[Note: This is part of a project I'm calling "A Century in a Month". The idea is that I'm going to start with a movie from about 100 years ago and pick a series of connected films until I get to the present. The rules I set this time are release years, per IMDB, can't be more than 5 years apart. I can't repeat the same connection although I can reuse the same type of connection. That means if I use "movies directed by Scorsese" to connect two, I can't use Scorsese as a connection again but I can use a director as a linking element again. I'm not really sure why I'm doing this, but it seems like a fun game.]
Connection to Return to Paradise: Both star Gary Cooper
Premise: After the train he's on gets robbed and man gets thrown back into his criminal past.
Just because I'm doing this as part of my "Century in a Month" project, doesn't mean I'll have much to say about it. This movie’s got Gary Cooper as the linking point with my last movie, and he is a pro at Westerns. Looking this film up, it's apparently regarded as one of Copper's finest later performances and the film has been re-embraced over the years. Personally, I don't see it. It blends in with a lot of Westerns I see.
Part of that is that the sanitized 50s Western doesn't sit as well with me. I like more of the Westerns that follow because they embrace the dirtiness of the Wild West. And I don't just mean physical cleanliness. Like, I don't buy Cooper as a former criminal. He's too well reformed. I sooner believe him as a lawman than a man on the run. In general though, I do like the story of a criminal who can't escape his past, trying to be better. I'm just not a fan of the Hays Code approved 50s studio version of it. It has all the gunfights and Western trappings though, so it's a baseline successful movie.
Verdict: Weakly Don't Recommend
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