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Post by Aj_June on Mar 14, 2019 17:30:36 GMT
Both directed by the excellent filmmaker Raoul Walsh and having the same general theme. In fact, Colorado Territory (1949) is a remake of High Sierra (1941). I think both movies are of excellent quality and I personally enjoyed them both a lot. You don't often see a movie being remade in a different genre. In fact, it is very very rare for a film made in the noir genre to be remade in western or vice versa. It's been a while that I saw High Sierra but remember having enjoyed it when I saw it close to a decade back. But I saw Colorado Territory recently and it really is what I call a sad beautiful movie. I think Walsh was a genuinely awesome director and can't praise him enough for his excellent direction in the western. I think I should make a special mention of Virginia Mayo who absolutely stole the show in the western. She was truly in her character and looked very convincing. But this not to do injustice to Joel McCrea who also put in a very good performance.
What are your thoughts on both of these movies? Did you like one more than the other? I watched them 10 years apart so can't make a fair comparison but I can say that I liked both.
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Post by mattgarth on Mar 14, 2019 17:40:55 GMT
Director Walsh did it again (remaking an earlier work in a different genre).
The 1945 war film OBJECTIVE, BURMA starring Errol Flynn was essentially remade in 1951 as the Western (actually a Southern, it takes place in Florida) DISTANT DRUMS with Gary Cooper in the Flynn role.
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Post by Aj_June on Mar 14, 2019 17:44:32 GMT
Director Walsh did it again (remaking an earlier work in a different genre). The 1945 war film OBJECTIVE, BURMA starring Errol Flynn was essentially remade in 1951 as the Western (actually a Southern, it takes place in Florida) DISTANT DRUMS with Gary Cooper in the Flynn role. Cool. Thanks for that excellent info, Matt. Walsh was very multitalented it seems.
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Post by mattgarth on Mar 14, 2019 18:05:41 GMT
Raoul seemed to enjoy repeating himself, Aj -- or maybe he kept on doing them until he got it right.  He made STRAWBERRY BLONDE with Cagney and Olivia and Rita Hayworth in 1941, and then returned to it seven years later as ONE SUNDAY AFTERNOON with Dennis Morgan and Dorothy Malone and Janis Paige in the same roles. As for your OP, COLORADO is an excellent Western (one of McCrea's best performances), while HIGH SIERRA stands out as a great one. That picture, along with MALTESE FALCON made the same year, really set Bogie's career into high gear. |
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Post by Prime etc. on Mar 14, 2019 18:07:43 GMT
I haven't seen COLORADO TERRITORY but isn't the Jack Palance film I DIED A THOUSAND TIMES the official remake of HIGH SIERRA?
I don't think it holds a candle to the original, although replacing one guy with Lon Chaney Jr wasn't a bad change, however, Lee Marvin should have been Roy (I guess he was a little young).
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Post by wmcclain on Mar 14, 2019 20:21:16 GMT
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Post by wmcclain on Mar 14, 2019 20:22:14 GMT
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Post by teleadm on Mar 15, 2019 17:16:58 GMT
Since I've only seen High Sierra I can't choose fairly, but that's a movie I like,
I've heard about Colorado Territory and I Died a Thousand Times, but I thought there were a third variation, but I might have mixed it up with another movie.
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Post by Aj_June on Mar 15, 2019 18:09:34 GMT
I haven't seen COLORADO TERRITORY but isn't the Jack Palance film I DIED A THOUSAND TIMES the official remake of HIGH SIERRA? I don't think it holds a candle to the original, although replacing one guy with Lon Chaney Jr wasn't a bad change, however, Lee Marvin should have been Roy (I guess he was a little young). I have not seen I DIED A THOUSAND TIMES, Prime. But I read about it on some websites just now and it seems that I Died a Thousand Times is also a remake of High Sierra. That said just to clarify your doubt, yes, Colorado Territory is also a remake of High Sierra even if there is one more remake the same movie (I Died a Thousand Times).
Yes, I Died a Thousand Times is a closer remake of High Sierra because some sites say it is a scene by scene remake. Whereas, Colorado Territory is not a scene by scene remake as the whole setting is different. But it is still a remake as in general plot and theme of the story. Hope that helps.
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Post by hitchcockthelegend on Mar 16, 2019 21:41:05 GMT
Versus? This is like asking me to pick a favourite leg!
Both top end of the genre tables they sit at, if it's a gun to my head job I'd be taking the Bogart to my desert island retreat. In fact I'll have to fish it out and watch again to see why I didn't give it a 10/10...
High Sierra (1941)
Roy Earle, a man out of prison and out of his time.
Thanks to a rather shifty pardon, Roy Earle Is released early from prison. A job is out here waiting to be done - maybe Roy's last one before finally finding love and straightening out? But Roy is finding out that this is a different world to the one he left behind, the one before he entered the Big House for his stretch. There are crooks he's not familiar with and women turning his head, hell even a canine has him at odds with his machismo sensibility, but all of it will come crashing together amongst the magnificent High Sierra!
It's a really funny thing now, you buy two DVDs and they both tell you that the respective film from 1941 is the breakout role for Humphrey Bogart. I am of course referring to both this fabulous film and the equally brilliant Maltese Falcon, what a double that is eh! Truth is, is that both films merely showcase what a talent the great man was, and crucially, that he could imbue his characters with terrific pathos and emotive drive. Here as Roy Earle Bogart gives one of his best 40s performances, this on a CV that has many other great turns. Made to look far more aged than he was (well done Perc Westmore), he manages to make Earle a tough and gritty man, yet at the same time he pulls the audience on side with a hardened professionalism that has us admiring the obvious qualities that reside deep within him.
Directed by directing great Raoul Walsh, scripted by one John Huston, and starring Humphrey Bogart, it's obvious that this take on W.R. Burnett's novel is in safe hands. Playing out as one of the gangster genre's last hurrahs, it's clear to me that some future great Western directors were taking notes, for what drives High Sierra to being so gripping throughout is the man out of his time pulse beats, sensitivity seams through the picture without ever cloying the tension and feel of the pic. The best Adult Westerns coming in the next two decades would grab this thematic arc with genre bolstering aplomb.
Backing up Bogart is the top billed Ida Lupinio (as we would come to expect she's strong and perfect foil to her lead man), while the likes of Alan Curtis, Arthur Kennedy, Henry Hull, Cornel Wilde, Henry Travers and Joan Leslie (badly overacting but amazingly not hurting the production) help to put High Sierra firmly in the drawer that holds classic crime pictures from a golden age. Not just content to be a close look at deep and elegiac characters, High Sierra does not lack in the action department either, in fact Walsh does an incredible job of knitting together heart and gusto for dramatic entertainment purpose.
Come the finale at Mount Whitney (High Sierra a constant looming presence in the film, a key character), the thrills have more than catered for the inclined seekers of that particular bent, but ultimately as the credits role, Walsh's camera leaves us in no doubt as to what has driven Roy, and High Sierra, to its point of meaning, leaving us with a special and great movie indeed. 9/10
Colorado Territory (1949)
Territorial Doom.
Colorado Territory is directed by Raoul Walsh and adapted to screenplay by Edmund H. North and John Twist from the novel "High Sierra" written by W.R. Burnett. It stars Joel McCrea, Virginia Mayo, Dorothy Malone and Henry Hull. Music is by David Buttolph and cinematography by Sidney Hickox.
Raoul Walsh remakes his own High Sierra from 1941 but supplants it into a Western genre setting - with tremendous results.
McCrea plays outlaw Wes McQueen who springs from prison and vows to go straight, but with a price on his head he is coerced into one last railroad robbery. If he can escape the law then he can make a go of it as a new man, with a new name, and comforted by a new found love of a good woman, Colorado Carson (Mayo). Can he escape the law and those who would sell him out for money?
A remake of a classic film noir, Colorado Territory is itself classic film noir. Whilst not reaching the dizzying star heights of Bogart's 41 version, this is a film of great strengths. Thematically it's noir gold dust, the great Walsh not pandering to anyone and ensuring the dark edges of Burnett's novel play out on screen - including the shattering finale.
The photography is grade "A", both in chiaroscuro textures and sumptuous location framings. Cast can't be faulted either, McCrea a genuine horseman is firmly at home in a Western setting, Mayo and Malone positively light and sex up the screen, while classy performer Hull lends weighty support.
High end Western staples are adhered to, with robbery actions, fights, stunts, villainous betrayals and back stabbers, these marry up to the noirish cement of a man unable to escape his fate, his past weighing heavy on his shoulders, all ensuring there's constantly a doom laden feel permeating the story.
Rarely mentioned when talk turns to film noir Westerns, but it should be since it's one of the best. 9/10
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Post by hitchcockthelegend on Mar 16, 2019 21:51:29 GMT
I Died a Thousand Times (1955)
Famed Bandit, Former No 1 On FBI List, Pardoned After Eight Years.
I Died a Thousand Times is directed by Stuart Heisler and adapted to screenplay by W.R. Burnett from his own novel High Sierrra. It stars Jack Palance, Shelley Winters, Lori Nelson, Lee Marvin, Pedro Gonzalez Gonzalez, Lon Chaney Junior and Earl Holliman. A CinemaScope/Warnercolor production, cinematography is by Ted McCord and music by David Buttolph.
It will always be debatable if remaking the excellent High Sierra (Raoul Walsh 1941) was needed or wanted by a 1950s audience? Especially since Walsh had himself already remade it as a great Western with 1949 film Colorado Territory, but taken on its own terms, with great production value and Burnett's personal adaptation taken into consideration, it's a very enjoyable film.
Set up is simple, it's one last heist for Roy "Mad Dog" Earle (Palance) before going straight, but as his attempts to break free from his emotional loner status fall apart, so does the heist and his future is written in blood right up there in the mountains. Heisler and Burnett put Earle up front for character inspection, easing in sympathetic tones whilst ensuring he remains a big physical threat. The air of fatalism is pungent enough and the finale is excitingly staged by Heisler. Cast performances are more than adequate if not comparing to the likes of Bogart and Lupino, while the Warnercolor is gorgeous and the photography around the Alabama Hills in Lone Pine is superb.
While not in the same league as High Sierra or Colorado Territory, that doesn't mean this is a wash out, more so if you haven't seen either of the Walsh movies. If you have, like me (High Sierra is one of my favourite Bogart performances), then comparisons and a feeling of deja vu will obviously infiltrate your viewing experience. That said, there is more than enough here to make it worth your time regardless of comparison and familiarities. 7/10
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Post by telegonus on Mar 17, 2019 6:11:25 GMT
I like both films enormously, marginally prefer the 1941 original due to Bogart and its being a more "straight" adaptation of the excellent W.R. Burnett novel. If one reads the novel prior to watching the film one might be put off by Bogart's lack of much in the way of physical menace, a key factor in how Roy Earle is presented in the book; however, I'd seen the movie many times prior to that, so this was no problem. The 1949 Colorado Territory, which I caught for the first time in the past six months, is beautiful to look at, nicely acted and written. A way above average western, it doesn't feel like a remake of anything. Director Walsh did it right. I knew it was a remake, and of what, and was delighted by how little it felt like one.
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Post by Aj_June on Mar 17, 2019 16:15:19 GMT
Versus? This is like asking me to pick a favourite leg!
Both top end of the genre tables they sit at, if it's a gun to my head job I'd be taking the Bogart to my desert island retreat. In fact I'll have to fish it out and watch again to see why I didn't give it a 10/10...
Cool. Yeah, they are both very good movies although I believe most people will give a slight edge to High Sierra (as even you did).
Nice way to summarize the film. Usually, I do not have any sympathies for robbers and outlaws, but Joel McCrea did make me sympathetic for him. The only problem with him was his false belief that there is something as "one last robbery". One should stop when one has the time. When you enter the world of crime trouble follows you all the time. That was the message of the movie too.
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