weezeralfalfa This is a little more than a 'routine' western. It has some historical basis. The romantic couple: Lilly(Joanne Dru) and Clint(John Ireland), who have the most screen time, are quite fictional. But Edmond Beale(Rod Cameron)was quite a famous trail blazer and surveyor in his day. The supposed camel trip across Utah, New Mexico and Arizona was a mix of two of his trips. The trip where he used camels was actually from Fort Defiance, central NM, straight across central AZ to the Colorado River. This became a famous wagon trail, eventually part of US Route 66 and the Santa Fe railway.I noticed that Bactrian (2 hump) rather than dromedary(1 hump) camels were used. Historically, they were imported from Tunisia, therefore should have been dromedaries, which are the usual camel in North Africa and the Middle East. Bactrians are the usual camel in Central Asia and western China. Bactrians are notably larger and can carry or pull heavier loads, up to 1000 lbs., whereas the top limit for dromedaries is 600 lbs. and for horses and mules 300 lbs.. Although camels had various practical advantages over horses and mules in the dry rough parts of the Southwest, there was a general prejudice against substituting them for their familiar pack animals. Also, horses and mules were generally afraid of them. Getting back to the story, the threesome of Clint, Lilly, and brother Jeb are being chased by a posse, after robbing a bank of gold. Jeb is badly wounded, but they manage to lose the posse. Lilly goes to town to find a doctor, and returns with a drunkard veterinarian who says he can't do anything for Jeb. Clint bargains with him to buy his clothes and medical bag,so that the vet. can return to the east, instead of joining the camel caravan, and Clint can impersonate him when he joins the caravan. Lilly remains behind with Jeb, who eventually dies. She then finds the caravan and is reluctantly accepted. Clint's ruse is finally discovered, and he banished from the caravan after a fist fight with Beale. But, he finds a water hole, which the caravan badly needs, and helps fight off the attacking Apache. Therefore, he's accepted back into the caravan, and gives his stolen gold to Beale to return to the bank he stole it from. Beale says he can't buy his freedom from prosecution, but he's earned it...an interesting perspective.I thought Joanne was especially beautiful and charismatic. She was John Ireland's(Clint) wife at this time...Shot around Kanab, Utah. See it in color at YouTube or the expensive DVD release.

bsmith5552 The "Southwest Passage" of the title is an government sponsored expedition across a desert in hopes of finding a shorter route to California. The trek led by Ed Beale (Rod Cameron)is also testing the feasibility of using camels as they had proved capable of traveling for long periods with little or no water in their home lands.The story opens with bank robbers Clint McDonald (John Ireland), Lilly (Joanne Dru) and her brother Jeb (Daryl Hickman) being pursued by sheriff Kenneth MacDonald and his posse. When Jeb is wounded Lilly brings a tipsy Doc Stanton (Morris Ankrum) to tend his wounds. Clint learns that the Doc is scheduled to join Beale's expedition. He decides to impersonate him and joins up with the expedition with Lilly joining him later.This picture was filmed at the end of the 50s 3D craze so most of the film is designed to show off the usual 3D "comin' at ya" effects such as rifles pointed at the screen, a bull whip cracking in your face, a pitch fork, an Indian attack etc. etc.As for the story which makes minimal use of the camels, the deception of Clint posing as a doctor takes up most of the plot. Mule skinner Matt Carroll (John Dehner) learns of the deception and blackmails Clint. Meanwhile, Clint is forced into using his "skills", as we knew he would be on the trail guide, grizzled side kick, comic relief Tall Tale (Guinn "Big Boy" Williams).Although Cameron is top billed, the story centers on the Ireland and Dru characters. Coincidently, they were married at the time. Cameron appeared in a similar role the following year in Republic's "Santa Fe Passage".Given the nature of Ireland's character, I found that the "happy" ending of the story to be a little too Hollywood. But nonetheless the overall film makes for an entertaining 75 minutes.

doug-balch 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.

William Giesin Actor John Ireland and his wife Joanne Dru star in this originally released 3-D color Western that was filmed in what appears to be John Ford Country (Monument Valley, Moab). Ireland met his future wife on the set of "Red River" and appeared with her again in "All the Kings Men". While this film is not in the same category with those two cinema classics, it does feature Rod Cameron and a healthy menu of great character actors such as Guinn "Big Boy" Williams, John Dehner, Morris Ankrum, etc. The story centers around Ireland, Dru and her brother (Darryl Hickman) robbing a bank. Eventually Ireland and Dru join Rod Cameron as he leads an expedition complete with camels to survey a new route to California. The group encounters a band of outlaws as well as Apaches along the way that keeps the viewers interest. What I found most interesting was the introduction of Middle East values to the wild west. A conflict result when Dehner, a mule skinner, starts a fight with the Arab camel drivers when he tries to force them to eat pork .... a custom opposed by their religion. Dehner grumbles about the camels constantly and cannot accept the fact that they are necessary for the expedition. I thought the script left something to be desired as the dialog was sometimes humorous when it was not meant to be. An example of this is when Dehner complains to "Big Boy" Williams, "What are you trying to do kill my mules? Standing out in this sun is worse than working them to death!" Williams replies, "The camels seem to be enjoying it." Dehner counters, "They ain't got sense to know better. All this map making is a bunch of buffalo chips. Can't he tell that's a mountain without looking through a spy glass?" Big Boy then shakes his head and says, "Man when they gave out brains in Tennessee...you must have been in New Orleans!" The only thing that saves this film from being less than mediocre is the veteran group of actors, the John Ford type of location, numerous action scenes and the beautiful color employed in the filming.