DVD

Colorado Territory. In 1949 Raoul Walsh, one of the all-time great action directors, remade High Sierra, the 1941 proto-noir crime film that turned Humphrey Bogart into a star, retrofitting it as a western and replacing Bogart with Joel McCrea. Unlikely as it may sound, Walsh actually managed to improve on the original (which he also directed) the second time around. Like High Sierra, Colorado Territory is a laconic portrait of a lonely, aging gunman at the end of his tether, and the fact that McCrea, the quintessential white-hatted good guy, is playing against type adds to the film’s emotional complexity. This near-forgotten classic has just been released on DVD for the first time as part of the Warner Archive reissue series. It’s a must (TT).