River's End

George Tobias could just play any part, although his accent does come and go in this one. Here, he's a supporting character "Dijon", helping our main character to escape. Our lead man is Dennis Morgan, playing both a convicted man (John Keith)and the County Mountie (Connison) assigned to chase him down. While it is a shortie, it is quite well played. There is some comedy in this "Canadian Western"... every couple minutes, Dijon's girlfriend comes running into the picture to make a big scene, even though Dijon promised to keep a low profile. He even starts a bar-room brawl as a pretense to get one of the bad guys in jail. Of course, there are a couple of chase scenes, and even a fist fight on the edge of a cliff. Victor Jory is Talbot, the "foil" in the story.

Directed by Ray Enright, who had worked his way up in the business in the early days of Hollywood. Based on the story by James Curwood, a prolific writer who seems to have written numerous novels about the outdoors, and the wild west. Fun film to watch. It starts as a serious drama, but seems to turn into a lighter comedy/drama about halfway through.

Calling this a mystery is a stretch as the only mystery is when the incredibly credulous townsfolk of River's End, Alberta, will figure out that Dennis Morgan is actually an escaped convict and NOT the Canadian Mountie sent in pursuit of him. Yes, it's the old chestnut about the two fellows who look exactly alike and switch identities in order to right the wrongs of an imperfect judicial system. If you can accept the premise, you'll enjoy this speck of fluff. Victor Jory offers the only interesting performance as a relatively likeable bad guy.

No review here as such, but this enjoyable little semi-Western puzzled me a bit, for the female star (playing one of the Dennis Morgan characters' sister), is given as Elizabeth Earl, a name used in only a couple of late films instead of her real one, Elizabeth Ingles, used more often earlier. Since I could not remember encountering her under either name before, and she was a really comely lass (the character is Scottish), a good actress, and reasonably charismatic, I was amazed that she would be in a good-sized production like this and disappear more or less totally from future view, so I looked her up in the actor biography section provided by IMDb (just hit her name in the cast listing and you are there) and found out that she left the screen shortly after for marriage and that Elizabeth Earl/Elizabeth Ingles is the mother of Sigourney Weaver(!). How about that? The screen lost a pretty good actress when she left, but she produced a sci-fi film legend to compensate. She could have done worse! In fact, cinematically-speaking, she almost did in this film, for she is surely the only actress in film history who would have chosen to marry Victor Jory instead of Dennis Morgan; one must assume she hadn't met Henry Daniell yet!

"River's End" uses one of the worst and more common cliches in old movies and TV shows...the identical stranger! You'd think watching these many films and shows that we all have doubles all over the place! In fact, it's extremely rare...and never are the pair truly identical...except in films/TV!

When the film begins, John is on trial in Canada for murder. He is convicted but soon manages to escape...and he's gone for many, many months hiding out in the wilderness of the old Northwest Territories. Soon a Mountie, Sergeant Conniston, is sent to find John....and the Mountie is John's double...and NO ONE recognizes this!! Talk about suspending disbelief!!!

After many more months, John stumbles upon the injured Sergeant and he takes him to his cabin and nurses him. Sadly, the Sergeant STILL dies a few days later...but only after he's convinced that John is innocent. So, he persuades John to assume his identity and work as a Mountie to find the true murderer! And, because they are such perfect matches, no one seems to take much notice. And, when they note that Sergeant Conniston has forgotten something, they pretty much ignore it or chalk it up to the long time he was in the Canadian wild.

Dennis Morgan plays both roles and he does a fine job...as you'd expect from this excellent actor. But the film clearly is a B-movie from Warner...and like many Bs the script is a bit brainless! But, it IS well done despite this and is watchable....and did I mention brainless?! After all, the trial and murder occur in the town of River's End....and after John replaces the Sergeant, the rest of the film takes place in the same town...and none of the locals notice!! And, don't get me started about the Sergeant's sister and the budding romance between her and John!!

This was one of James Oliver Curwood's best stories, and I was greatly and positively surprised that Warner Brothers had made a film on it. Naturally the action is much altered, they always do that in America, but the main intrigue is there and made convincing enough. You miss the Chinaman though, who plays a most important part in the novel, and who is here replaced by more ordinary standard crooks. But the film is well made, there are quite a few breath-taking chases by cart and on horseback and a wonderful extensive saloon fight breaking all the premises down to cinders, as Hollywood is prone to do with a vengeance, the actors are also rather ordinary, but there is nothing wrong with the action and the tempo - you will never be able to relax. They could have made a better film on such a terrific intrigue, but maybe someone else will do that later on, discovering the potentials of the book more thoroughly.