Review of Southwest Passage

I was sucked into watching this movie because of the lead actors, John Ireland and Joann Dru. They were husband and wife at the time after they met during the filming of "Red River", five years before this movie. Despite its poor quality, "Southwest Passage" does have some interesting elements.

Here's what I liked:

• Dru and Ireland deliver good performances, given the limited opportunity the script gave them. Dru is much better looking and has more charisma than I remember from "Red River".

• Stalwart John Dehner makes an interesting appearance as a heavy.

• Camel/Arab theme is unusual.

• Interesting location shoots. Unlike what another user review claims, this is in no way Monument Valley.

Here's what ruined the movie:

• Plot wise, it starts out OK, but quickly devolves into an absurd simplistic patch work of illogical characters, conflicts and transitions. They clearly were shooting without a script and made the story up as they went along. There's no point in going into details, since the movie isn't worth watching to begin with.