Sunday, November 10, 2013

BORDER RIVER (1954)

Confederate soldier Joel McCrea just stole $2 million is gold from the Union army and heads to a lawless area on the Mexican border called Zona Libre to buy weapons for the Rebels.  Things are much harder than planned with all kinds of double-dealing and backstabbing going on to get his gold.  Not to mention an undercover agent tracking him down and the unforeseen difficulty/pleasure of a sexy Yvonne De Carlo falling for him.  And to make matters even worse the local warlord is in love with De Carlo.

I enjoyed BORDER RIVER.  Joel McCrea is as wonderful as ever, Yvonne De Carlo turns in a good performance, solid direction, the bad guys are just bad enough and quite believable, beautiful outdoor scenery.  There might not be enough physical action to entertain everybody, but I thought the verbal jostling back and forth about the gold more than made up for it.

Recommended for Western fans.