The Man from Colorado (1948)

One of the worst movies I've ever seen

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

This is a gorgeous movie made by a gorgeous spirit.

A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.

Best friends Owen and Del, along with local men, are mustered out of the Union army at Civil War's end. Trouble is Big Ed has grabbed the men's gold-bearing land while the men were gone, and now, as a judge, Owen has to enforce the law in Big Ed's favor. This splits the community into warring factions.Gritty, character-driven western. We know at outset that Owen (Ford) is a flawed character when his Union detachment shells surrendering Johnny rebs. In fact, Owen hides his killer instinct behind an uptight rendering of authority, whether as a colonel or as a federal judge. Ford plays the authoritarian part so grimly (count the smiles—I stopped at zero), it's hard to see how the charming Caroline would be attracted to him. Nonetheless, the interplay between best-friends Ford and Holden is involving and forms the story's core. Alliances between the various factions are sometimes hard to keep up with, but are more unpredictable than usual. And I especially like that final maneuvering around the bridge that I didn't see coming.Columbia Studios popped for a lot of extras, along with fine special effects, especially when the burning wall comes down. Funny, though, how mountainous Colorado looks like greater LA. Too bad Columbia didn't pop for sending the crew at least to Lone Pine and the Southern Sierras. All in all, it's a very different kind of horse opera that avoids the usual clichés, with Ford at his absolute grimmest. Clearly, however, he and Holden are on their way up the Hollywood ladder.

Fine psychological western filmed in Technicolor. Glenn Ford plays a colonel in the Union Army driven insane by his experiences in the Civil War. After the war is over he accepts a federal judgeship and appoints his friend William Holden as marshal. As a judge, Ford continues to be as sadistic and cruel as he was during the war. Holden realizes he has to stop him. Ellen Drew plays the woman torn between the two men. Ford and Holden are solid. Looks good, particularly the location shooting. Mature themes will please many who don't normally care for older westerns. Never quite 'pops' the way you want it to but it's entertaining nonetheless.

Although it's a good-looking Technicolor western; this film attempts to explore the effect war has on one man, a colonel, (played by Glenn Ford) and those who fall foul of his obsessive behaviour. Although Ford is a bit one-note in his portrayal of an officer unhinged by power and blood-lust, it's interesting to see him play a nutter, while his friend, William Holden, is (for the most part) a bland good guy. I have a feeling that this western - one of the earliest with a "psychological" theme - wanted to say a lot more about the way people are deranged by the horrors of war, but it was probably constricted by the need to tell a box-office yarn. The direction is stolid; the colour is lavish, and there are some excellent confrontational scenes between Ford and the victims of his mania. Ellen Drew doesn't have much to do as the girl loved by both Ford and Holden. The ending is suitably melodramatic. It's just a shame we aren't able to see a little further into why Ford has turned into a monster; or the circumstances which have led him to his state. There's a bit too much of him twitching and glaring every time someone suggests he might be a bit loopy - we're always on the outside; if we were more on the inside it could have been a touching tragedy.

This movie probably predates the Cato, Hoover, Mackinaw, American Enterprise, etc. think tanks, but Glenn Ford as Union Col.\Colorado Judge Owen Devereaux out-thinks them all. Realizing that despite 600,000 mostly poor people just having got slaughtered in the War (and countless thousands more civilians dead or on death's door), Owen realizes there are TOO MANY regular folk around for the number of available slave-wage jobs, and too many folks smart enough to know the difference between subsidence living and solid American union wages. Therefore, Owen begins this story by gunning down 101 surrendering Confederates (who by secession have shown they think for themselves, and obviously will be impoverished agitators after losing the War). Next, he begins hanging his OWN MEN on various pretenses, right down to their teenage kid brothers, now that there are job shortages, and the people who made him hanging judge would prefer to pay one slice of bread per family member per day in wages. ALL THE RICH PEOPLE IN TOWN GO ALONG with this "class cleansing," until Owen's plan to incinerate the remaining regular folk riff-raff (and presumably replace workers with steam punk robots or Native American slaves exempted from the Emancipation Proclamation) upsets the biggest slum lord in town. Still, it's refreshing to see a movie character not beat about the bush on his WWSD (What Would Satan Do?) life principles.