Four Faces West

9/25/2014

Ross McEwen - Valiant Gentleman. Four Faces West (AKA: They Passed This Way) is directed by Alfred E. Green and collectively adapted to screenplay by C. Graham Baker, Teddi Sherman, William Brent and Milarde Brent from the novel Paso por acqui written by Eugene Manlove Rhodes. It stars Joel McCrea, Francis Dee, Charles Bickford and Joseph Calleia. Music is by Paul Sawtell and cinematography by Russell Harlan. Ross McEwen (McCrea) robs the bank of Santa Maria but requests only $2,000 and issues an I.O.U. to the bank manager with the promise of paying back the money. The bank manager, aggrieved and agitated, puts a bounty of $3,000 on McEwen's head and quickly finds the law, in the form of Sheriff Pat Garrett (Bickford), aiding his cause. But McEwen is no ordinary thief, and as he make

10/9/2024

**_Warmhearted Western in the Southwest marred by contrivances and dubious acting_** An aged Marshal Pat Garrett (Charles Bickford) chases a questionable robber (Joel McCrea) through long stretches of New Mexico. On the way, the latter meets a lovely nurse (Frances Dee) and befriends a sympathetic innkeeper (Joseph Calleia). William Conrad is on hand as a sheriff that joins the marshal’s pursuit. “Four Faces West” (1948), also known as “They Passed This Way,” is a decent Western with stretches of lyrical beauty, hindered by the B&W photography (the magnificent locations mean very little in flat B&W). The warmheartedness is refreshing and Dee is winsome, but McCrea doesn’t know how to play an overly sympathetic protagonist, the proverbial good bad guy. Meanwhile Calleia lays it on