussion of frontier justice to an elliptically thoughtful apology on the American Indian issue, Canyon Passage (no canyon in the film…) is the archetypal Western film of actions (but no action, apart from the final Indian attack) defining human character and motive. Tourneur's first (and gloriously shot) colour film.

whit-809-947414 Much of the movie is shot in the Oregon woods. The Native Americans are all played by Native Americans, and the injustice to them plainly presented. The architecture is all authentically built. The pistols are stuck in belts, not in the rarely-used-then holsters. The characters are complex, and the dialog, while sparse, contains lines of Shakespearean depth. The lead character's strengths are at the same time tragic flaws.This can be watched as a simple and popular movie, but it aspires successfully to more than entertainment, to truth. It celebrates the frontier, while at the same time fully exposing its contradictions. The frontier becomes a metaphor for the limits of rationality itself, and a space for an exploration of the mode and meaning of the deepest human values.