Main Cast: Dana Andrews, Ward Bond, Lloyd Bridges, Hoagy Carmichael, Victor Cutler
Release Year: 1946
Country: US
Run Time: 91 minutes
Plot
Dana Andrews -- in one of the best performances of his career -- plays Logan Stuart, a bold, ambitious general store and freight company owner based in the mining settlement of Jacksonville, OR, in 1856. He and his best friend, local banker and express company owner George Camrose (Brian Donlevy), share an attraction for young, beautiful Lucy Overmire (Susan Hayward). However, that's all the two men share -- Stuart sees life in the Oregon territory as a challenge, to be worked out and overcome with thought and time, with the opportunity to build something lasting and significant in the process. Camrose only sees the opportunity to get rich fast and live easy, and he's addicted to gambling at the local saloon. What no one knows is that he's been doing his gambling with the gold dust that the miners have left on deposit in his vault -- and he's been losing. He wants to get out of the territory, to someplace like San Francisco, and plans to take Lucy away. Stuart, by contrast, is as much a frontiersman as a businessman, and so much a part of the community and so trusted and liked that he might even be a potential political leader, if he ever had the time and the willingness to settle down and stay put. He finds consolation over his loss of Lucy in an engagement to Caroline Marsh (Patricia Roc), a daughter of an Englishman who came to Oregon only to see her father killed by Indians, who lives with the homesteading family of Ben Dance (Andy Devine) and his wife (Dorothy Peterson) and their children. Out of friendship, and also a little guilt over the fact that he would love to be engaged to Lucy, Stuart gives Camrose the money to get even, but Camrose can't resist one last card game, and not only loses what Stuart gave him, but the gold dust of one miner -- who shows up unexpectedly in town that night, planning on getting his dust the next day. When the man turns up drowned, Camrose is accused of murder; Stuart stands by his friend, but he's found guilty and the miners, led by hot-headed young Johnny Steele (Lloyd Bridges), plan on hanging him, and shooting anyone who tries to get in the way. But before his fate can be settled, an Indian war starts over the killing of a young Native American woman, and the lives of every white settler in and around Jacksonville are suddenly endangered. There's all of that, plus four songs (including "Old Buttermilk Sky") from Hoagy Carmichael (who does a great acting job), all convincingly woven into the drama along with one of the music legend's best acting performances. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide
Review
Forget the significance or meaning of the title -- there is none to be found in the movie -- and just take in one of the best Westerns of its era that wasn't made by John Ford. Director Jacques Tourneur was best known for his stylish, atmospheric black-and-white horror chillers such as Cat People and Curse of the Demon, and expressionist thrillers like Berlin Express, but in 1946 -- working for Universal and producer Walter Wanger -- he proved that he was equally adept in the outdoor Western genre, and working in Technicolor. With Edward J. Cronjager handling the stunning cinematography, Tourneur concentrated on the acting and drew some of the best performances of their entire careers out of Dana Andrews, Brian Donlevy, Susan Hayward, Lloyd Bridges (in a role that anticipates his work in High Noon), Andy Devine, Hoagy Carmichael (who acts as well as he sings), and Ward Bond. The movie also has something of the feel of a later Ford production for being a family affair, as two of Devine's sons are present in the cast, portraying the sons of his character. Beyond that, however, there is the sheer depth of the script and the approach taken to it to be savored -- this is a Western, but it's also a story of large ideas built around serious drama, and rather anticipates the kind of work that Anthony Mann and James Stewart did together in that genre in the subsequent decade, with some serious psychology operating behind the portrayals and motivations of the characters. Andrews is totally convincing as the somewhat reluctant hero of the piece, and Susan Hayward shines in a surprisingly lusty -- almost libidinous performance, by the standards of the time -- as the object of two men's affections, with little adoring and greedily lustful glances in a direction they shouldn't be cast. And add to that one of the more convincingly violent and realistic fight scenes, and there's a lot in here for all kinds of viewers. It's all gorgeous to look at and deep and serious enough to constitute a major, oft-overlooked entry in the Western genre, and one that deserves to be discovered by a new audience. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide
John B. Goodman - Art Director, Richard H. Riedel - Art Director, Alexander Golitzen - Associate Producer, Travis Banton - Costume Designer, Jacques Tourneur - Director, Miton Carruth - Editor, Hoagy Carmichael - Composer (Music Score), Frank Skinner - Composer (Music Score), Frank Skinner - Musical Direction/Supervision, Jack Brooks - Songwriter, Hoagy Carmichael - Songwriter, Jack Pierce - Makeup, Edward J. Cronjager - Cinematographer, Walter Wanger - Producer, Russell A. Gausman - Set Designer, Leigh Smith - Set Designer, David S. Horsley - Special Effects, Bernard B. Brown - Sound/Sound Designer, Ernest Pascal - Screenwriter, Ernest Haycox - Book Author
Tout Ça ne Vaut pas l'Amour (1931) ·Pour Être Aimé (1933) ·Les Filles de la Concierge (1934) ·Romance of Radium (1937) ·The Man in the Barn (1937) ·They All Come Out (1939) ·Nick Carter, Master Detective (1939)
