Raton Pass

The movie is vague in my mind because I saw it 55yrs ago when it debuted here in Raton, New Mexico. I remember it was exciting; this was for a five year old. The greatest excitement came from the city activities to commemorate the occasion. This included parades, dances and parties. My present day next door neighbor, a high school student at the time, danced with Dorothy Hart---a lifetime event for him.

For the benefit of civic historical programs, I am trying to track down a copy of the movie. We are a small town trying to beat the doldrums that affect many small towns in America at this time. We are trying put together a film festival focused around "The Raton Pass" and the associated history of our area---the Santa Fe Trail. We have been through what seems to be all of the normal sources to find this movie. Can anyone help with a source?

I confess I was somewhat shocked at the role Patricia Neal played in this movie. She was the dastardly darling all the way through right up to the end. And to someone who has been a "loving" fan of hers since he was 13 and saw her in The Day the Earth Stood Still--that was a shock.

The plot is very good. She arrives in town to find herself in the midst of a feud between two families. She immediately seeks out a young man from the richest family and seductively (which she is excellent at) works her way into his heart. He marries her and she is given deed to half the ranch. When her husband brings home an even richer man who owns a railroad in hopes of getting him to financially back the ranch, she convinces her husband to leave the job to her. Instead, she seduces him into falling in love with her also and talks him into buying out her husband. He agrees.

Suddenly, they find themselves totally alone as all the hands have quit the ranch. So she sends for a gunman she met by chance at the very beginning of the Western. He brings in his "boys" and they begin to take over the ranch. Finally there is the ultimate showdown between Neal, Morgan (her husband) and the gunman (Cochran).

And as I said: Patricia Neal is the dastardly darling right up to the very last breath. The role would have better suited Barbara Stanwyck or Betty Davis. But Patricia Neal it did not suit even though she did a fine job (as always). While I have seen her in many movies I shall never be able to accept her in any villain role. The Western is very good and well worth any amount of money paid to obtain it but it is just not the kind, sweet, adorable feminine Neal I am used to in movies.

This western is for me a pure Warner Studios movie, recognizable from the very start - no matter of course the logo WB - because of the cast, technical crew, music score, and then the pace, very very fast, tense, and the overall plot and directing. It was not a Paramount nor a Metro Goldwyn Mayer...Impossible to get wrong. Dennis Morgan was a second rate lead role for Warner movies, and I have never liked it that much. He was so bland, unlike of course the terrific Steve Cochran who literally steals the show here, with also Patricia Neal, whom I would have never guessed to find in this kind of film.

It's praise to wish a movie longer, in this case to better manage a couple plot points and resolve some themes, as Raton Pass is nearly overflowing with characters, factions, even geographic potential.

Overall the cast is commendable. One might wish for a lead male with more gravitas than Dennis Morgan, but he looks good and does what he can well enough, true also of the other men, but the standout is Steve Cochran, "the Elvis of Noir," who gets more screen time here than he did in his other movies worth watching. Like the real Elvis, Cochran can pout, curl his lip, swagger, make all the men want to chase him off and all the women forgive him anything, even wanton murder.

It's a surprisingly woman-centered film, and the two female leads--Patricia Neal and Dorothy Hart--rock the screen in a variety of ways. Neal's an unusually soulful actress even here as a villainess, and when at the peak of her foxy power she shows up dressed in black gaucho threads, you hate to see the scene end. Hart, whom I didn't remember, has screen presence even as a blonde Latina, she pronounces her Spanish dialogue convincingly, and her character shows surprising and convincing self-determination.

The scenario is remarkably complex even if not fully developed. For instance, the geography of town, ranch, river, and "lava" or grazing fields set up at least three competing power factions, though they're displayed more on a wall-map in the ranch-house than in the outdoor settings, which are standard western backlots and California foothills.

The only ridiculous turn in the plot occurs when the hero is shot in the back at short range, transported to the countryside, and obviously near death, whereupon Hart's senorita does surgery, after which he hero rises, after a few obligatory grimaces, resumes fighting with guns and fists. In less of a hurry, these complications could have led to a more interesting final showdown.

No hesitation in granting Raton Pass a 7 and only wish--with its wealth of materials--Raton Pass had spent a little more time, effort, and production costs on realizing the possibilities of an 8 or 9.

Having gotten rich by bullying all of the other ranchers in the area, a powerful and ruthless cattleman by the name "Pierre Challon" (Basil Ruysdael) is delighted when his son "Marc Challon" (Dennis Morgan) decides to marry an attractive woman named "Ann" (Patricial Neal) who has only recently arrived in town. At first, everything is going well and, to signify his approval, Pierre even hands over half of his estate to her as a sign of his affection. Big mistake as she soon maneuvers a rich businessman named "Prentice"(Scott Forbes) into becoming her lover and then uses his money to force her husband into turning over the rest of the ranch to her. Needless to say, this rather sudden turn-of-events infuriates Pierre, to the point that he refuses to have anything to do with Marc--despite the fact that Marc has a plan to get it all back. What Marc doesn't realize, however, is just how vicious his former wife can be once she feels threatened. Now, rather than reveal any more, let me just say that this movie started off rather slow but got much more interesting once the plot further developed. Admittedly, I thought that the ending was a bit unrealistic but, even so, I enjoyed this movie for the most part, and I have rated it accordingly. Slightly above average.