Colorado Territory

Wes McQueen is broken out of prison on condition that he take part in a train robbery. He wants out, he is thinking about a clean life, and the price on his head will not allow it. The end comes in the mountains. The interesting thing is who made it. Raoul Walsh had filmed High Sierra in 1941 and turned Humphrey Bogart into a star; eight years later he shot the same story as a western. Joel McCrea takes the Bogart part, with Virginia Mayo and Dorothy Malone opposite him. The change of genre helps the story. A city criminal has nowhere to run, while a western hero has open country, and that makes the ending sting more. Its flaw is that the characters' pasts are summarised quickly and the first half hour is cramped. Anyone who knows the original loses the surprises too. Who it is for: viewers who like classic westerns with a noir temperature. Who it is not for: anyone after an original story.