Here's a bit from Ann Blyth: Actress. Singer. Star. on her only western film:
Red Canyon (1949) was Ann’s first Technicolor picture, first and only big-screen western, first time she received both top billing and name above the title. She was nineteen years old and had hit her stride.
It was a pinnacle of a kind, and the beginning of new trail. After a string of six heavy dramas that gave her intense roles to prove herself a major up and coming actress, her last film before Red Canyon, Mr. Peabody and the Mermaid, was a complete change that charmed the public and clued-in the studio that Ann was also athletic, and that her beauty was as much an asset to selling a film as her acting skill. Her trim body, also, could lend itself to more than posing in a crisp noir wardrobe.
It also reminded the studio that she was young. In those dramas, from Mildred Pierce through Another Part of the Forest, Ann’s characters were increasingly poised, knowing, sophisticated, and wore a mantle of worldly experience even though in real life she was still some years away from being old enough to vote. Her characters were restless, mean, sad, tragic.
Mr. Peabody and the Mermaid, because of her fanciful character and its exotic costuming, her silent communication through her expressive face, and the joyful silliness of the plot, actually managed to re-set the clock on her screen sophistication. She was suddenly much younger again. For the next several films she would play more innocent ingénues, most of them in comedies, and this one western....
...In Red Canyon, she plays the spirited tomboyish daughter of George Brent on a late nineteenth century homestead in the west. Brent is a self-made man who runs a stagecoach line and a prosperous ranch, where he breeds and trains bloodstock for racing. His prize horse is a great white stallion, his hope for winning an upcoming race, and he won’t let Ann near him, which infuriates her. She wants to ride the stallion.
George
Brent has third billing here, and in that inevitable bittersweet Hollywood
turnstile, no longer playing the romantic lead. That job goes to Howard
Duff, pulled away from a string of noirs for his first romantic lead, and also
his first western. There would be many more westerns for him after
this. (Ann would have to wait for TV’s Wagon Train, in which she
appeared in five episodes, to act in more western stories.)
For more on the movie, and her career, have a look at my book on Ann's career -- Ann Blyth: Actress. Singer. Star.
For more on my other books and plays, please see my website: JacquelineTLynch.com
"Lynch’s book is organized and well-written – and has plenty of amusing observations – but when it comes to describing Blyth’s movies, Lynch’s writing sparkles." - Ruth Kerr, Silver Screenings
"Jacqueline T. Lynch creates a poignant and thoroughly-researched mosaic of memories of a fine, upstanding human being who also happens to be a legendary entertainer." - Deborah Thomas, Java's Journey
"One of the great strengths of Ann Blyth: Actress. Singer. Star. is that Lynch not only gives an excellent overview of Blyth's career -- she offers detailed analyses of each of Blyth's roles -- but she puts them in the context of the larger issues of the day."- Amanda Garrett, Old Hollywood Films
"Jacqueline's book will hopefully cause many more people to take a look at this multitalented woman whose career encompassed just about every possible aspect of 20th Century entertainment." - Laura Grieve, Laura's Miscellaneous Musings''
"Jacqueline T. Lynch’s Ann Blyth: Actress. Singer. Star. is an extremely well researched undertaking that is a must for all Blyth fans." - Annette Bochenek, Hometowns to Hollywood
