THE RIVER’S EDGE

US, 1957, 88 minutes, Colour.
Ray Milland, Anthony Quinn, Debra Paget.
Directed by Alan Dwan.

The River’s Edge is a routine action film of the mid-1950s, notable mainly for its leading men. Ray Milland had won an Oscar for The Lost Weekend in 1945 and had been a strong star from the 1930s. He continued his career into the television era with many films and telemovies. Anthony Quinn had won two Oscars by the time this film was released (1952, Viva Zapata, and 1956, Lust for Life). He had not emerged as the strong star that he would be, especially during the 1960s. Deborah Padgett had had a career as a starlet at Twentieth Century Fox with such films as Broken Arrow.

The film is set on the Mexican border, features Anthony Quinn as a would-be ranger who becomes a guide for a suave but conscienceless criminal played (uncharacteristically) by Ray Milland. Debra Padgett is Quinn’s wife – but in love with Milland with whom she shared a career of robberies and con frauds.

The film was directed by Alan Dwan, a veteran of the silent era and making action films up to 1960 (dying in 1981 at the age of ninety-six). His films at this time included Slightly Scarlet, Hold Back the Night, The Restless Breed.

1.A popular small-budget feature of the 1950s? Action? Drama?

2.The locations, the Mexican border, the mountain country, the desert? The musical score? The use of the song ‘You’ll Never Know’ …?

3.The title, the irony of the money floating down the river at the end?

4.The focus on Meg, on Cameron? Their life together, the marriage, people talking about them? Cameron and his wanting to be a rancher, the failure? Meg and her dissatisfaction, clash with Cameron? His rescuing her? Her decision to leave to think things through? The initial character of Cameron, a sympathetic Anthony Quinn? The tough Meg?

5.Nardo Denning and his suave style, arriving in town, questions? Arrival to book Cameron for a guide? Meeting Meg? Her decision to go off with him?

6.Their being in town, their discussions, her love for him, his plausible excuses for not rescuing her from jail, the evidence of the accident? The time together? His promise for a future, the money?

7.The decision to hire Cameron? Being held up by the border patrol, the confrontation, Denning backing over him, killing him? Meg running away fearful? His reassuring her? Their going to the house, the confrontation with Cameron? His decision to go with them? His having sold the ranch?

8.The decisions about travel, travelling light, the case with the money? The arguing about the money and the deal? Through the desert? The nights? Cameron and his taking the truck, the rifle, the truck over the cliff? Climbing the rock-face, Denning shooting the old man? The money falling out of the case? The cat-and-mouse between the two men? Meg wanting to save Cameron, their going together, her being gored in the cornfield, the infection, Cameron and his scalding the knife, helping her? Denning and his relentlessness, the gun, trying to shoot Cameron, the fight? The foot stuck under the rock?

9.Denning and the information either to save the couple or to get the helicopter? The irony of the crash, his falling over the cliff, death, the money flowing away? The family avoiding the issue and the police? The irony that he was on the way to help Cameron and Meg?

10.Cameron and Meg, the money, their finding each other, his protecting her?

11.The background of the law, the border control, the callous killing? The investigations, the pursuit, the helicopter?

12.Conventional action material?