Colorado Territory | |
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Theatrical release poster
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Directed by | Raoul Walsh |
Produced by | Anthony Veiller |
Screenplay by | |
Based on |
High Sierra 1941 novel by W.R. Burnett |
Starring | |
Music by | David Buttolph |
Cinematography | Sidney Hickox |
Edited by | Owen Marks |
Production
company |
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Distributed by | Warner Bros. |
Release date
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Running time
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94 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Colorado Territory is a 1949 American Western film directed by Raoul Walsh and starring Joel McCrea, Virginia Mayo, and Dorothy Malone. Written by Edmund H. North and John Twist, and based on the novel High Sierra by W.R. Burnett, the film is about an outlaw who is sprung from jail to help pull one last railroad job.
This version is a remake of the 1941 crime film High Sierra starring Humphrey Bogart, also directed by Walsh. The story was remade for a third time in 1955 as I Died a Thousand Times with Jack Palance and Shelley Winters.
Notorious outlaw Wes McQueen (Joel McCrea) is freed from jail and heads off to the Colorado Territory to meet the man who arranged the escape, his old friend Dave Rickard (Basil Ruysdael). Along the way, the stagecoach he is riding in is attacked by a gang of robbers. When the driver and guard are both killed, McQueen kills or drives off the remaining gunmen, earning the gratitude of the other passengers, dreamer Fred Winslow (Henry Hull) and his daughter Julie Ann (Dorothy Malone). Winslow has bought a ranch sight unseen and looks forward to making his fortune.
McQueen arrives at the ghost town of Todos Santos, where Reno Blake (John Archer) and Duke Harris (James Mitchell) are waiting for him, along with Reno's part-Indian girlfriend, Colorado Carson (Virginia Mayo). After looking them over (and not liking what he sees), he heads off to a nearby town to meet an ailing Rickard, who asks McQueen to pull off one last big train robbery so they can both retire.