FILM

Canyon Passage. Jacques Tourneur’s 1946 Technicolor Western about life in frontier Oregon is now mainly known (if at all) as the film for which Hoagy Carmichael wrote “Ole Buttermilk Sky.” In fact it is, along with Robert Wise’s Blood on the Moon, one of the two most consistently underrated golden-age Hollywood Westerns, a shrewd character study of loyalty and weakness in which Dana Andrews, Susan Hayward, and the unfailingly interesting Brian Donlevy are all at their best and most characteristic. Gorgeous cinematography by Edward Cronjager. Very highly recommended, even if you think you’re allergic to Westerns (TT).