Overlooked Movies: Border River (1954)

BORDER RIVER is another Western movie I somehow missed seeing on TV when I was growing up. The river of the title is the Rio Grande, of course. As the movie opens, a little prologue explains that the river's shifting course has created a no man's land known as Zona Libre (the "free zone") which is ruled by a Mexican military tyrant played by Pedro Armendariz. The time is the last days of the American Civil War.

A Confederate agent played by Joel McCrea arrives in Zona Libre to buy guns, ammunition, and supplies for the Confederacy, using gold stolen from the mint in Denver. The set-up results in double-crosses and intrigue between McCrea's character and the general, as well as a romantic triangle involving the two of them and Yvonne De Carlo, playing the beautiful co-owner of the local saloon. There are some other shady characters on hand, including Alfonso Bedoya, chewing the scenery with his usual entertaining gusto as the general's main henchman. Nobody ever played roles like that better than Bedoya.

McCrea is a likable and solid hero, as always, and De Carlo is pretty good, too. The action scenes are okay but a little lackluster at times. The script is very predictable. But there's quicksand, and as Crider's Law states, any movie is better with quicksand in it. That's true here. BORDER RIVER is a very average Fifties Western, but it passed the time pleasantly enough and I'm glad we watched it.