Canyon Passage

Oregon, 1856. Logan Stuart runs a store and hauls goods into the gold country. His friend George is buried in gambling debt and Logan keeps covering him. At the same time he will not admit to himself what he feels for Lucy, George's fiancée. On top of all this, the tension between settlers and the Native population turns into open conflict. Jacques Tourneur directs. Dana Andrews plays Logan, Susan Hayward plays Lucy, Brian Donlevy plays George. The source is Ernest Haycox's novel. This was Tourneur's first film in colour and the choices are clear: the Oregon forest fills most of it, and the exteriors carry the characters' state of mind. Tourneur was known for horror, and he builds this western with the same quiet menace. There is a musician in the cast too. Hoagy Carmichael wanders through the film as a drifter and sings. Ole Buttermilk Sky was nominated for the best song Oscar. What separates it from the western template is how much room it gives the economics of town life. Who owes whom, where the goods come from, how credit works: the story is built on that. Who it is for: viewers who like classic westerns and Tourneur's sense of atmosphere. Who it is not for: the depiction of the Native population follows the convention of its period and is both thin and troubling now.