Passage West

Not a classic- brutal, cruel, B movie with non-standard features.

Blacklisted screenwriter Alvah Bessie, one of the Hollywood Ten penned the story for Passage West. Had he been blacklisted for bad writing on seeing this one rather than political opinions he might not have obtained martyrdom. This is a rather unreal story of six escaped convicts who inflict themselves on a wagon train bound for California headed by preacher Dennis O'Keefe. The leader of the convicts is John Payne whose career path was like Dick Powell's completely sheds his boyish crooning image for being a complete tough guy.

Unfortunately unlike Dick Powell this was not a Murder My Sweet success for him. Payne did many interesting roles in B films during the Fifties, but this was not one of them.

Dennis O'Keefe who was something of a raffish fellow also just does not ring true as a frontier preacher. He and Payne have a rivalry of sorts over Arleen Whelan who is scheduled to marry preacher O'Keefe after the journey is over starts reassessing things with the sight of a shirtless Payne sporting a very hairy chest. In complete contrast to his earlier days when 20th Century Fox had him apparently shave it.

Some of the convicts include Frank Faylen, Richard Rober, and in his farewell performance Dooley Wilson, the famous Sam of Casablanca as an escaped slave who was in prison apparently for just that. Also Mary Beth Hughes has an interesting role as a saloon entertainer along with the preacher's wagon train. She provides a note of wisdom occasionally.

Pine-Thomas who produced some interesting B films for Paramount came up very short with this one.

Although this Western starts with some good ideas, based on a not particularly important book by Alvah Bessie & Nedrick Young (who were both at the Hollywood's black list, having been accused for Communist sympathies), the script fails to develop them further. The production is cheap, the directory typical for the genre and without signs of imagination, while the actors and actresses are incapable to blow life in the characters. I have given it 3 out of 10.

That's my favourite western from Lewis R Foster and also probably the less known but so good, thanks to John Payne's performance, in a very ambivalent character. No evil, villain, but ambivalent, the kind of character whom you hesitate between love him or hate him. There were some time to time such characters in westerns; Alan Ladd would have been perfect in this Paramount - his actual host company - production. This is one of Payne's best performances. This ex convict, this prison break convict was interesting from the start, and i would have also imagined Van Heflin in the preacher role. Excellent little western.

A group of religious people led by Dennis O'Keefe are in a wagon train to California. Up comes John Payne, murderer, and his five associate, escaped from prison. They join the train, boss it around, insult the women, and generally make a mess of the passage.

It's a Pine-Thomas production, and shows the canny production values of the Dollar Bills. They used a well-worn but serviceable story, one with which the audience would be familiar with and comfortable seeing again. They employed a competent, journeyman director in Lewis R. Foster. They had a cast list of recognizable and skilled performers in Frank Faylen, Mary Anderson, Mary Beth Hughes, Griff Barnett, Richard Travis, and Dooley Wilson, available reasonable sums. And they got a great cameraman in his first year of being the Director of Photography on a picture, in a career that would encompass four nominations for best cinematography and one win in Loyal Griggs. Clearly they knew how to pick talent.

Griggs had been working in the camera department and as a cameraman at Paramount for 27 years before he got a credit as DP, and he proceeded to waste no time. He had already shared a special Academy Award with the rest of Paramount's effects department, before Technical Achievement became its own category. In 1954 he would win the Best Color Cinematography Award for Shane, and be nominated three more times over the next dozen years. He would retire in 1971 and die in 1978 at the age of 71.