The River's Edge (1957)

I just watched this little known film on Netflix. It's gorgeous and fascinating, allowing both frustration and identification with each of three main characters. A modern Adam and Eve story with Ray Milland as a charismatic snake, Debra Paget as a frustrated and sympathetic Eve and Anthony Quinn as an alternately tender and vengeful Adam. The film straddles multiple genres--film noir to melodrama to western---reminding me particularly of Willian Wellman's The Purchase Price and Victor Sjostrom's The Wind in it's thematic exploration of tough urban girls who grow in moral dimension as they learn to appreciate men who have a practical intimacy with the earth.One wonders if the compelling New Mexico/Arizona scenery is on location. This is Technicolor at it's most subtle and beautiful. What a movie.

The River's Edge is directed by Allan Dwan and adapted to screenplay by James Leicester from the story "The Highest Mountain" written by Harold Jacob Smith. It stars Ray Milland, Anthony Quinn and Debra Paget. A CinemaScope production with colour by De Luxe, music is by Louis Forbes and cinematography by Harold Lipstein. Ben Cameron (Quinn) and his wife Meg (Paget) are struggling to make their New Mexico ranch function as a happy working home. Enter shifty Nardo Denning (Milland), who has a past with Meg and has ulterior motives for suddenly appearing on the scene… "You know, if you were on a desert island with that guy and there was nothing but rocks, pretty soon he would have all the rocks moved to his side of the beach" Falling somewhere in the void between Noir and Western, The River's Edge is a delightfully sly and compact thriller that also boasts gorgeous location photography and splendidly garish colour compositions. It was kill or be killed all the way down to The River's Edge! Narratively it's a straight case of two men and one girl who wind up on the lam, with the foxy gal bouncing back and forth between the two men's affections like a ping-pong ball on legs. All three characters are flawed, their means and motivations deliberately scratchy, it makes for a near kinky noir love triangle, with dialogue that's often cynical or deliberately obtuse. The two guys are polar opposites, Denning is a spiv like manipulator, a dastard, Cameron is muscular but sincere, while Meg, with her shock of red hair scorching the landscape, has a murky past and is either confused or playing the cards close to her chest? Something is going to have to give... In the mix is violence, potent violence at that, a suitcase full of cash and the perils of the terrain that the trio traverse. It's with the latter where Dwan and Lipstein come to the fore, the Scope photography and framing of characters amongst the Mexican locales (Cuernavaca, Morelos), really belies the B budget afforded the production. Were it not for some cheap looking studio interior shots-the remarkable recovery of one character after an accident-and a twist in the ending that should have gone the other way, this would be better thought of than just being considered a B movie culter. Neon pinks and grubby greens mingle with shady grey characters for a whole bunch of fun. 7.5/10 Fox's Region 1 DVD features a very decent print and a detailed commentary track by noir aficionados James Ursini and Alain Silver.

The River's Edge is a very good film and one that should be much better known.Rancher and guide Ben Cameron(Anthony Quinn)is living a fairly happy life with his new wife city girl Margeret(Debra Paget).That is until country life becomes annoying to her and her ex,an absolute bad boy comes back into her life.With his a nice smile,smart suit and fast car Nardo Denning(Ray Milland)would normally be the guy of most girls dreams but not here.Milland's usual charm is turned into something nasty when it's revealed he left Margeret in prison to take the rap for his actions.Now after stealing a million dollars in cash,Nardo wants her to go with him to Mexico.Torn between her two loves Margeret is thrown into a deep nightmare after Nardo kills a Border Patrol officer and forces Cameron to take them to the border by foot.It then turns into a thrilling fight for survival as Cameron and Margeret make up and try and escape the clutches of this madman.

This is perhaps the best films made about a farmer marrying a woman, who knew about if not took part in stolen money, and a plot to escape the country. If this is about a marriage gone wild, this will work.Movie Plot Summary, an unsuspecting farmer marries a woman with a dark past that catches up with them, and the guy who stole the money wants the woman back, husband to get them out, and make husband watch his wife with him! It's practically a love triangle movie. Good girl fell for bad guy, and tries to clean herself with a good guy. Never work! Through the whole movie, the farmer watches painfully as his wife is in the arms of the other man, making out in the trailer. If anything, if marriage is put in doubt then there's your answer. :)