Canyon Passage (1946)

Businessman Logan Stuart is torn between his love of two very different women in 1850's Oregon and his loyalty to a compulsive gambler friend who goes over the line.

Director:

Jacques Tourneur

Writers:

Ernest Haycox (adapted from the Saturday Evening Post novel "Canyon Passage"), Ernest Pascal (screenplay)

Stars:

Dana Andrews, Brian Donlevy, Susan Hayward

Nominated for 1 Oscar.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Dana Andrews	...	Logan Stuart
Brian Donlevy	...	George Camrose
Susan Hayward	...	Lucy Overmire
Patricia Roc	...	Caroline Marsh
Ward Bond	...	Honey Bragg
Hoagy Carmichael	...	Hi Linnet
Fay Holden	...	Mrs. Overmire
Stanley Ridges	...	Jonas Overmire
Lloyd Bridges	...	Johnny Steele
Andy Devine	...	Ben Dance
Victor Cutler	...	Vane Blazier
Rose Hobart	...	Marta Lestrade
Halliwell Hobbes	...	Clenchfield
James Cardwell	...	Gray Bartlett
Onslow Stevens	...	Jack Lestrade

Storyline

In 1856, backwoods businessman Logan Stuart escorts Lucy Overmire, his friend's fiancée, back home to remote Jacksonville, Oregon; in the course of the hard journey, Lucy is attracted to Logan, whose heart seems to belong to another. Once arrived in Jacksonville, a welter of subplots involve villains, fair ladies, romantic triangles, gambling fever, murder, a cabin-raising, and vigilantism...culminating with an Indian uprising that threatens all the settlers. No canyon in sight.

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Plot Keywords:

oregon | murder | loyalty | cabin raising | compulsive gambler | 

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Genres:

Action | Romance | Western

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Certificate:

Approved

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

30 September 1946 (Sweden)

Also Known As:

Feuer am Horizont

Filming Locations:

Backlot, Universal Studios - 100 Universal City Plaza, Universal City, California, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Universal Pictures

Technical Specs

Runtime:

92 min

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Recording)

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

"The Hedda Hopper Show - This Is Hollywood" broadcast a 30 minute radio adaptation of the movie on October 19, 1946 with Susan Hayward reprising her film role.

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Quotes

Logan Stuart: This is Jacksonville, Clench. U.S.A. We sail with the tide.
Clenchfield: All Americans think that. They think the tide flows forever for them. But mark, me, Logan... gold veins run out, crops fail, men starve, wars come.
Logan Stuart: And businesses fail... until we get a new deck and deal again.

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Soundtracks

"ROGUE RIVER VALLEY"
Music and Lyrics by Hoagy Carmichael
Sung by Hoagy Carmichael (uncredited)

User Reviews

"Any Man Can Choose His Own God"!

Tourneur's first Western is yet another of the director's unjustly misunderstood works. What at first appears to be vague or meandering tale is in fact an infinitely personal work with a subtle direction. Of all Tourneur pictures I have seen, "Canyon Passage" is the most endlessly fascinating. Here is a movie rich with pictorial beauty and simplicity, yet every time I watch it, I discover new things. The meaning often shifts and turns, revealing new depths, emotions, insights. You will probably not going to notice its emotional richness if you have just seen it once.

When I first saw "Canyon Passage", I was a little puzzled by it, especially the relationship between Dana Andrews' Logan and Brian Donlevy's George, but successive viewings and Chris Fujiwara's book were extremely helpful. "Canyon Passage" is far from a typical or ordinary Western, even though it concerns with theme of the affirmation of the American Myth or the cohesion of community. Most of the events occur off screen, the dialogue alludes to previous events that took place before the movie starts, the Hoagy Carmichael songs are unforgettable and become more timeless with each viewing. The three separate songs lyricize the narrative much like the timeless unifying song in Tourneur's masterful "Stars in My Crown"(1950).

Please give it another chance. It helps a bit if you revisit it from time to time to appreciate its neverending beauty and subtlety.