Le bord de la rivière

The River's Edge is directed by Allan Dwan and adapted to screenplay by James Leicester from the story "The Highest Mountain" written by Harold Jacob Smith. It stars Ray Milland, Anthony Quinn and Debra Paget. A CinemaScope production with colour by De Luxe, music is by Louis Forbes and cinematography by Harold Lipstein.

Ben Cameron (Quinn) and his wife Meg (Paget) are struggling to make their New Mexico ranch function as a happy working home. Enter shifty Nardo Denning (Milland), who has a past with Meg and has ulterior motives for suddenly appearing on the scene…

"You know, if you were on a desert island with that guy and there was nothing but rocks, pretty soon he would have all the rocks moved to his side of the beach"

Falling somewhere in the void between Noir and Western, The River's Edge is a delightfully sly and compact thriller that also boasts gorgeous location photography and splendidly garish colour compositions.

It was kill or be killed all the way down to The River's Edge!

Narratively it's a straight case of two men and one girl who wind up on the lam, with the foxy gal bouncing back and forth between the two men's affections like a ping-pong ball on legs. All three characters are flawed, their means and motivations deliberately scratchy, it makes for a near kinky noir love triangle, with dialogue that's often cynical or deliberately obtuse. The two guys are polar opposites, Denning is a spiv like manipulator, a dastard, Cameron is muscular but sincere, while Meg, with her shock of red hair scorching the landscape, has a murky past and is either confused or playing the cards close to her chest? Something is going to have to give...

In the mix is violence, potent violence at that, a suitcase full of cash and the perils of the terrain that the trio traverse. It's with the latter where Dwan and Lipstein come to the fore, the Scope photography and framing of characters amongst the Mexican locales (Cuernavaca, Morelos), really belies the B budget afforded the production. Were it not for some cheap looking studio interior shots-the remarkable recovery of one character after an accident-and a twist in the ending that should have gone the other way, this would be better thought of than just being considered a B movie culter.

Neon pinks and grubby greens mingle with shady grey characters for a whole bunch of fun. 7.5/10

Fox's Region 1 DVD features a very decent print and a detailed commentary track by noir aficionados James Ursini and Alain Silver.

Those who think of Ray Milland as a skilled light comedian or an amiable drunk will be surprised by his work in this late Allan Dwan entry. He's mean as can be in this one, and the best thing in the movie, making Anthony Quinn look weak by comparison; not an easy thing to do, but Ray pulls it off with style. Debra Paget is an asset as well in this trim, modest film.

Excepting Debra Paget's gams, this foray into film is utterly legless. Mistitled and--in Ray Milland's case--miscast, the simple-minded, sometimes illogical story schlepps along so listlessly that viewers might well wish for a protagonist's demise just to end the misery! The derelict direction employs gratuitous scenes of Paget enveloped in tamely titillating beach towels, a bubble bath, and a cleavageless slip. She carries it all off as best she can and is actually credible as an ex-con in a marriage of convenience. Anthony Quinn, whose role was probably intended as a dumb-ox rancher, exudes such sexuality and smarts that the city gal/country guy dichotomy seems not so dubious. Middle-aged Milland, however, as a hot property Paget cannot resist, pulls the rug out from the whole plot. He moves through the movie like a somnambulist--and can scarcely be scolded for doing so!

Sleekly gorgeous Debra Paget looks about as comfortable on a hardscrabble ranch as Paris Hilton would in a convent. No wonder she takes off with former boyfriend Ray Milland when he shows up at the door. At least he likes money better than scruffy cattle. Pity grimy husband Anthony Quinn left in the dust when the shower doesn't work, the oven blows up, and he shows more concern for calf serum than a night on the town. But then, as we find out, things are not as uncomplicated as they look.

Interesting if not very believable melodrama. The first half presents intriguing mind games between the three main characters, but bogs down in the last third. Nonetheless, the story strays some distance from the usual, with a few unexpected twists and turns. Milland's character is certainly not geared to winning new fan club members, while Paget standing around in her underwear shows why the real life Howard Hughes reserved a special cottage for her.

The movie must have cost a $1.80 to make since hardly anyone gets on screen but the threesome, while the action takes place either somewhere in the boondocks or on a cheap outdoor set. And when Paget runs from a speeding car to the safety of a cornfield, I wondered if the writer of North by Northwest was taking notes. Had the script played up the mind games to the end, we might have had a real sleeper. But the early promise settles in for a more conventional wind up; at the same time, the last scene borrows from the ironical caper film The Killing from the year before. All in all, I expect an obscure film like this has gotten a much bigger audience from cable TV than it ever got in theatres. A must-see for fans of cult director Allan Dwan.

Quite entertaining, good characters, a nice movie to watch when you want to relax. Anthony Quinn is very sexy and Ray Milland a good villain. Don't miss it!