There is not much incident in Four Faces West, not enough to keep it entirely from representing another six-reel horseback ride, but everybody is so agreeable and charming that one can't help liking them all.

A sensitive and quaint western, with an irrepressible charm.

Ross McEwen - Valiant Gentleman. Four Faces West (AKA: They Passed This Way) is directed by Alfred E. Green and collectively adapted to screenplay by C. Graham Baker, Teddi Sherman, William Brent and Milarde Brent from the novel Paso por acqui written by Eugene Manlove Rhodes. It stars Joel McCrea, Francis Dee, Charles Bickford and Joseph Calleia. Music is by Paul Sawtell and cinematography by Russell Harlan. Ross McEwen (McCrea) robs the bank of Santa Maria but requests only $2,000 and issues an I.O.U. to the bank manager with the promise of paying back the money. The bank manager, aggrieved and agitated, puts a bounty of $3,000 on McEwen's head and quickly finds the law, in the form of Sheriff Pat Garrett (Bickford), aiding his cause. But McEwen is no ordinary thief, and as he makes his way across the lands during his escape, revelations and relationships will reveal something quite extraordinary. All the things are in place here for a conventional 1940s Western movie, with the robbery of a bank followed by a posse pursuit, a serious sheriff on the case, a pretty gal turning heads and some card playing of course. Yet this is far from being a conventional Oater. Old fashioned? Yes! Definitely, but it's a beautifully crafted picture that relies on characterisations - locations - and a story of such humanistic redemptive qualities; it demands to be better known. It has right…

**_Warmhearted Western in the Southwest marred by contrivances and dubious acting_** An aged Marshal Pat Garrett (Charles Bickford) chases a questionable robber (Joel McCrea) through long stretches of New Mexico. On the way, the latter meets a lovely nurse (Frances Dee) and befriends a sympathetic innkeeper (Joseph Calleia). William Conrad is on hand as a sheriff that joins the marshal’s pursuit. “Four Faces West” (1948), also known as “They Passed This Way,” is a decent Western with stretches of lyrical beauty, hindered by the B&W photography (the magnificent locations mean very little in flat B&W). The warmheartedness is refreshing and Dee is winsome, but McCrea doesn’t know how to play an overly sympathetic protagonist, the proverbial good bad guy. Meanwhile Calleia lays it on a little too thick and his character comes across unbelievable. Speaking of unbelievable, the way the protagonist escapes capture on the train is “Why Sure!” territory. Yet the train sequence is otherwise well done. Another “Yeah, right” episode takes place in the last act involving a Mexican family. It runs 1 hour, 29 minutes, and was shot entirely in New Mexico, except for interiors done in Hollywood. The locations include: San Rafael, Alamogordo, El Morro National Monument near Ramah (Inscription Rock), Gallup, Red Rock Canyon State Park and White Sands National Monument. GRADE: C+