Canyon Passage (1946)

User Rating:

7.0/10   

Director:

Jacques Tourneur

Writers:

Ernest Haycox (adapted from the Saturday Evening Post novel "Canyon Passage")
Ernest Pascal (screenplay)

Release Date:

17 July 1946 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Music | Romance | Western

Plot:

Businessman Logan Stuart is torn between his love of two very different women in 1850's Oregon and his loyalty to a compulsive gambler friend who goes over the line.

Plot Keywords:

Oregon | 1850s | Loyalty | Murder | Cabin Raising

Awards:

Nominated for Oscar.

Cast

Dana Andrews	...	Logan Stuart
Brian Donlevy	...	George Camrose
Susan Hayward	...	Lucy Overmire
Patricia Roc	...	Caroline Marsh
Ward Bond	...	Honey Bragg
Hoagy Carmichael	...	Hi Linnet
Fay Holden	...	Mrs. Overmire
Stanley Ridges	...	Jonas Overmire
Lloyd Bridges	...	Johnny Steele
Andy Devine	...	Ben Dance
Victor Cutler	...	Vane Blazier
Rose Hobart	...	Marta Lestrade
Halliwell Hobbes	...	Clenchfield
James Cardwell	...	Gray Bartlett
Onslow Stevens	...	Jack Lestrade

Runtime:

92 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Recording)

Certification:

USA:Approved (certificate #11547) | UK:U | Finland:K-16 | Sweden:15 | Australia:PG

Filming Locations:

Oregon, USA

Company:

Universal International Pictures (UI)

Quotes:

Ben Dance: If you want to catch a man, you got to work at it.
Lucy Overmire: I want no man I have to catch.
Ben Dance: Why sure, you catch him and he catches you. A man always figures that he does the catching. The truth is, it's the woman that brings him up on the rope... and him not quite knowing it.

Soundtrack:

SILVER SADDLE

"Any Man Can Choose His Own God"!

Tourneur's first Western is yet another of the director's unjustly misunderstood works. What at first appears to be vague or meandering tale is in fact an infinitely personal work with a subtle direction. Of all Tourneur pictures I have seen, "Canyon Passage" is the most endlessly fascinating. Here is a movie rich with pictorial beauty and simplicity, yet every time I watch it, I discover new things. The meaning often shifts and turns, revealing new depths, emotions, insights. You will probably not going to notice its emotional richness if you have just seen it once.

When I first saw "Canyon Passage", I was a little puzzled by it, especially the relationship between Dana Andrews' Logan and Brian Donlevy's George, but successive viewings and Chris Fujiwara's book were extremely helpful. "Canyon Passage" is far from a typical or ordinary Western, even though it concerns with theme of the affirmation of the American Myth or the cohesion of community. Most of the events occur off screen, the dialogue alludes to previous events that took place before the movie starts, the Hoagy Carmichael songs are unforgettable and become more timeless with each viewing. The three separate songs lyricize the narrative much like the timeless unifying song in Tourneur's masterful "Stars in My Crown"(1950).

Please give it another chance. It helps a bit if you revisit it from time to time to appreciate its neverending beauty and subtlety.