A-level Westerns got off to a roaring postwar start, what with John Ford's My Darling Clementine and King Vidor's Duel in the Sun, both from 1946. But veteran Western director Raoul Walsh's expensive effort The Wyoming Kid (1947) is rarely, if ever, revived. The Wells Fargo company dispatches the slick gambler Jim Wylie (Dennis Morgan) to an area known as 'The Devil's Pocket' to capture an elusive stagecoach robber known as 'The Poet.' Jim thinks that, "Anybody who writes poetry like that should be hung if for no other reason." The local thief The Sundance Kid (Arthur Kennedy) and his gang don't understand how the elusive thief beats them payrolls every time. Jim masquerades as The Poet for The Kid's benefit, a ruse upheld by Ann, The Poet's wife (Jane Wyman) because she wants to see her husband captured. More complications ensue when Ann suspects that her real husband may be two-timing her with the flashy dance hall singer, Emily (Janis Page). The film was originally planned for Humphrey Bogart and Zachary Scott, and it's likely that wartime heartthrob Dennis Morgan didn't measure up as a gunslinger hero. The supporting cast of Bruce Bennett, John Ridgely, Alan Hale, Barton Mac Lane and Bob Steele is a big plus, as are locations filmed in Flagstaff, Arizona. Jane Wyman plays a woman with several secrets, but Janis Page sings two songs and gets all the saucy lines. Reviewers noted Page's 'startling' cleavage, and also a higher level of violence, as when The Kid callously shoots an adversary lying helpless on the ground. The Wyoming Kid (1947) was originally released as Cheyenne, but underwent a title change in 1955 when Warner Television used 'Cheyenne' for an unrelated TV series.

By Glenn Erickson