This Western Was Blacklisted for Decades—Now You Can Finally Watch It For Free
Back in 1949, Warner Bros. released a Western so bleak, so nasty, and so unapologetically grim that West Germany banned it outright. The charge? "Glorifying anti-social elements." In other words: too many dead bodies, not enough moral lessons.
The movie was Colorado Territory, and it's not your usual dusty shootout fare. Directed by Raoul Walsh, it's a shot-for-shot remake of his own gangster classic High Sierra — just with outlaws and canyons instead of getaway cars and city streets. Same doomed antihero, same cynical worldview, same end-of-the-line finale. Only this time, everyone's on horseback.
Joel McCrea stars as Wes McQueen, a career criminal trying (and failing) to go straight. He gets roped into one last heist, and it all spirals into betrayal, bloodshed, and a final standoff that doesn't flinch. The film doesn't pretend the frontier was fair — it's brutal, sweaty, and mean as hell.
How brutal? There's a scene where a U.S. marshal hangs two captured robbers from a train car, then smirks at the bodies like it's just another day on the job. And when McQueen finally meets his end? It's not noble. It's just grim.
Colorado Territory did OK in theaters, pulling in $2.7 million, but got completely overshadowed by She Wore a Yellow Ribbon, the John Ford crowd-pleaser that same year. Critics largely ignored it. Noir fans forgot about it. Even Western buffs didn't talk about it much.
But that silence didn't bother Raoul Walsh. He wasn't making a feel-good Western. And Joel McCrea, reflecting on the film years later, summed it up bluntly:
"I have no regrets… except one: I should have tried harder to be a better actor."
Now, after years of being out of the spotlight, Colorado Territory is getting a second life. Critics have finally caught up, and it's being hailed as one of the greatest noir Westerns ever made. And the best part? You can watch it right now for free — it's streaming on Darkroom or with a free trial of Prime Video.
If you want a Western where the good guys are just slightly less awful than the bad guys — and everyone's fate is already sealed — this is the one.