Pasión

There is no Zorro here, but there is Cornel Wilde who enjoyed showing off as the little man in great adversities overcoming overwhelming odds and evil villains. Here he gets his entire family killed or rather murdered, his wife, his parents, their farm burned down, as he was just going to marry his lady in paradisiacal bliss which suddenly turned into a brutal hell driving the sole survivors into lawlessness; but Cornel Wilde is never stupid, and he takes revenge on all the murderers one by one, the first being Lon Chaney Jr, in an honest combat man to man. It seems that he gave the others the same chance, and he actually saves the life of the last man, until he dies anyway. Raymond Burr is usually the crook and gangster, but here he is on the side of the law, whatever he may think about it, and he honestly tries to make the best of it, although there are reasons enough to have doubts about his character. Yvonne de Carlo plays both Cornel's sweet and lovely wife and her sister, who is more warlike, and of course we know from the beginning how Cornel ultimately will settle with her. It is a beautiful, charming and upsetting film, but Louis Forbes' music is perfect for it. It is an odd western like those with Ricardo Montalban but the more enjoyable for not being regular at all.

A Rare Technicolor Film from RKO and A-List Cinematographer John Alton.

Directed by Allan Dwan whose Filmography is said to be in the 4-Digits...Wow.

This is a Brisk Revenge Plot,

with Cornel Wilde Hunting for the Brutal Gang who Murdered His Family and Burned Down Their House.

It's a Greedy Range-War Thing, Taking Place in "Old-California" (Mexican Control)

Wilde is a Stiff Leading Actor who Requires an Acquired Taste. Yvonne De Carlo is Tasty Times Two.

Playing the Tomboyish Sister of Wilde's Wife and Wilde's Wife.

The Third-Act is on a Glacier with a Side Like the Great Pyramid that Alton Uses to Advantage as an Off-Beat "Western" Locale.

The Down-Ballot Cast is Deep with Lon Chaney Jr., and Raymond Burr along with some other Rugged Faces.

Wilde's "Death Wish" seems "Justified",

especially since the Local Law is Unable or Unwilling to do Diligence.

The Color, Cast, and the Look Deliver the Movie to Slightly Above Average,

in the Wagon-Load of 50's Westerns.

The Down-Side is the Typical Mid-Century Hollywood Struggles with Mexican Accents,

and the Culture South of the Border.

Worth a Watch.

Two Yvonnes (De Carlo) are better than one. Always. That's my opinion and I'm sticking to it. R.K.O. strikes gold in this dark western set somewhere in Northern California, sometime before the land was tamed by the U.S. government. The trio of Miss De Carlo (the fiery one), Cornel Wilde and Raymond Burr spend a good chunk of the running time of this movie chasing after the five desperadoes who have slaughtered one of the Yvonnes (the demure one) and her grandparents. Her son survives. Barely. In discovering the massacre at the farmhouse, Wilde's character catches a bad case of revenge and sets his sights on the perpetrators of those bad deeds. The police--Burr and Anthony Caruso--are ineffective. They always seem to show up a couple of heartbeats too late. The film does nothing to dissuade someone from uttering: "you can never find a cop when you need one." The scenery is fabulous. When Wilde marches off the lush greenery of the mountain's downslope and ascends the glacier in pursuit of the last bad guy, we know he has crossed the line into madness, He is out of control. Lawless. The ending is wrapped up in a satisfying manner. But the title (Passion) bothers me. I'm changing it to Obsession. And I'm sticking to it.

In Hollywood, you had the collaboration - partnership - between Budd Boetticher and Harry Joe Brown for a western films series starring Randolph Scott, and besides you also had a partnership between Allan Dwann and producer Benedict Bogeaus for a series of adventures films, westerns and even science fiction, around ten. All good little effective features, fast paced, with plenty of suspense and professional directing and acting. This one is gritty, full of action, one of the best of the Dwann - Bogeaus material. A taut revenge scheme, with at long last a co starring between Yvonne De Carlo and Cornel Wilde. At long last. A perfect delicious combination.

Maybe I had been spoiled a fortnight ago by the 'surprising' excellence of Dwan's SILVER LODE (1954), or perhaps I had my mind on other things while it was playing (I had just installed my brand new DVD recorder), or it is simply that the film needed a more compelling villain than Rodolfo Acosta; the fact remains that I was underwhelmed by this first viewing of PASSION. Not that it really has a reputation to uphold or anything but, retaining the services of much of the same crew as SILVER LODE (director Dwan, producer Benedict Bogeaus, cinematographer John Alton, composer Louis Forbes, art director Van Nest Polglase, bit-part actors Stuart Whitman and Robert Warwick, etc.), one can't help but expect similarly satisfying results. At least, the cast is quite good: Cornel Wilde, Yvonne De Carlo (in a dual role as Wilde's ladylike wife and her tomboyish twin sister!), Raymond Burr (as the Sheriff), Lon Chaney Jr. (as a drunken brute with a really loud cackle), John Qualen (as De Carlo's grandfather) and Anthony Caruso (as Burr's suspicious colleague). The film, set in Old California, follows a typical revenge story pattern which, unfortunately, seems not to have inspired Dwan much until the snowbound (or rather studio-bound) finale: in fact, Wilde does most of the killings – barring that of Chaney and Acosta – offscreen! Ultimately, PASSION emerges as a modestly pleasing and colorful diversion that falls short of achieving its potential…especially when judging the end result against similar contemporary Western fare about obsessive odysseys of revenge like Fritz Lang's RANCHO NOTORIOUS (1952) and Henry King's THE BRAVADOS (1958).