The Man from Colorado (1948)

The Man From Colorado is directed by Henry Levin, has a screenplay by Robert Hardy Andrews and Ben Maddow, the film stars Glenn Ford, William Holden and Ellen Drew.Owen Devereaux (Glenn Ford) and Del Stewart (William Holden) are best friends and colleagues during the American Civil War. Devereaux slowly begins to go insane because he begins to actually enjoy killing the enemy and can't make himself want to stop doing so.The film takes a good(if somewhat brief)look at the psychological pressures those who go to war face, they seldom return from battle the same person who left. A very young Holden is good as Del struggling to accept what is happening to his friend but realising that he must be stopped. Ellen Drew is very good as the beautiful Caroline Emmett who is torn between the two men.Ford is the standout among the cast for me, he looks so haunted and deranged and really does a good job of showing Devereaux's descent into madness and evil.

Fine psychological western filmed in Technicolor. Glenn Ford plays a colonel in the Union Army driven insane by his experiences in the Civil War. After the war is over he accepts a federal judgeship and appoints his friend William Holden as marshal. As a judge, Ford continues to be as sadistic and cruel as he was during the war. Holden realizes he has to stop him. Ellen Drew plays the woman torn between the two men. Ford and Holden are solid. Looks good, particularly the location shooting. Mature themes will please many who don't normally care for older westerns. Never quite 'pops' the way you want it to but it's entertaining nonetheless.

This movie probably predates the Cato, Hoover, Mackinaw, American Enterprise, etc. think tanks, but Glenn Ford as Union Col.\Colorado Judge Owen Devereaux out-thinks them all. Realizing that despite 600,000 mostly poor people just having got slaughtered in the War (and countless thousands more civilians dead or on death's door), Owen realizes there are TOO MANY regular folk around for the number of available slave-wage jobs, and too many folks smart enough to know the difference between subsidence living and solid American union wages. Therefore, Owen begins this story by gunning down 101 surrendering Confederates (who by secession have shown they think for themselves, and obviously will be impoverished agitators after losing the War). Next, he begins hanging his OWN MEN on various pretenses, right down to their teenage kid brothers, now that there are job shortages, and the people who made him hanging judge would prefer to pay one slice of bread per family member per day in wages. ALL THE RICH PEOPLE IN TOWN GO ALONG with this "class cleansing," until Owen's plan to incinerate the remaining regular folk riff-raff (and presumably replace workers with steam punk robots or Native American slaves exempted from the Emancipation Proclamation) upsets the biggest slum lord in town. Still, it's refreshing to see a movie character not beat about the bush on his WWSD (What Would Satan Do?) life principles.

Henry Levin's post-Civil War western, shot in Techincolor, features real-life best friends Glenn Ford and William Holden (both RIP) as former Union officers who find themselves on opposite sides after Owen Devereaux (Ford) becomes town judge, and who begins to abuse his power to punish anyone who opposes him. Del Stewart (Holden) is made town marshal but he sees that his friend is slipping more and more into insanity (which today would be referred to as Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder), brought on by his experiences during the war. Enemy lines are drawn more strongly as Devereaux marries Carolyn (Ellen Drew), with whom Stewart is also in love. As Owen's mind deteriorates and his madness intensifies, the town is thrown into a uproar and his sadistic, murderous tendencies only grow. Of course, there has to be a showdown that only one man can win.Ford's son has referred to this film as "an oddball production", perhaps because it was a rarity of the time, a psychological western. As offbeat of a role this was for Ford (similar to his Don Jose in "The Loves Of Carmen" of the same year, he sports the same longer hairstyle, but the gray on his temples here doesn't quite give the distinguished effect that was intended), he portrays a tortured, jealous man quite well, never more evident in the scenes paranoia sets in, thinking that his wife loves Del and not him. Ellen Drew is effective in her role, although I find her much easier to believe as Holden's love interest, but after seeing Ford with Rita Hayworth, the chemistry would be hard to compare. Different but compellingly watchable, and interesting to see these lifelong friends on screen together for the second and last time (they previously costarred in "Texas", in 1941), in another worthy addition to the Columbia Classics collection. With the recent passing of Glenn Ford, this is another film that adds richness and variety to his legacy.