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Title: Great scenery, flimsy plot
Review: Director Jacques Tourneur is probably most fanous for "Cat People" and "Out of the Past," with most of his other work ranging from mediocre to downright B-movie making. "Canyon Passage" is a fairly sluggish western set on Oregon, whose natural beauty is the real star of this film. The 1946 Technicolor process is astoundingly rich and most of the movie is filmed outside, against mountains, lakes, forests, meadows, and farmland. The story is flimsy, involving hionest-to-a-fault Dana Andrews taking care of wastrel Brian Donleavy because Andrews harbors a distant love for Donleavy's fiancee, Susan Hayworth. There is a very violent fistfight in a bar, precursor to the famous one in "Shane," and the Indians' burning of settlers homes is terrifying. Beyond that no one distinguishes himself, least of all Hogey Carmichael who seems to have composed the ditties he sings on the spot (the exception being the tag at the end, "Old Buttermilk Sky."
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