COLORADO TERRITORY (USA/1949)

Raoul Walsh, the archetypal action director, transposed his High Sierra to the western genre with excellent results. Dave Kehr points out that " the added emphasis on landscape makes it a more personal and more effective film" than its predecessor. Joel McCrea stars as a bandit sprung out of jail by his aged partner who convinces him to do one last heist before retiring. McCrea must deal with his partner's envious new associates, lawmen in pursuit, and juggle two romantic interests played to perfection by Dorothy Malone and Virginia Mayo (in a more complex part than she played in Walsh's masterpiece White Heat). Very fast moving like most Warners films of the period with breathtakingly dynamic action sequences and Walsh's keen eye for image composition clearly evident. Not on dvd. Thanks TCM.