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Don't Believe the Hype

Best movie of this year hands down!

If you like to be scared, if you like to laugh, and if you like to learn a thing or two at the movies, this absolutely cannot be missed.

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

Hedy Lamarr never warmed me as a movie star. She's a beautiful block of ice, able to photograph beautifully and pose in outfits of dating back to the biblical era to modern times, but we're not talking about modeling here: we're talking about giving a performance. Her sultry stares as Tondelayo were unforgettable, and she did manage to be enticing as the seductive Delilah. But for the most part, she simply reads lines rather than creates a character and never allows the camera into her heart, a definite flaw in a movie actress. Yet, she managed to last past going to the Casbah for close to two decades, so something must have been there that I'm not seeing.This western is as dull as her performance, dealing with saboteurs of copper mine workers. They want help from alleged civil war hero Ray Milland who denies being whom they claim he is. But when he shows up anyway, it's obvious that he's hiding his identity for a reason, taking on the bullies with no stopping for a break.The bad guys are MacDonald Carey and Lamarr, who seems to have a secret agenda of her own. Is she really on Carey's side, or playing him in order to help the other side? That's where this film fails to convince and become anything less than a train wreck. A fine supporting cast including Mona Freeman, Percy Helton, Frank Faylen and as a fly swatting saloon keeper, a colorfully made up Hope Emerson. A few good action sequences along the way help keep this moving, but it's like many others I've seen which did it better with an interesting story, which this lacks.

In "Copper Canyon" (1950) Ray Milland plays a sharpshooting entertainer named Johnny Carter who rides into an Arizona town where he comes between ex-Confederate and ex-Union miners who are fighting their own epilogue to the war. The Confederates believe Carter's actually a notable Confederate colonel and try to enlist his aid. Meanwhile the deputy sheriff of the town (Macdonald Carey) drips with malevolence and sides with the Union faction; Hedy Lemarr sides with 'em too, but she's not so malevolent.With really old Westerns like this I usually brace for the worst, but I was surprised at how entertaining "Copper Canyon" is once you acclimate to the old-style of filmmaking. The big mystery of the story is the protagonist's identity. Is he the acclaimed colonel or isn't he? The ending leaves no doubt.Speaking of the protagonist, Milland is strong as the mysterious Johnny Carter and reminiscent of Jimmy Stewart, albeit more cultured. Supposedly, he and Lemarr hated each other, which is ironic since their roles called for a hint of romance and it worked for me. Of course, Hedy was one of the most beautiful women to walk the face of the earth. There's also cutie Mona Freeman in a treacly role and Peggy Knudsen as a blond saloon girl.The subtext about the ex-Rebs and Yanks forgetting the past, accepting each other and maybe even teaming up is great. Someone may be technically "on your side," but corrupt is corrupt and evil is evil.At a mere 83 minutes, the story is convoluted and there's a lot of talk squeezed in (I suggest using the subtitles), but there's enough action and the location cinematography is awesome, shot in Sedona, Arizona, and Vasquez Rocks, CA.GRADE: B+

Copper Canyon is a well turned out, but unremarkable Western -- on the whole not more than a cut above one of Randolph Scott's average numbers. Yet it is unusually pleasurable to look at because of its gorgeous old Technicolor cinematography, exceptionally good use of gorgeous Arizona scenery by top cinematographer Charles Lang, lush sets by Sam Comer and Ross Dowd, stalwartly staged action sequences by director John Farrow, and two of the most gorgeous ladies ever to grace the silver screen -- Hedy Lamarr and Mona Freeman. What more could you ask from a little 60-year old western!Why do I say "old Technicolor"? I and other aficionados are always going on about the beautiful, luminous black & white movies of the late 'thirties, 'forties, and early 'fifties, when the crystal-clear nitrate film was in use. I don't know what kind of film they used for the three-strip Technicolor pictures then, but it seems to me that the color movies of the same period have a sharper, brighter, yet more subtle look than later ones. The color quality of Gone With the Wind (1939), The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex (1939), Canyon Passage (1946), and even the little movie were are discussing would never be surpassed in future eras, except perhaps by some of the Vista-Vision movies such as The Searchers (1956). (*see "Addendum" below)Such sumptuous color seemed designed to bring out the staggering beauty of Copper Canyon's two female stars. Neither Hedy Lamarr nor Mona Freeman ever came close to winning a best actress Academy Award, but if the Accademy gave a Gorgeous Dame award, both would have been in the running. Never mind that Hedy was in her late thirties at the time. Those of us who are veteran devotees of beautiful women know that is in fact the age at which women are at their absolute best. And Hedy was living proof in Copper Canyon. She never looked more sultry and desirable. Mona Freeman, age about 24 in 1950, was as pretty and sweet looking a young woman as could possibly be found -- an angelic face with cupid-bow lips framed by golden locks borrowed from a Wateau painting. One of my picky, old wife's movie pet peeves is women in western and other historical settings accoutered with that blaring Tangee lipstick -- you know, the kind that shouts at you. But it sure looked good on the two gorgeous babes of Copper Canyon.Oh, yes, Ray Milland was in the movie, too, as the reluctant hero. Macdonald Carey, usually a good guy but a virile and menacing villain here, nearly steals the show from the top-billed stars. Ray's suave, cool approach is always interesting, but he didn't seem to have his usual sharp edge in this one. Perhaps he was too busy admiring the scenery. Never mind, he and the other stars get lots of support from a pack of fine character actors, the most memorable of whom is the bizarrely colorful Percy Helton as a character named "Scamper".Copper Canyon is a solidly entertaining western and a visual treat.*Addendum: Never wonder about what you can look up. Since posting the above remarks, I have read the Wikipedia article on Technicolor. It was so stultifyingly technical, it would take a physicist (as the inventor of Technicolor was) or a professional photographer, or someone who was both to really understand it. I managed to wade through it armed only with my long ago liberal arts education, and here are the basics as best I can dope it out. The old 3-strip Technicolor process made such beautiful color because the special camera split the incoming light into the three primary colors registered on 3 film strips. These eventually, and magically to those of us technologically challenged, transformed to a single print on which the colors were actually dyed into he surface of the film rather than just printed on it. Result: clear, true, permanent color. The reason the color films from the late 1930's through early 1950's look so much better than most later ones is that they were true Technicolor and the later ones are not. In the late 1950's the studios went over to the cheaper and more convenient but inferior quality and less permanent Eastman Color system. Even later films called Technicolor were just Eastman Color developed at the Technicolor Corporation labs. Exceptions were the movies filmed in Vista Vision and Todd-AO or some other 70 mm wide screen processes. Those were true 3-strip Techicolor. Hope this has been helpful to others who have wondered about this.

Ray Milland is excellent in this under-estimated western. I would compare Milland to Jimmy Stewart or Gary Cooper. Milland was in Alfred Hitchcock's Dial M for Murder, and he did A Man Alone (he directed it also). Hedy Lamarr, for her only western is marvelous, beautiful. Also appears Harry Carey Jr. But the movie owes a lot to Milland and Lamarr's performancesMagnificent sets. There is a lot of action, except perhaps in the beginning. Great direction by John Farrow, who was going to direct 3 years later Hondo, with Duke Wayne.This western is a masterpiece, it is perfect. One of the best Paramount western ever made. Unmissable, and unforgettable.