Copper Canyon (1950)

Copper Canyon is a quirky little Western with nothing distinctive to accomplish and more stylish talent on hand than it needs to get the job done. Director John Farrow, writer Jonathan Latimer, and star Ray Milland had recently collaborated on a pair of suave Paramount thrillers (The Big Clock and Alias Nick Beal). Here Milland plays a trick-shooting frontier vaudevillian who, under another name, may have been a Confederate war hero--and a bit of a rascal. He isn't admitting anything. But he does pitch in to help some ex-Rebels, now copper miners, who are getting shafted by a sanctimonious Yankee smelter operator, a lady gambler (Hedy Lamarr in her next-to-last Hollywood film), and a murderous deputy sheriff (Macdonald Carey). The action comes in fits and starts, but Milland's out-of-place urbanity, Charles Lang's Technicolor camerawork, and those great red-rock formations around Sedona, Arizona, make 84 minutes pass agreeably. --Richard T. Jameson Amazon.com

The Divine Miss Hedy in Technicolor!

Copper Canyon is your typical B grade western from the 1950's. Packed with Hollywood's A-List performers and presented in dazzling technicolor Copper Canyon is a bit corny at times but does have its moments, as you would expect from the principles, the ravishingly beautiful Hedy Lamarr and the urbane Ray Milland. A must have for Hedy Lamarr fans as her body of film works on DVD is rather limited. At least the price is nice. June 3, 2006

Copper Canyon

COPPER CANYON is an agreeably mediocre film, a gray B-movie hiding behind a Technicolor A-list of stars. Although it probably won't win converts to the genre, it will satisfy the faithful.
The plot is cast in the standard Big Bully vs. Little Bully mold. Most commonly it's cattlemen vs. sodbusters, black hats worn by the cattlemen. This time around it copper miner vs. copper miner, or, to be more exact in this post-Civil War drama, ex-Union copper miners vs. ex-Confederate copper miners. The ex-Confederates are the underdog Little Bullies feeling the tight squeeze - their ore is being stolen, the local smelter won't smelt their ore, they're ambushed and killed when they try to sell it in the next town, etc. Standard western skullduggery, although it's unlikely that a modern movie would cast ex-Confederates as sympathetic underdogs, certainly not a movie as light-headed as this one. In any event, the plan is to force out the Little Bullies and buy their claims at severely discounted prices.
Enter Ray Milland, who plays a wandering vaudeville trick-shot artist who may (or may not) have stolen $20,000 which may (or may not) have been rightfully his when he escaped (if he is indeed the colonel in question) from a Yankee prison. You see, the Little Bullies are sure he's a fighting Reb colonel who is traveling incognito to avoid capture and re-imprisonment. They need a fighter to galvanize and lead their resistance, and they make a number of overtures to Milland, who plays coy about his real identity.
With its unique (for a western) and sterling cast the first half of COPPER CANYON won my attention. It was ripe with promise but barren with results. I was disappointed to see the movie drag itself to such a conventional conclusion. For instance, the mistaken identity angle was loaded with possibilities but more or less left unexplored. In the end it really didn't matter much if Milland was the Reb colonel or not. The final showdown certainly didn't call for extraordinary courage or a military genius.
An okay western, with the cast flying high above a leaden plot.
January 22, 2005

Likeable western.

I like Copper Canyon, it's one of my favorite westerns. Admittedly the plot is somewhat convoluted and the acting is merely adequate. I think I mainly like the cast. Hedy Lamarr is gorgeous -- as always, Mona Freeman was one of Hollywood's prettiest blondes, and Ray Milland is the suave, dashing hero. Copper Canyon was just another western ground out during Hollywood's Golden Age. But at least it was fun to watch, which I can't say about most movies made these days. October 17, 2000

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