VHS Bend of the River
Digital Life Average Rating:

Rating: - A good standard Western with pace and period feeling...
"Bend of the River" welcomes the fine blend of a passionate action with intense characterization that had become Mann's masterful specialty...

Stewart (in his second feature with Mann) is seen as a reluctant hero, stumbled, brutalized and confused, chasing a personal mission with severe determination, and giving life to the complex moral and psychological forces that drive Mann's heroes...

Vivid as a laconic quiet man driven by betrayal to violent rage, Stewart is a former raider on the Missouri-Kansas border, who guides a wagon train of settlers to Oregon... There he gets double-crossed by associates who try to turn aside necessary food and supplies to gold-rush activities...

Ingenious and malicious, Arthur Kennedy (very much in his element), is Stewart's former companion-in-crime whom Stewart saves from hanging, and helps him fight the Indians on the way to Oregon...

Adroit, insincere, and dishonest, Kennedy turns on Stewart stealing the settler's supplies for a handsome profit but is later dispatched by an irritated and enraged Stewart...

Kennedy has been preferred in Westerns as the more insidious kind of villain: friendly, smiling, charming and smooth-talking on the surface, weak and corrupt underneath... His specialty is the courteous type who befriends the hero and then turns out to be planning something illegal to his own advantage on the side...

Julie Adams is along the ride as a love interest getting short penitence in all the macho interplay...

Rock Hudson is cast as a soft gambling man from San Francisco, adept at cards as well as women, defender of a fair deal, ready to fight beside his friends...

Filmed against a breathtaking Technicolor panorama, with nice music that highlights the action, "Bend of the River" is a good standard Western with pace and period feeling, rolling along to its predictable happy ending, discarding any unwanted characters...

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Rating: - Hardbitten Stewart/Mann Western
Bend of The River was the second film in the wonderful collaboration between James Stewart and Anthony Mann. This film has all the hallmarks of the collaboration - great acting, literate script, and taut direction.

Stewart again plays an embittered man with a past, who with Arthur Kennedy leads a wagon trail of settlers from Missouri to Oregon. The two get the wagon train settled outside of Portland, but there's a need for supplies, and a gold mining camp wants its hands on the supplies as well. Add this to Kennedy's larcenous behavior and you have the making of a great Western.

Stewart, Kennedy, and a young Rock Hudson are all excellent, and Mann's direction keeps things moving, and moving in the right direction. The Stewart/Mann films featured characters that seemed real and consequences that seemd to fit the situation. Bend of The River is a great film for all Western movie lovers.

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Rating: - A colorful movie of the determination of a people.
A colorful movie of the determination of a determine people to
leave their homes for a new part of the country. THis determination is typical of the move west in this country with
a good storyline to boot.

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Rating: - One of the All Time Great Westerns. Don't miss it
Although James Stewart had appeared in the western DESTRY RIDES AGAIN (1939) he was more likely to be found in some sophisticated comedy or other up to and after WW2. Then he played the former army scout Tom Jeffords in BROKEN ARROW (1950). Directed by Delmer Daves.

Next came his first collaboration with director Anthony Mann in WINCHESTER '73 (1950) filmed in black & white, following the success of these two well-received westerns, James Stewart's and Anthony Mann's second western outing was BEND OF THE RIVER aka WHERE THE RIVER BENDS (1952). Adapted by Borden Chase (script writer) from a story "Bend of the Snake" by William Gulick, this time with the added bonus of Technicolor and the beautiful scenery on and around Mount Hood, Oregon, USA. Although BROKEN ARROW was made first it was released after WINCHESTER '73.


Starring along with James Stewart are Arthur Kennedy, Julie Adams, Rock Hudson and Jay C Flippen. The last two also appeared with Stewart in the aforementioned WINCHESTER '73 Wagon Master Jeremy Baile (Flippen) is leading a group of settlers from Missouri to Oregon. McLyntock (Stewart) is the scout who saves Cole (Kennedy) from a lynch party, both men turn out to be former Missouri border raiders during the Civil War. Along the way they meet Indians, Gold Fever, Treachery and the Forces of Nature.

Made in only six weeks BEND OF THE RIVER turned into a cash machine for Universal and was one of the most successful westerns of all time (Inflation adjusted).
Finally this magnificent western puts the Mann-Stewart partnership second only to John Ford and John Wayne. No matter how often I see this film it remains one of my favourite westerns ever, and still looks fine on this 2004 DVD Release. Look out for the 2006 DVD release of THE NAKED SPUR (1953) the third western in the Mann-Stewart series.