Joel McCrea was one of my grandma’s favorite actors. She told me that years ago when I was probably 12 or 13 years old. At age 12 or 13, I had no idea who Joel McCrea was, but when I began to watch classic movies in my high school days, I did find out who he was. A tall, good-looking actor, often playing in comedies or dramas in the 1930s and 1940s; I could see why he was one of my grandma’s favorites! In the late 1940s and heading into the 1950s, McCrea was aging and he turned increasingly to roles in Western films. Colorado Territory was just such a career changing role and it fit McCrea’s persona to a T.
In 1941, famed Hollywood director Raoul Walsh had a huge box office hit with a gangster movie, High Sierra, that starred Humphrey Bogart. Jumping ahead to 1949, a similarly plotted film treatment landed on his desk, Colorado Territory, written by Edmund H. North and John Twist. Their screenplay took High Sierra and pushed it back in time to the 1870s. Walsh loved the story and got the greenlight from Warner Brothers to make this “newish” version of his earlier film.
In Colorado Territory, we meet outlaw Wes McQueen(Joel McCrea) stuck in a jail in Clay County, Missouri. He’s a notorious bank robber and train robber and known for being very fast with a gun. A sweet, little old lady arrives at the jail with a cake and some handknit woolen socks for McQueen, telling the jailor and sheriff that she’s McQueen’s Aunt Georgina(Hallene Hill). She is informed that she won’t be allowed to see McQueen, but that the basket of goodies will be delivered to him. As the aunt leaves, she tells the sheriff to give McQueen a message, that his old white horse has been broken to drive buggies by his Uncle Pluthner. The basket is given to McQueen with the message about his old white horse. McQueen immediately perks up, because he realizes it’s a coded message and that Pluthner isn’t really his uncle but a former Pinkerton agent turned outlaw. With an unraveling knitted sock, McQueen is able to escape from his jail cell in a way that would have made tv’s MacGuyver proud!
McQueen starting to unravel one of the socks.
The next morning it is discovered that McQueen has escaped. A bell is rung in the town, and a posse is rounded up. The chase to catch McQueen is on! Meanwhile, McQueen has met up with Pluthner(Harry Woods), who tells him that McQueen’s old robbing buddy, Dave Rickard(Basil Ruysdael) is living in Colorado territory and he wants McQueen to help him with one more train robbery, which will yield a large haul of cash, and that they can split it up with Pluthner, and then they can all scatter to do what they want with their lives.
McQueen makes a short stop at his family’s farm. He sits on his horse, looking wistfully around as he remembers his boyhood there. The new owner’s son appears, on his way to a fishing hole. McQueen recognizes the boy and asks him how is his family doing? The youth answers his questions but when McQueen asks about Martha, the boy’s face clouds up with sadness. He motions to McQueen that Martha is over yonder, buried in the cemetery. McQueen is very sad to learn of this news. He goes alone to pay his respects to Martha and from McCrea’s somber acting, we can tell that Martha was a very important person in McQueen’s life and future plans. This scene also allows the audience to feel empathy for this outlaw, who went from a mischievious youth to bad choices to now, wanting to just pull off one more robbery and then he’ll pursue a quiet, upright life. We are rooting for McQueen, hoping he can make this change.
McQueen visiting Martha’s grave
To get to Colorado territory and avoid the posse, McQueen takes a stagecoach and meets fellow passengers, Mr. Fred Winslow(Henry Hull) and his pretty daughter, Julie Ann(Dorothy Malone). Winslow is a chatterer, and goes on and on about leaving Georgia behind for a rich ranch he has purchased, Rancho del Sol. Julie Ann is exasperated with her father and several times tells him to stop telling about their personal affairs to this traveling stranger. McQueen lies, and tells the Winslow’s that his name is Jeff Rogers and that one day he, too, would like to farm or ranch in the West. When bandits are about to attack the stagecoach, McQueen impresses all with his ability to defend and defeat the would-be robbers. At the stagecoach depot, McQueen spies a wanted poster with his picture on it and he deftly tears if off the wall and discards it while accepting the award of a good horse that will help him get to the his next point -an abandoned mission town, Todos Santos, where the rest of the train robbing gang are waiting for him.
McQueen sees the bandits approach while on the stagecoach
Winslow reveals he moved Julie Ann to Colorado to get her away from a scoundrel back in Georgia
Dorothy Malone as Julie Ann-can she take Martha’s place in McQueen’s heart?
McQueen arrives in Todos Santos and meets his robbery team. What a bunch of misfits! There’s the brute, Reno Blake(John Archer), who has brought along a dance hall gal, Colorado Carson(Virginia Mayo)-a half-breed, rough kind of woman. Rounding out the trio is Duke Harris(James Mitchell) a smart-alecky, psychopathic guy. James Mitchell is so good in his role-I had only really known him previously from his role as Curly in the dream ballet sequence of the movie version of Oklahoma! and his long-standing role on the soap opera All My Children. I really think he should have been nominated for a best supporting actor, he does that well with the role of the twisted Duke!
Meeting the robbery gang at Todos Santos: Reno, Colorado, and Duke
Duke giving McQueen some more information about the robbery
McQueen having to break up a fight between Duke and Reno
McQueen lets it be known that he is in charge of this robbery for Rickard and Pluthner. Reno and Duke aren’t happy about this, but keep their complaints to one another. Colorado can tell that McQueen is a better man than Reno or Duke could ever hope to be and she begins to flirt with McQueen. One night she overhears him murmur Martha’s name in his sleep, and when he awakens, Colorado asks him about Martha, then throws herself into McQueen’s arms, essentially asking him to take her with him when the robbery is done. McQueen gently refuses her, taking her arms down from his neck and explains that there is someone else he wants to plan his future with, Julie Ann. He tells Colorado that he’ll make sure she gets a cut of the money and that he will expect her to go off on her own to start her new life.
Colorado realizing McQueen is a better man than Reno
Showing McQueen how well her broken leg has healed!
Colorado begging McQueen to take her with him after the robbery
The town’s station agent(Ian Wolfe) visits the gang. He’s a nervous sort of fellow, and a weakling. He has arrived to tell them the specifics of the train’s arrival and how much money it will be hauling in the safe. What he doesn’t tell the gang is that he’s really working with the U.S. Marshall for the region. The Marshall(Morris Ankrum) has gotten information about the attempted train robbery and he’s pretty sure McQueen’s behind it. More double-dealings are revealed: Pluthner has arranged with Reno and Duke to keep the money for themselves and to kill McQueen and Rickard, and Reno and Duke have their own plan brewing, to keep the money for themselves, killing McQueen, Colorado, and Pluthner in the process.
The robbery happens but it doesn’t go according to anyone’s plans and McQueen discovers all of the double-crosses that were going to happen. Unfortunately he is shot in the shoulder and while he and Colorado hide out at the Winslow’s ranch for a bit, McQueen sadly discovers that Julie Ann is not the girl he thought she was and he decides then and there to not plan a future with her as his wife. Leaving the Winslow’s ranch to head back to Todos Santos with Colorado, he realizes that perhaps Colorado is the woman he really loves.
It’s Colorado who McQueen really loves!
Uh oh! Seeing those smoke signals!
With McQueen and Colorado now planning their new life together at the old mission, with money in their possession and just a short ride over a mountain ridge to Mexico, they suddenly are awakened from their plans by the sight of smoke signals-an Indian that the US Marshall had sent to search for them found them at Todos Santos and sent the signal to let the Marshall and his posse know where McQueen and Colorado are hiding.
One of the film’s last images
I won’t reveal the end of Colorado Territory as I want the potential viewers to seek this film out! It’s a well-acted film, a storyline that doesn’t have any plot holes, and it touches on that philosophical question, can a person really change their life around?
Colorado Territory will be shown on TCM on Saturday, April 25th, at 4:30 pm EST/3:30 pm CST. It is also available to view on Amazon’s instant rent or for purchase. I’ll end my blog with a few more movie posters for Colorado Territory and I find them a bit amusing as they all focus on Virginia Mayo over Joel McCrea!
This poster I find quite well done
Two posters, comparing the two main characters of High Sierra and Colorado Territory
From my limited high school French, this movie isn’t all about the girl of the desert!
portraitsbyjenni 
20 Jan
Resolutions, Part Two
Posted by jennifromrollamo in Social Commentary. Leave a comment
Last week I wrote about my goal to be healthier and my ongoing weight loss program. Today’s post is all about decluttering our house of STUFF! After almost 26 years of marriage, 7 kids in various stages of leaving the nest and still needing to be in the nest, a dog, a turtle, and having moved and lived in 7 different homes, our family has accumulated a lot of stuff and lots of it needs to go!
I don’t watch the tv show about the people that hoard things to the point that they can’t even really live in their homes, but at times, there are areas in our house that are starting to pile up and I don’t like that that is happening. Books that we need to evaluate if we should keep them or give them away, toyboxes overflowing with toys that aren’t played with anymore, old computer games and computer parts, VHS tapes and a VCR that according to our kids, has bit the dust. Clothes-I will pat myself on the back here, as every year I have our kids go through their closets and dresser drawers and cull through their clothes-hand over to me what they can’t fit into or what they just plain don’t like anymore. Off to Goodwill the clothes depart. Husband is the only one who won’t go through his clothes-he even still owns a ghastly pair of “earth” shoes, from the his junior high days that I have threatened to send to the grave with him! It didn’t help when the main character on Breaking Bad, the chemistry teacher, even wore a pair!!! Husband delighted in telling me that fashion repeats itself, and the earth shoes stayed in his closet!
The dreaded Earth shoes!!!
I did begin a mini-book give away last week when a former homeschooling music program our kids participated in when we lived in the St. Louis area was asking for donations of educational picture books for their Young at Arts students. That was a nice feeling, to go through our myriad stacks of picture books and pull some out for donating and delivering them. I have also planned on a toybox purge this month. Some of our 7 kids have been polled if there are any toys they want us to keep for their future families: Legos, American Girl dolls, a doll house and it’s occupants and furnishings will be saved and the wooden toys my Dad made, those will be kept. I think the rest will have to go. Need to double-check with the firstborn if he cares about his matchbox cars or not and that NFL football his uncle gave him years ago.
A site that I have found very helpful in being a more organized person, and has great tips on decluttering a home, is Flylady. Flylady? No, she is not a superheroine, but a real person, Marla Cilley, who earned her nickname from teaching fly fishing. She is a real person and used to be a cluttered gal, with a home she was embarrassed to let anyone into for a visit. After living this way for a number of years, she had had enough and began her own system for becoming organized and having a company ready home for visitors. She eventually wrote some books about her system of staying organized and also began a helpful, online website, which one can check out here, at Flylady.net.
Some common and wise sayings via Flylady.
Flylady’s system is pretty easy to follow. A home is divided up into 5 zones : Front foyer and dining room areas, kitchen, bathrooms, master bedroom, living room/family room. Each week of the month, the cleaning focus is on that room, and the assigned tasks usually take no more than 15 minutes. There is also a weekly Home Blessing, with 7 tasks done weekly, to help keep the home visitor ready, and each task is about 15 minutes in length. There are also daily kid challenges (i.e. chores) that entail the kids in your home to help keep their bedrooms picked up, and to keep track of their stuff, and even recipe ideas for that ultimate dinner saver, the crock pot. Flylady does sell house cleaning tools, but it is optional if you want to buy any or not. There is no fee for looking at her website and trying out her methods. She also stresses to take care of yourself, get enough sleep, drink enough water, get daily exercise, and eat healthy foods. Saturdays she urges all to have family fun time-on an outing or at one’s home. Sundays, she encourages a day of rest, to worship and recharge as fits one’s beliefs.
2015-here’s to getting organized, to decluttering; I for one don’t want my adult kids having to decide what to do with all of Mom and Dad’s stuff, after we have left this mortal coil!