Passage West (1951 film)

Passage West
Directed by	Lewis R. Foster
Produced by	William H. Pine; William C. Thomas
Written by	Lewis R. Foster; Nedrick Young; (as a front for "Hollywood Ten" author Alvah Bessie)
Starring	John Payne; Dennis O'Keefe; Arleen Whelan
Music by	Mahlon Merrick
Cinematography	Loyal Griggs
Edited by	Howard A. Smith
Production; company	Paramount Pictures
Distributed by	Paramount Pictures
Release date	July 12, 1951 (Los Angeles); August 30, 1951 (United States);
Running time	80 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Box office	$1,025,000 (US rentals)[1]

Passage West is a 1951 American Technicolor Western film directed by Lewis R. Foster starring John Payne, Dennis O'Keefe and Arleen Whelan.[2]

Plot

Six convicts led by Pete Black pull a Utah prison break. They intercept a California-bound wagon train and interrupt a child's funeral. Demanding the wagons leave immediately, they anger Rose Billings, a woman in a black dress mourning her father, but wagon train leader Jacob Karns, a preacher who plans to marry Rose, thinks it best to obey the men.

Curly, one of the prisoners, makes a pass at Rose and is whipped by Pete. He fancies the woman for himself, but Rose picks up the whip and uses it on him. Pete is not so much irate as impressed.

At a fork on the trail, Pete insists the wagons risk a faster but more dangerous route. Soon they are trapped in dust and rain storms. A cow dies, and without milk, a baby dies. Rose changes clothes to something more frilly, feeling it time for her mourning to end, but when Pete shows an interest in her, Karns fights and defeats him.

Curly steals money from the travelers and shoots Pete, who is surprised when Karns and Rose willingly tend to his wound. Karns admits that he once led a wild life the way Pete now does. He appeals to Pete to change.

Reaching a town, the fugitives discover gold in a cave and their greed gets the best of them. Gunfire ensues, and Pete, guilty and tired, sets off a charge of dynamite to bury all of his men as well as himself.

Cast

John Payne as Pete Black
Arleen Whelan as Rose Billings
Dennis O'Keefe as Jacob Karns
Frank Faylen as Curly
Mar Anderson as Myra Johnson
Peter Hansen as Michael Karns
Richard Rober as Mike
Mary Beth Hughes as Nellie McBride
Griff Barnett as Papa Emil Ludwig
Mary Field as Miss Swingate
Dooley Wilson as Rainbow
Richard Travis as Ben Johnson
Lillian Bronson as Bom Brennan
Arthur Hunnicutt as Pop Brennan
Ilka Grüning as Mama Ludwig (as Ilka Gruning)

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gollark: Firefox, latest version.

gollark: Why not use Accept-Language if it exists then fall back to GeoIP?

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References

'The Top Box Office Hits of 1951', Variety, January 2, 1952
Passage West at TCMDB

External links

Passage West on IMDb

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[1] 'The Top Box Office Hits of 1951', Variety, January 2, 1952

[2] Passage West at TCMDB