La riva dei peccatori

John Wayne battles the forces of corruption down New Orleans way in this passable time-killer.Henry Stephenson as the owner of a lottery game that's been robbing the town blind and Ray Middleton as his right hand man both put in decent performances.There's also a love story here but the sparks between Wayne and Ona Munson don't fly too far.The ending with biblical overtones that could have stood some better special effects,but all in all this film is fun to watch.

An American drama; A story set in the 1890s about a New England attorney who goes to New Orleans to aid the local reform league in their fight against the corrupt lottery run by a Southern ex-general and his beautiful daughter. John Wayne performs well as an idealistic, self-assured lawyer but there is not much chemistry between him and Ona Munson. The film plods along with a serviceable story and there are a few comic moments but it is resolved in the third act by deus ex machina. Many of the scenes are lavishly staged with sumptuous interiors amd lavish props and nice costumes which go a small way to vanquishing the staleness of the script. Nevertheless, it upturns with impressive special effect in the finale.

It's the 1890s, and Northern lawyer John Reynolds (John Wayne) is traveling south to New Orleans via riverboat to meet with his elderly aunt Blanche (Helen Westley). On the boat, John meets Julie Mirbeau (Ona Munson), and the two fall in love. When they reach New Orleans, John learns that his aunt wants him to help head up legal efforts to stop the corrupt State Lottery, which just so happens to be run by Julie's father General Anatole (Henry Stephenson). However, the real force behind the corruption is the General's right-hand man Black-ie (Ray Middleton).

Republic attempts to make a MGM-caliber costumer with less than thrilling results. The sets and costumes are well done, but the story is dull, barely coherent, and predicated on just a few too many coincidences and failures of communication. There's some disaster-movie action near the end with the failure of levees and flooding. I don't know if Wayne enjoyed making a movie where he wasn't on a horse for a change, but he seems ill-suited for this one. Some sources label this movie a Western, but it in no way is, unless one thinks any movie set in the 19th century is a Western.

When this story begins, Julie (One Munson) and John Reynolds (John Wayne) meet and fall for each other when he arrives in New Orleans. Little do either realize that they are both destined to be on the opposite side. It seems that Julie's father, the General (Henry Stephenson), is head of the lottery and the new Anti-Lottery League has brought in John to clean up this racket.

While John thinks the General is his big problem, the General isn't that bad a guy. But neither realize just how low and dangerous the General's assistant, Blackie (Ray Middleton) is. When the General starts to suspect, the General is murdered...and Blackie encourages his lottery ticket salesmen to use ANY tactic to get tickets sold. It essentially becomes a shakedown racket...and folks pay protection by buying tickets...or else.

Can the nice guy John manage to clean up this den of thieves? And what about Julie? After all, she is foolish enough to blame John for the death of her father!

The style of this film is very similar to Wayne's other films in this time period. Since he's becoming more of a star, the budgets and look of the films have gotten much better than his cheap B- westerns of the 1930s. But despite looking much better and having a spectacular finale in this film, the Republic films are essentially B-movies with longer running times and bigger budgets. There were exceptions at this time (such as the films he did with John Ford, such as "Stagecoach") but this film fits in style-wise with Wayne's "Seven Sinners", "Dark Command" and "In Old California"...rather formulaic but enjoyable. My only quibble is that the baddie is named 'Blackie'...and yet no one seems to suspect him of villainy through most of the film!!

Although Lady from Louisiana isn't the greatest movie in the world, and it isn't even the greatest movie set in New Orleans, it's worth watching for Helen Westley. A veteran character actress, she got to enjoy a vast range throughout her career, but I'm willing to bet she never had more fun than in this period piece. Can you imagine her going undercover, bringing her knife to infiltrate the enemy, pretending to be a young Southern belle and flirting with a nightwatchman in order to steal a set of keys from his trouser pocket? I couldn't either, unless I'd seen this movie. I'm so happy for her that she got to enjoy such a fun role.

This mediocre flick is also worth watching if you want to see John Wayne without his horse. It's a period drama in which he plays a young, idealistic lawyer, determined to weed out the corruption in New Orleans. Good luck, Duke. Politics is a very tough racket to clean up, and when the citizens and powerful men are on the same side, he has an uphill battle. The problem is the lottery: the powerful men set up a "charitable" lottery for the common men, but whoever wins ends up being whisked away to the French Quarter and robbed - and sometimes killed. Can Duke get anyone to testify against the bad guys, or are they all too scared? Add in the terrible complication that Duke is in love with the head bad guy's daughter, Ona Munson, and you wonder how they will ever patch up their differences.

Or... if they even should. For me, I wasn't rooting for them to get back together. Oona was a pretty rotten person, and even though Duke had the cutest opening line to a movie I think I've ever seen (after breaking a lengthy kiss, he asks, "What's your name?"), I thought he could do better.