The old, wild west was a great place for new beginnings. One could leave the city behind and hunt for a new frontier. And with it, you could leave society, your own past, become a new person, and forge a new destiny. Bend of the River is all about renewing oneself.
Buy Bend of the RiverA group of people are traveling across the country to settle in Oregon where they hope to start new lives as farmers and ranchers. They want to go where the land is fresh and clean. They’ve hired Glyn McLyntock (James Stewart) to guide them. He’s got a dark past and he wants to start fresh again as well. He’s hoping to leave it all behind and maybe become a farmer with them.
Along the way, he meets Emerson Cole (Arthur Kennedy), and by “meets,” I mean McLyntock saves Cole from being hanged for stealing some horses. Cole says he didn’t really steal the horses, but McLyntock doesn’t care either way. He just doesn’t like to see a man hanged. (We’ll call that foreshadowing.) The two men know each other and their pasts by reputation, though neither man says much about it. They give each other knowing glances now and again but mostly carry on with their business.
Cole says he’s headed to California, but he’ll join them for a while. He stays a little while longer once he gets a look at Marjie Baile (Lori Nelson) and Laura Baile (Julie Adams), the two pretty daughters of Jeremy Baile (Jay C. Flippen), the head of the settlers’ clan. The elder Baile isn’t so keen on Cole when he finds out he used to be a Border Raider. He figures a man can’t change who he is – that one bad apple can spoil the bunch. (You could call that one of the film’s main themes.)
They make it to the sleepy town of Portland, Oregon. The settlers make a deal with Tom Hendricks (Howard Petrie) to send them supplies in a few months, once they’ve settled in their new territory. Then they go up river and find them a place.
Cole decides to leave them there and try his hand at gold prospecting. Laura has to stay behind in Portland because she was shot in the shoulder during a Shoshone raid. The film is curious with its use of violence. Cole and McLyntock both have pasts filled with violence yet are trying to escape it. Jeremy Baile doesn’t trust Cole because he used to be a raider. And yet it is their abilities with a gun that make both men good at protecting the settlers.
Cole and McLyntock bond over violence as well. That Shoshone raid happens early in the film. The settlers are useless against the raiders, so it is up to those two men to save them. Though they barely know each other, they must trust the other man has their back. That violence forms a bond between them.
Time passes. The settlers clear a section of the forest and build their settlement. But food grows scarce. They need the supplies from Portland. Eventually, McLyntock takes a group of men to find out why there is a delay. They find the city has grown both big and wild. Gold has been discovered, and that has brought an influx of men and gambling and drink. They find Cole there, working at a casino, and Laura too. They’ve fallen in love.
What with the influx of money and demand and the limited amount of food and supplies, Hendricks tells McLyntock that the cost has gone up tenfold since they paid for them. He demands more money. McLyntock refuses. A gunfight ensues with Cole and another man they met previously in Portland, Trey Wilson (Rock Hudson), helping them out. They escape and once again they are on the trail with McLyntock.
There will be trials that put to the test the idea of whether or not a man can leave behind his past and change. Those supplies are worth their weight in gold. They could sell them to miners for a fortune, but that would mean letting the rest of the settlers starve come winter. That’s a temptation that might be too much for one of the men.
Director Anthony Mann keeps the action front and center. There are raids and gunfights, chases and fistfights. But there are big themes and deep meanings to be found if you look for them. This was the second of eight collaborations between Mann and Stewart, several of which are some of the greatest westerns of the 1950s. This one included.
Shot on location and on a soundstage, the film creates some magnificent natural vistas and some rather incredible sets. It looks fantastic. Stewart is truly great. It is a wonderfully entertaining film with some fascinating ideas its pondering.
Kino Lorber presents Bend of the River with a new 4K transfer and again, it looks fantastic. Extras include some trailers and two audio commentaries, one from critic Toby Roan, which is an archival release, and the other, new to this disc, includes critics Julie Kirgo and C. Courtney.
