Save your money for something good and enjoyable

Let's be realistic.

It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

Producer: Jules Schermer. Copyright 20 May 1948 by Columbia Pictures Corp. New York opening at the Capitol: 20 January 1949. U.S. release: December 1948. U.K. release: 10 January 1949. Australian release: 18 November 1948 (sic). Sydney opening at the G.U. circuit's flagship, the State. 9,011 feet. 100 minutes. NOTES: A top favorite in cinemas from Gilda (1946) to Advance to the Rear (1964), Glenn Ford could virtually do no wrong. COMMENT: Ellen Drew is certainly one innocuous player. We had Stars in My Crown with this one at our Hollywood Classics screening last night and I didn't even realize until writing up my reviews this morning that both films starred the same actress! True, the female roles in both movies are strictly support. Here it's Glenn Ford in the unaccustomed role of irredeemable heavy who commands all the attention. Although Ford was criticized at the time for over=acting, he does such an excellent job as the villain, we wish he'd displayed the same fervor in some of his other roles. As Ford's goody two-shoes subordinate, Holden has little to do but look reasonably ingratiating, if mildly imbecilic. At least he - or rather his stunt double - figures in some memorable bits of action, including his jumping astride one of the lead horses of a runaway coach. A number of our favorite character players help out, including Ray Collins as the local magnate, Edgar Buchanan the sympathetic doc, James Millican as the victimized renegade and Frank Ferguson as the wounded stage-driver. Produced on a grand scale, The Man from Colorado is one of the first so-called "psychological westerns". In this one, however, the villain's neuroses are not allowed to overshadow the plot, simply provide a reason for it. There's still action a-plenty. If anything, there's even more than usual.

The main attraction here is bidding adieu to the Golden Boy early in this movie and watching the emergence of Bill Holden. It's his posture straightening up, his wide smile becoming more like gritting teeth, and how he delivers his lines from lower in his diaphragm. Oh, the blond dye job remains but the solid, serious man who owned the 50s is on show here, pre Sunset Boulevard. And as usual in the 40s, he's stuck in a crappy movie. We know Glenn Ford's character is nuts because he combs his hair with a six-shooter. This movie doesn't explore his PTSD (or whatever it was called post Civil War) any more than it explores the intracies of property law. It's just a loosely held together excuse for a love triangle and tangled loyalties over frontier justice. Edgar Buchanen was under-rated as a sidekick. He dispenses sage advice and acts as an excuse for exposition without getting on a viewer's nerves like Walter Brennan or Gabby Hayes or a few others. But this movie, jeepers, did the writers want us to believe Ford's character burned out the townsfolk so he could smoke out Holden's character. Just goofy.

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.

Back in the day William Holden and Glenn Ford both had a unique contractual arrangement with Columbia Pictures. When unknown Bill Holden was up for the lead in Golden Boy, Harry Cohn cast him in return for Paramount selling 50% of his services to Columbia. Holden served two studio masters at the time he was making The Man from Colorado and would for another decade. Glenn Ford was Columbia's bread and butter leading man at the time and right after The Man From Colorado, Cohn sold half of Ford's contract to MGM and Ford also had two studio masters.What it meant for these two was that all projects had to be cleared through both studios and that Holden and Ford if they did an outside loan out would also have to be cleared from both. Not that their respective studios didn't keep both these guys very busy.Holden and Ford had done a well received western, Texas, for Columbia back in 1941. Texas was a rather lighthearted film about two cowboys turning to different sides of the law in post Civil War Texas, though it did feature the death of one of them.The Man from Colorado is also a story about the activities of Union Army war veterans. But The Man from Colorado doesn't have any light moments whatsoever. It's pretty grim tale about one of them developing a real taste for sadism and killing as a result of the war. Ford's the sadist here, it's one of the few villain parts he ever did and it works I think because he is so against type. He did very few parts like this, Lust for Gold is another, but his public wouldn't accept him in these roles. Some of the town businessmen led by Ray Collins just look at the war record and decide Ford would make one fine federal judge. A real law and order type. They get a lot more than they bargain for.In Texas Holden had the showier role of the young cowboy who take the outlaw route. Here however he's the best friend who stands by his former commanding officer even though he both sees the man has issues and Holden loses Ellen Drew to Ford. Holden takes the outlaw path after giving up his marshal's job when Ford starts running roughshod over due process. The other really standout performance in this film is that of James Milliken who plays one of Ford's former soldiers who turns outlaw and in fact humiliates him in one of the few funny moments in The Man From Colorado. Ford conceives a burning hate for him that results in tragedy all around.Ford and Holden were considering another joint project in 1981 when Holden died. I would like to have seen that one come to pass.Try to see The Man From Colorado back to back with Texas.