Devil's Doorway

Anthony Mann: Devil's Doorway (US 1949) avec Paula Raymond (Orrie Masters) et Robert Taylor (Lance Poole).

La Porte du diable / Paholaisen portti / Röd mans land.

    Anthony Mann / États-Unis / 1949 / 84 min / 35 mm / VOSTF

    Avec Robert Taylor, Paula Raymond, Louis Calhern.

    Filming dates: 15 Aug - mid-October 1949. Wikipedia: MGM withheld the film because of its subject but released the film after the successful release of Broken Arrow.

    US premiere: 9 Sep 1950 (Grand Junction, Colorado), 15 Sep 1950 (wide).

    Rétrospective Anthony Mann.

    La Cinémathèque française, 51 Rue de Bercy, 75012 Paris. M° Bercy Lignes 14, 6 ; Salle Henri Langlois, le 23 mars 2024.

La Cinémathèque française : " Le retour au pays d'un sergent-major de l'armée nordiste, d'origine indienne. Pour son premier western, à l'éclatante palette de tons noirs et blancs, Anthony Mann s'attaque aux sources du racisme dans un plaidoyer humaniste admirable, qui prend ouvertement cause pour le peuple indien. "

AA: An epic Western, a tragic tale of Indian wars, a film relevant to new colonial history and new racial history.

Anthony Mann tells the story with vigour and panache. Shot in Colorado, the magnificent landscapes are not mere backgrounds but of the essence to the drama, in which the Shoshone prefer to die fighting rather than part from their land to which they belong with ties stronger than blood. The cinematographer is John Alton in his only Western for Anthony Mann.

The Shoshone warrior Lance Poole (Robert Taylor) returns from the Civil War with a Congressional Medal of Honor, but has to struggle to get a doctor to his father's deathbed, is refused a drink at the bar, and it turns out that he can be evicted from his land because under the law he is not a US citizen but a ward of the government. His enemies are led by a dishonest lawyer, Verne Coolan (Louis Calhern) who is not above lying and cheating.

Lance Poole hires a lawyer, too, Orrie Masters (Paula Raymond), and there is an element of surprise and drama, comparable with the situation in Strangers in the Night, that the highly competent professional is a woman. There is also an affinity with Raw Deal, where the social worker trying to help the male protagonist, a San Quentin convict, is also a woman. In all three films the female protagonist is the voice of reason in a tale of violent males.

The war sequences are brutal and heart-wrenching. Helped with the US Cavalry, the white homesteaders crush the Shoshone. We are left outraged with feelings of profound injustice by the homesteaders and respect for the dignity of the Shoshone.

The film ends in an image of a gorgeous mountain landscape.

The low contrast print (black levels missing) failed to do justice to the art of John Alton.