Four Faces West

 

(1948)
Directed by Alfred E. Green
Written by C. Graham Baker, Teddi Sherman, William Brent, Milarde Brent from a novel by Eugene Manlove Rhodes
Starring Joel McCrea, Frances Dee, Charles Bickford, Joseph Calleia, William Conrad, Martin Garralaga
IMDB Entry

Though I was growing up in the heydey of the TV western, I wasn't all that interested in the genre. Science fiction was more my thing. But I grew to be more interested in it and have picked up on westerns that I had missed. One such film was Four Faces West, which is quite unusual.

While the new sheriff in town, the illustrious Pat Garrett (Charles Bickford) is being welcome, Ross McEwen (Joel McCrea) asks the town banker for a loan -- at gunpoint. He takes $2000 and writes out an IOU and leaves town. The banker insists on having him arrested and Garrett forms a posse.  McEwen gets aboard a train, where he meets the nurse Fay Hollister (Frances Dee*) and a romance develops. A gambler Monte Marquez (Joseph Calleia) suspects that McEwen is the robber, but doesn't mention the fact despite the large reward for his capture.

They reach Alamogordo and McEwen gets a job.  But Garrett is looking for him.  Marquez leads them off on a wild goose chase and tells McEwen to get out of town. He heads toward Mexico and might have made it, except he comes across a Mexican rancher, whose two children are very sick. McEwen sends a signal to alert Garrett.  He arrives with both Fay and Marquez, who pretend they don't know McEwen. 

The film is unusual in that no gun is ever fired. Things are settled without violence and it's more a movie about compassion than anything else.

McCrea has an interesting role. He may have robbed the bank, but he's polite and honest and starts sending back the money he stole even before the sheriff closes in.  He's clearly a decent man who was forced into the crime due to circumstances, and is really only borrowing the money he took. Frances Dee is quite good as the love interest.

Joseph Calleia is impressive as Marquez, who clearly knows the real situation, but who understands that McEwen is not an outlaw. William Conrad is among the cast as a sheriff, but isn't given a lot to do.

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*McCrea's wife.