The River's Edge

Harold Jacob Smith co-adapted his own short story "The Highest Mountain" about a cattle rancher near the Mexico border who reluctantly harbors a fugitive; seems the rancher's new bride was once a pushover for this manicured killer, and now she's involved with him again. Handsomely-produced, sloppily-directed crime-drama with western applets doesn't seem to have anywhere to go after the set-up is clear. A few senseless murders don't do much to enhance Ray Milland's crook-in-a-suit (he's passable, but that's all); Debra Paget isn't bad as the fiery woman caught between the two men, however Anthony Quinn's performance in the lead strikes gold. Alternately a big brother and a daddy-bear husband to Paget, Quinn knows exactly how to handle this scenario, and never overplays. One comes away wanting to know more about this character and hoping he'll be all right--and that's solely due to Quinn's acting. The cinematography and the score (which pushes the oldie "You'll Never Know" a bit strenuously) are both classy, but director Allan Dwan doesn't know how to stage this showdown, and occasionally one loses patience. ** from ****

Not a western but a well shot and performed drama set in the West. The story is rather ordinary but benefits from the role reversal of Ray Milland, usually the hero and Anthony Quinn, often the heavy but in opposite roles here. Even at the relatively brief running time the script could have been tightened a bit but overall a good film. One caveat-it would take a great deal to make a woman as stunning as Debra Paget was in her prime look bad but the filmmakers almost achieve that feat. Saddled with unflattering makeup and frightening Lucille Ball red hair that never moves no matter what travail she is enduring her beauty is almost completely obscured.

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!

Debra Paget is walking out on Anthony Quinn and his miserable ranch. Between the scorpions in her shoes, mud in the water tank, and her throwing out the calf medicine that cost $11, she doesn't see any chance. Up drives Ray Milland in a pink Continental convertible. He's just conned someone out of a million dollars in cash, and he wants to hire Quinn to get him across the border to Mexico so he won't have to explain ten thousand $100 bills. He also wants Miss Paget, his old girl friend, who's still in love with him.

Allan Dwan's 132nd feature movie -- he also directed 272 short subjects -- is a fine little morality play, with the performers giving him, as they so often did, excellent performances. The subtext is, alas, too close to the surface to offer much subtlety, as it so often was in his last decade of directing, but the way he shoots the Mexican mountains harks back to his earliest shorts, when he showed his talent for making the landscape part of his story.

Watching The River's Edge today put me in mind of The Treasure Of The Sierra Madre. Just imagine if one of those treasure hunters had been a woman on the trip. Think they had problems then?

Ray Milland is the Fred C. Dobbs of the piece. Only he's not looking for gold, he's got a valise with a lot of money in cash. A notorious grifter he's on the run and headed for his former girlfriend Debra Paget. He wants the services of her current husband Anthony Quinn who is a guide and tracker to take him across the Mexican border and away from the law.

Given Paget's beauty and her involvement with both of these men you can imagine what a tense trip this was. Milland commits two murders along the way, that of a US Border Patrolmen and Chubby Johnson an old prospector

Like The Treasure Of The Sierra Madre 90% of the film is focused on the three leads. At no time is anyone truly sure of how they stand with each other. Paget the most confused of all, she loves her husband Quinn in her own way, but Milland is the guy who always scratched her itch.

In the end what happens to Milland is almost eerily reminiscent of what happened to Humphrey Bogart in the previous film. And as I wrote in my review of The Treasure Of The Sierra Madre, God really does have a sense of humor.