Les affameurs

"Bend of the River" welcomes the fine blend of a passionate action with intense characterization that had become Mann's masterful specialty...

Stewart (in his second feature with Mann after "Winchester '73") is seen as a reluctant hero, stumbled, brutalized and confused, chasing a personal mission with severe determination, and giving life to the complex moral and psychological forces that drive Mann's heroes...

Vivid as a laconic quiet man driven by betrayal to violent rage, Stewart is a former raider on the Missouri-Kansas border, who guides a wagon train of settlers to Oregon... There he gets double-crossed by associates who try to turn aside necessary food and supplies to gold-rush activities...

Ingenious and malicious, Arthur Kennedy (very much in his element), is Stewart's former companion-in-crime whom Stewart saves from hanging, and helps him fight the Indians on the way to Oregon...

Adroit, insincere, and dishonest, Kennedy turns on Stewart stealing the settler's supplies for a handsome profit but is later dispatched by an irritated and enraged Stewart...

Kennedy has been preferred in Westerns as the more insidious kind of villain: friendly, smiling, charming and smooth-talking on the surface, weak and corrupt underneath... His specialty is the courteous type who befriends the hero and then turns out to be planning something illegal to his own advantage on the side...

Julie Adams is along the ride as a love interest getting short penitence in all the macho interplay...

Rock Hudson is cast as a soft gambling man from San Francisco, adept at cards as well as women, defender of a fair deal, ready to fight beside his friends...

Filmed against a breathtaking Technicolor panorama, with nice music that highlights the action, "Bend of the River" is a good standard Western with pace and period feeling, rolling along to its predictable happy ending, discarding any unwanted characters...

Across mountains, two cowboy-drifters with suspicious pasts try to get provisions to settlers in 19th century Oregon.

Despite the talent involved, the western's far from a classic. It's got plenty of action and loads of great scenery. But it's also got enough plot for five westerns. It's like the screenplay didn't want to exclude anything in the novel. So if you can follow the various threads and intrigues between the army of characters, there's a place for you at MIT. Then too, the editing doesn't help. Too often, developments are cut off before they can clarify (follow Trey's changes, if you can). The result is a series of clouded events, anchored only by McLyntock's moral steadfastness.

Of course, Stewart's grouchy good guy and Kennedy's slippery smile do a lot to compensate, and I can see why director Mann used them again and again. But speaking of noir-meister Mann, the shootouts here are poorly staged, a surprise for such an accomplished filmmaker. Catch how the bad guys ride in again and again, only to be mowed down by Stewart and crew. Yet no riderless horses leave, and surprisingly, about the same number of men ride away from the attack as rode in. I guess I expect better attention to important detail from such an expensive production.

I'm not trying to discredit the entire movie, only point out those facets I believe prevent it from reaching the caliber of other Stewart-Mann westerns. Certainly, a tighter script and better editing would have made a notable difference. Otherwise, it's got great scenery and good acting.

The second of five westerns Anthony Mann did with James Stewart, this one involves a trail boss with a shady past named Glyn McLyntock (Stewart) who takes a wagon train of settlers west from the Missouri to Oregon. Along the way, he saves a man named Emerson Cole (Arthur Kennedy) who's about to be hanged by some trappers for stealing a horse. He pulls a rifle on them and tells them to clear out. Cole feels indebted (for now) and hooks up with McLyntock and the wagon train.

Then they run into some Indians and Laura Baile (Julie Adams), the daughter of the trail master (played ably enough by Jay C. Flippen) gets wounded by an arrow. They finally reach Portland and purchase supplies there that will later be sent to them upriver. They also leave Laura in Portland to heal up while Cole stays on to seek his fortune at the gambling tables, running into good-natured Trey Wilson (Rock Hudson) in the process.

When they go upriver and reach the spot they want to settle down in, the settlers start to clear the land before the winter sets. In the meantime the supplies they paid for down in Portland haven't come yet, so they send McLyntock down to see what's happened and to get word from Laura Baile with whom they haven't heard from in months.

It turns out that the seller of the supplies, Tom Hendricks (Howard Petrie) has ripped them off and reneged on the deal. McLyntock, Cole (who goes along for the ride) and Trey Wilson shoot it out with Hendricks' men, and head upriver in the steamboat with the supplies (and Laura Baile) while Hendricks' men are right behind. McLyntock wants the boat to stop downstream in order to throw Hendricks off their trail for a little while, but Hendricks picks up on it and is still doggedly determined to get those supplies back. They ambush Hendricks and his men, killing most of them including Hendricks himself.

There's more double cross and backstabbing going on as we already suspect that Emerson Cole is the low down dirty snake that he really is, and is only concerned about his own greed. Cole knows full well he can get more money for those supplies at the mining camp, so he and his crew overpower McLyntock and take the supplies, leaving McLyntock behind to fend for himself.

But McLyntock trails not far behind on foot and then rides a stray horse that was secretly left behind by Laura so he can catch up. There's the inevitable showdown in the rapids when McLyntock and Cole get into a fistfight and Cole is swept away by the rapids and drowns.

This is an above-average western that has some of the elements we'd later see in THE NAKED SPUR (1953) and THE FAR COUNTRY (1954), both of which I prefer over this one. I guess this is mostly due to the fact that Robert Ryan and John McIntyre make better over-the-top villains than Arthur Kennedy does.

7 out of 10

The second of five genre defining Westerns that director Anthony Mann made with James Stewart, Bend Of The River was the first one to be made in colour. The slick screenplay is written by Borden Chase, adapted from William Gulick's novel "Bend Of The Snake," with support for Stewart coming from Arthur Kennedy, Julie Adams, Rock Hudson & Jay C. Flippen.

Stewart plays guide Glyn McLyntock who in 1847 is leading a wagon - train of homesteaders from troubled Missouri to the Oregon Territory. What the group are hoping for is a new start, a paradise, with McLyntock himself hoping for a new identity to escape his own troubled past. Unfortunately, after rescuing Emerson Cole (Kennedy) from a lynching, it's an act that once McLyntock and the group get to Portland turns out to have far reaching consequences.

In typical Anthony Mann style, McLyntock is a man tested to the maximum as he seeks to throw off his shackles and find a new redemption within a peaceful community. Cloaked in what would be become Mann's trademark stunning vistas (cinematography courtesy of Irving Glassberg), Bend Of The River is often thought of as the lighter tale from the Stewart/Mann partnership. This is most likely because it has more action and no little amount of comedy in the mix, yet although it's a simple story in essence, it is however given a hard boiled and psychological edge by the makers. An edge that asks searching questions of the "hero" in waiting. Can "McLyntock" indeed escape his past? And as a "hero" is it OK to use violence when he is wronged? This is potent stuff that is acted with tremendous gravitas by Stewart.

One of the main plus points on offer is that of having a strong cast operating within. It's thrilling for a Western fan to see Stewart and Kenendy side by side, particularly as the screenplay provides them much opportunities for machismo play. There's also a surprise in store, further allowing two fine actors of their era to solidify the film's credentials. Flippen is a reassuring presence, overseeing things like a genre uncle, Hudson rocks up for some dandy dude duties who joins in the gun play, and Adams (here billed as Julia Adams) is beautifully vivid under Glassberg's colour lenses.

Bend of the River is very much a recommended picture, as in fact are the other four films on the Mann/Stewart CV. 7.5/10

James Stewart plays Glyn McLyntock whose job is to lead the settlers west.Emerson Cole, a man with a shady past, is played by Arthur Kennedy.He's there to help Glyn with the job.The settlers are gonna need some food for the winter and soon the other side of Cole steps out.Anthony Mann worked for the second time with James Stewart in Bend of the River (1952).Jimmy does good work as always.Arthur Kennedy is brilliant in his role.The beautiful and talented Julie Adams plays Laura Baile and she does it great.Lori Nelson is wonderful as Marjie Baile.Rock Hudson is a gambler named Trey Wilson and he's terrific.This movie has got the most wonderful scenery.It's great to watch all those wagons travel there towards a better future.This is a good western from 55 years back.The world has changed in that time- and so have the movies.