It’s an especially fun movie from a director and cast who are clearly having a good time allowing themselves to let loose.

Close shines in drama with strong language, adult themes.

The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

Producer: Jules Schermer. Copyright 20 May 1948 by Columbia Pictures Corp. New York opening at the Capitol: 20 January 1949. U.S. release: December 1948. U.K. release: 10 January 1949. Australian release: 18 November 1948 (sic). Sydney opening at the G.U. circuit's flagship, the State. 9,011 feet. 100 minutes. NOTES: A top favorite in cinemas from Gilda (1946) to Advance to the Rear (1964), Glenn Ford could virtually do no wrong. COMMENT: Ellen Drew is certainly one innocuous player. We had Stars in My Crown with this one at our Hollywood Classics screening last night and I didn't even realize until writing up my reviews this morning that both films starred the same actress! True, the female roles in both movies are strictly support. Here it's Glenn Ford in the unaccustomed role of irredeemable heavy who commands all the attention. Although Ford was criticized at the time for over=acting, he does such an excellent job as the villain, we wish he'd displayed the same fervor in some of his other roles. As Ford's goody two-shoes subordinate, Holden has little to do but look reasonably ingratiating, if mildly imbecilic. At least he - or rather his stunt double - figures in some memorable bits of action, including his jumping astride one of the lead horses of a runaway coach. A number of our favorite character players help out, including Ray Collins as the local magnate, Edgar Buchanan the sympathetic doc, James Millican as the victimized renegade and Frank Ferguson as the wounded stage-driver. Produced on a grand scale, The Man from Colorado is one of the first so-called "psychological westerns". In this one, however, the villain's neuroses are not allowed to overshadow the plot, simply provide a reason for it. There's still action a-plenty. If anything, there's even more than usual.

Though in many ways a traditional western, Levin's (Journey to the Center of the Earth, 1959) The Man From Colorado is also a psychological drama dealing with something as ever current as post traumatic stress. In a western there is almost bound to be a bad guy to stand against the good guy and it definitely makes for a more dramatic story that the two are good friends torn apart by the psychological destruction of one of them. No matter how bad decisions Owen makes, it is difficult to hate him, because Del never lets us forget that his friend is different and clearly affected by the war they have recently fought together. Both men does a good job, Holden (The Bridge on the River Kwai, 1957) is so handsome he can only be the good guy, playing his part straight and as righteous while never loosing sympathy with his friend. No matter what happens, he fights till the end to try to do things right. Meanwhile Ford (3:10 to Yuma, 1957) is the one who truly impresses with his portray of a man looking quiet on the outside but who clearly has raving emotions stirring a chaos inside of him. Though he is aware he has become addicted to killing he finds himself unable to admit he has lost control or face the problem and part of the drama is to watch him slowly push himself further and further down. As the woman standing between the two men is a beautiful Drew (Isle of the Dead, 1945) convincingly going from carefree and happy to heartbreakingly realizing what's going on. The three of them make for an interesting watch that keeps you gripped until the dramatic ending.moviegeek.eu

Back in the day William Holden and Glenn Ford both had a unique contractual arrangement with Columbia Pictures. When unknown Bill Holden was up for the lead in Golden Boy, Harry Cohn cast him in return for Paramount selling 50% of his services to Columbia. Holden served two studio masters at the time he was making The Man from Colorado and would for another decade. Glenn Ford was Columbia's bread and butter leading man at the time and right after The Man From Colorado, Cohn sold half of Ford's contract to MGM and Ford also had two studio masters.What it meant for these two was that all projects had to be cleared through both studios and that Holden and Ford if they did an outside loan out would also have to be cleared from both. Not that their respective studios didn't keep both these guys very busy.Holden and Ford had done a well received western, Texas, for Columbia back in 1941. Texas was a rather lighthearted film about two cowboys turning to different sides of the law in post Civil War Texas, though it did feature the death of one of them.The Man from Colorado is also a story about the activities of Union Army war veterans. But The Man from Colorado doesn't have any light moments whatsoever. It's pretty grim tale about one of them developing a real taste for sadism and killing as a result of the war. Ford's the sadist here, it's one of the few villain parts he ever did and it works I think because he is so against type. He did very few parts like this, Lust for Gold is another, but his public wouldn't accept him in these roles. Some of the town businessmen led by Ray Collins just look at the war record and decide Ford would make one fine federal judge. A real law and order type. They get a lot more than they bargain for.In Texas Holden had the showier role of the young cowboy who take the outlaw route. Here however he's the best friend who stands by his former commanding officer even though he both sees the man has issues and Holden loses Ellen Drew to Ford. Holden takes the outlaw path after giving up his marshal's job when Ford starts running roughshod over due process. The other really standout performance in this film is that of James Milliken who plays one of Ford's former soldiers who turns outlaw and in fact humiliates him in one of the few funny moments in The Man From Colorado. Ford conceives a burning hate for him that results in tragedy all around.Ford and Holden were considering another joint project in 1981 when Holden died. I would like to have seen that one come to pass.Try to see The Man From Colorado back to back with Texas.

Glenn Ford was as good as anyone playing an intense psychotic, which he does here in this above-average western. Ford, playing "Col.Owen Devereaux," gets elected to the position of "judge" right after his distinguished career in the Civil War. Unfortunately, he has mental problems and this position carries too much weight for an unstable sort such as him to be carrying. His best buddy, "Capt. Del Stewart" (William Holden) sees his friend as he is and tries to reason with him and help him out but winds up being alienated, too, by the paranoid judge whose problems escalate as the story goes on.There's not a tremendous amount of action in here, but it still moves pretty fast and looks really nice on DVD. This is one of the few color films of the 1940s.Ellen Drew, Ray Collins and Ed Buchnan provide good supporting help in the story. If you like some of the Anthony Mann-James Stewart westerns of the late '40s/early '50s, you should like this one, too.