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The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

It is interesting even when nothing much happens, which is for most of its 3-hour running time. Read full review

No need to recap the 1850's Oregon plot since it's pretty complex, anyway.Excellent Western, though the subplots tend to crowd up. The Logan (Andrews), Camrose (Donlevy) friendship is an interesting and offbeat one, especially concerning the lovely Lucy (Hayward). In fact, that subplot is more like a romantic quadrangle once Caroline (Roc) is added to the mix. And what great background scenery with the rolling green hills and far-off snowy peak. Note too, how combat with the Indians is not on horseback, the custom in westerns. Instead, the opposing forces skulk through the forest, a neat kind of eerie effect. And I've seen a lot of Ward Bond movies, but none where his hulking menace is any scarier than here. When he spies the Indian maiden alone and swimming in the lake, my imagination shuddered and ran wild.Underrated Director Tourneur hit his stride about this time with (Out of the Past, {1947}), and (I Walked with a Zombie {1943}, for example. So it's not surprising he would add the brutal but realistic tomahawking of the helpless settlers' wives, a memorable if gruesome feature. Anyway Tourneur tries to keep up the pacing despite the passing romantic interludes, such that we hardly notice the many characters drifting in and out. Low-budget Universal really popped a load for this A-Western, including the cabin raising sequence that's both well- stocked and ironic in view of later events. All in all, I don't know where the canyon of the title was, but I didn't miss it a bit.

Canyon Passage (1946)This is a tale with a not so subtle moral message--the man who is modest, just, and hardworking is the better man. And he'll get the sassy girl, the one who is currently attached to the gambling big spender who is the good man's friend and opposite. Dana Andrews plays the virtuous leading man perfectly--he's strong without being a tough or outrageous strong man (like John Wayne) and he's also kind, with a smile the shoots off his sombre face like a flash of light. That's he's popular with women is no surprise, but he's committed most of all to being a successful businessman, and a restless one, roving from outpost to outpost in beautiful Oregon.His counterpart is the likable but flawed Brian Donlevy, who is really the perfect choice here because he isn't the kind of paradigm we will quite fall in love with. The woman who steals the show is Susan Hayward. And then there is Hoagy Carmichael, playing a role he often plays, the musician wise man who sees everything and understands it before anyone else. It's a great group, supported by hundreds of others (yes--an ambitious film) and directed with a subtle, fast touch by the unsung great, Jacques Tourneur.So, in short, "Canyon Passage" was surprise and a total pleasure. I couldn't take my eyes off of the photography and the rich color, good pure Technicolor with the redoubtable Natalie Kalmus coordinating. The plot is strong, and Andrews is terrific in scene after scene. Westerns are sometimes difficult to see from the 21st Century without putting it into some history of film context, but this one works as a drama, pure and simple, a drama set out west in the late 1800s. The movie is also unique in being set in the lush mountains near Portland, Oregon. The scenery is gorgeous in the big sense, but every small scene is lush and forested and rainy--almost the opposite of that dry, open, blue sky norma in a "Western" strictly speaking. Interiors in golden lamplight lead to exteriors of dripping greens and blues, or the delicate grays of night.Even the music is great, especially the lighthearted and clever songs by Carmichael. (The great Frank Skinner handled the rest of the score.) Edward Cronjager is one of the dozen great cinematographers of classic Hollywood, and in this you can see why. It's a complex film, visually, and it never lets up. Especially the night scenes (where the lights and sets could be controlled perfectly) are vivid and have that controlled beauty of great studio (and location) Hollywood. If any of these elements sound good, I wouldn't miss this film.

Gentleman Dana Andrews escorts Susan Hayward back to Oregon, where he unknowingly competes for her affection with suave, broke gambler Brian Donlevey and squares off with vicious bully (and suspected murderer) Ward Bond.Good production values, direction by Jacques Tourneur, and inspired villainy from Bond, as well as the presences of Andy Devine and songster Hoagy Carmichael all provide much needed color to this often-times bland melodrama.Tourneur was a true master of fantasy, horror, and the art of subtle storytelling, a trait not well suited for the western genre. He and Andrews fared much better a decade later in the horror classic Curse Of The Demon.

Much of the movie is shot in the Oregon woods. The Native Americans are all played by Native Americans, and the injustice to them plainly presented. The architecture is all authentically built. The pistols are stuck in belts, not in the rarely-used-then holsters. The characters are complex, and the dialog, while sparse, contains lines of Shakespearean depth. The lead character's strengths are at the same time tragic flaws.This can be watched as a simple and popular movie, but it aspires successfully to more than entertainment, to truth. It celebrates the frontier, while at the same time fully exposing its contradictions. The frontier becomes a metaphor for the limits of rationality itself, and a space for an exploration of the mode and meaning of the deepest human values.