Copper Sky (1957)

If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

Don't Believe the Hype

best movie i've ever seen.

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

One of the greatest romances on the screen was "The African Queen". That improbable affair between two persons with different social backgrounds had a fantastic chemistry. This western tells the same story and manages to keep the heat on with the beautiful and sexy Coleen Gray and the taciturn Jeff Morrow. Gray criticized her performance in this film in a book interview (Western Women), stating that without a director controlling her " I acted all over the place". Welcome Coleen, I enjoyed your performance, only wish we had more of it! Probably the director Charles Marquis Warren thought the same and stimulated her "acting all over". With a good screenplay by Eric Borden the story flows easily slowly building the the attraction between the two main characters. Great scene when Coleen bathes in the river. Nice, pleasing western.

A Boston school marm out West meets the sole survivor of an Indian massacre, a drunk in jail. Alcoholic former cavalryman Hack Williams is arrested for killing an Indian, something he did not do. The townspeople, fearful of Apache reprisals, plan to hang Williams in hopes of heading off an attack. But the attack comes and Hack, locked in his jail cell, is the only survivor as a massacre occurs. Into the scene of carnage arrives schoolteacher Nora Haynes. Together she and Williams must find a way to reach safety before another Indian attack. But the pair are by no means well-matched, and their trip alone across the desert is not destined to be an easy one. This is a fine Western with a very fine cast.Try it. You'll like it!

As has been said before, this is "The African Queen" out west. Colleen Gray does well and is far easier on the eyes than the starchy Katherine Hepburn.If I had to put my finger on the film's weakness, it would be Jeff Morrow. He plays a drunken ex-cavalryman like a skid row alcoholic. Morrow's character is an experienced man of the west despite his drinking problem, yet when getting ready to set out across the desert, he packs 10 times more whiskey than food or water. Drinking that much alcohol in the western desert would kill him faster than the Indians.The movie neither explores the humor of mismatched people, nor the drama of weak people rising to meet a challenge. This them was also better done in "Heaven Knows Mr. Allison" with Robert Mitchum & Deborah Kerr.The writing is bad but I can't help feeling that a different B actor like Lee Marvin for example, could have done more with a limited script. Marvin always found the humor in the tough guy. He also know how to play drunks.Morrow doesn't show any shame at his condition, yet he's a former cavalryman. He does show some competence once Gray disposes of his liquor.

"Copper Sky" pulls you in and then let's you down. Even right to the end you are hoping for more insight into the characters' pasts. You want to like the two leads "Coleen Gray and Jeff Morrow," but the plot gets in the way. It has a very structured script to the point of predictability. He's lost his manhood without explanation and she can't figure out why he's the only man who doesn't want her, reminding her of her father. The fix is in. The music composition was nice, but more dialog would have had a better effect. It would have, also, looked much better filmed in color displaying the beauteous landscape of Utah where it was filmed. I still enjoyed watching it, despite it's sophomoric tone. Some characters were miss cast in the lessor rolls, I guess the budget didn't allow for studied actors in every part. Looked like some family members might have been given bit roles.