Bend of the River was the second of five westerns James Stewart made with director Anthony Mann between 1950 and 1955. It was during this period of his career that Stewart began to toughen up his nice guy image. He began to play more ruthless types with less than noble pasts. Such is the case here. He plays Glyn McLyntock, a former border raider with a violent streak. As the movie opens he's acting as a scout for a wagon train of settlers on the Oregon Trail.
He comes across a man about to be hanged and impulsively saves his life. This man turns out to be Emerson Cole (Kennedy), who, like McLyntock, has a violent past. Theirs is the central relationship in the story. Together they save the wagon train from a Shoshone Indian attack, although one young woman named Laura Baile (Adams) takes an arrow to the shoulder – but survives.
They make it to Portland, where the wounded woman stays behind to recuperate. The rest of the wagon train heads out to establish a settlement in the wilderness. Gold is suddenly discovered and the winter supplies meant for the new settlers are instead resold at a much higher price. McLyntock takes the supplies anyway and is soon being hunted down by a posse of angry miners as he tries to get back to the settlement. There is plenty of action along the way.
The theme of Bend of the River is whether or not a man can change. The characters played by Stewart and Kennedy are both former criminals who claim to have gone straight. J.C. Flippen plays the father of the girl who gets shot with an arrow. He doesn't believe a man can change his stripes. As he sees it once a man is rotten he's like an apple that must be removed from the barrel before it infects the other apples.
James Stewart has several great scenes that demonstrate the duality in McLyntock's nature. When he is betrayed at one point he delivers the movie's most famous bit of dialogue, his voice dripping with venom. “You'll be seeing me. Every time you bed down for the night, you'll look back in the darkness and wonder if I'm there. And some night, I will be. You'll be seeing me!” In one scene in the middle of a scuffle he has subdued another man but he savagely raises his knife to brutally stab him anyway. Only Laura's scream stops Glyn from committing cold blooded murder.
Bend of the River was shot on location in Oregon. It features breathtaking scenery in glorious Technicolor. Anthony Mann was one of the great western directors in Hollywood history. Although less heralded than the John Wayne/John Ford combination, Stewart and Mann made an incredibly important contribution to the most American of all film genres.
The supporting cast also includes a young Rock Hudson on the cusp of stardom. He plays a gambler from San Francisco who finds himself caught up in the plight of these settlers. Prolific character actors Jack Lambert and Royal Dano both have substantial roles as treacherous hired men. Two future television stars have small roles as well. Harry Morgan plays another of the bad guys. He would become famous later for two television series, Dragnet and MASH. Frances Bavier has a few scenes as Mrs. Prentiss. She is better known today as Aunt Bee on The Andy Griffith Show.
The controversial black entertainer Stepin Fetchit (real name Lincoln Theodore Monroe Andrew Perry) plays the cabin boy on the riverboat used to transport the supplies to the settlement. Although he has often been criticized for his lazy, dimwitted persona it has been acknowledged by some that this was actually a radical act. Using his shuffling gait and speaking gibberish to undermine the white man. The true insult being that many whites took him at face value.
Bend of the River was based on the novel Bend of the Snake by Bill Gulick. Together Anthony Mann and James Stewart crafted it into a memorable motion picture. While not as well remembered as Winchester '73 it is a solidly entertaining western with a great cast, plenty of rip-roaring action, and tons of beautiful background scenery.
