Passion (1954 film)

Passion is a 1954 American Western film directed by Allan Dwan and written by Howard Estabrook, Beatrice A. Dresher and Joseph Lejtes. The film stars Cornel Wilde, Yvonne De Carlo, Raymond Burr, Lon Chaney Jr., Rodolfo Acosta and John Qualen. The film was released on October 6, 1954, by RKO Pictures.^[1][2][3]

Passion
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Allan Dwan
Screenplay by	Howard Estabrook Beatrice A. Dresher Joseph Lejtes
Story by	Beatrice A. Dresher Miguel Padilla Joseph Lejtes
Produced by	Benedict Bogeaus
Starring	Cornel Wilde Yvonne De Carlo Raymond Burr Lon Chaney Jr. Rodolfo Acosta John Qualen
Cinematography	John Alton
Edited by	Carlo Lodato
Music by	Louis Forbes
Production company	Benedict Bogeaus Production
Distributed by	RKO Pictures
Release date	October 6, 1954 (1954-10-06)
Running time	84 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English

Plot

A greedy California land baron stakes a claim to the property of Gaspar Melo, sending hired guns to seize control. A rancher, Juan Obreon, learns that Melo's granddaughter Rosa has given birth to a baby. Juan is the child's father and intends to marry Rosa, but she is forced to hide her new son before hired gun Sandro shoots her.

Rosa has a sister, Tonya, who flees before Sandro or his man Castro can find her. Captain Rodriguez, a friend of Juan's, becomes involved when Juan seeks vengeance for Rosa by killing the new land owner's men. Thanks to the captain's intervention, Juan is able to live in peace with Tonya and his child.

Cast

• Cornel Wilde as Juan Obreon
• Yvonne De Carlo as Rosa Melo / Tonya Melo
• Raymond Burr as Captain Rodriguez
• Lon Chaney Jr. as Castro
• Rodolfo Acosta as Salvator Sandro
• John Qualen as Gaspar Melo
• Anthony Caruso as Sergeant Muñoz
• Robert Warwick as Padre
• John Dierkes as Escobar
• Alex Montoya as Manuel
• James Kirkwood Sr. as Don Rosendo
• Frank de Kova as Martinez

Production

The film was known as Where the Wind Dies. Cornel Wilde's casting was announced in March 1954 with Benedict Bogeaus to produce for Filmcrest Productions and Harmon Jones to direct.^[4][5][6] Yvonne De Carlo signed to play his co-star.

Eventually Dwan directed. It was one of a series of movies Allan Dwan made for producer Benedict Bogeaus.^[7] The director said:

I didn't think much of the story – it was a contrived affair, but the shooting was one of our shrewd business manipulations. We rented magnificent Spanish sets Warner Bros, had built for some big picture, and then we moved over to Universal and used a lot of their sets. So we got a magnificent production for very little money.^[8]