THE RIVER’S EDGE. 20th Century Fox, 1957. Ray Milland, Anthony Quinn, Debra Paget, Harry Carey Jr., Chubby Johnson. Director: Allan Dwan.

   Ray Milland and Anthony Quinn face off in The River’s Edge, a contemporary western/thriller directed by Allan Dwan. Filmed in Cinemascope with some terrific on location shooting in Mexico, the movie tells the story of Nardo Denning (Milland), a scoundrel and criminal who shows up out of the clear blue sky at Ben Cameron’s (Quinn) small, modest farm.

   His plan? To win back the affections of Cameron’s wife, Meg (Debra Paget) and to abscond across the border to Mexico with stolen loot. It doesn’t take long for Meg to agree to her proposal, bored as she is by the quiet, but challenging, life on her husband’s farm.

   What Meg doesn’t quite realize is how her affections for Nardo are misplaced and that the guy is a cold blooded, heartless killer. After Nardo kills a state policeman, he convinces Cameron at gunpoint to take both him and Meg across the border, first by truck and then by foot. This gets to the heart of the movie, a story about a woman torn between two men, one of whom is very dangerous.

   Overall, I somewhat enjoyed watching this one, even though I don’t think there was enough material in it to sustain some ninety minutes or so of screen time. It’s also not quite clear what genre the movie fits into. In many ways, it’s both a contemporary western and a thriller. But it’s also a drama and a romance. One wonders who the exactly intended audience was.

   Final assessment: a relatively minor film in the scheme of things, but with Milland and Quinn as the leads, you can do far worse.

BOTANY BAY. Paramount Pictures, 1952. Alan Ladd, James Mason, Patricia Medina. Cedric Hardwicke. Screenplau by Jonathan Latimer, based on the novel by Charles Nordhoff & James Norman Hall. Director: John Farrow.

   Alan Ladd and James Mason face off in this 1950s swashbuckler/adventure film about the founding of Australia as a penal colony for English convicts. Ladd portrays American medical student Hugh Tallant, who has been unjustly imprisoned in Newgate Jail for theft.

   He, along with others, soon learns that he will be shipped to a penal colony in New South Wales. Mason, for his part, takes the role of Paul Gilbert, the sadistic captain of the Charlotte, the boat that is to take Tallant  and others to their final destination in backwater Australia. Patricia Medina rounds out the cast as a female prisoner caught between her affection for Tallant and the predations of Captain Gilbert.

   Both Ladd and Mason do their best with the source material, even when it runs a little dry. Botany Bay may not be the most exciting feature film of its kind, but it has a lot going for it. The set design and costume design, along with the bright color scheme are all very impressive. In many ways, this John Farrow-directed feature reminded me of a Hammer Production. That’s high praise coming from me. Plus, there are even koalas and a kangaroo at the end!
   

ENEMY OF THE STATE. Buena Vista Pictures, 1998. Will Smith, Gene Hackman, Jon Voight, Lisa Bonet, Regina King. Director: Tony Scott.

   Tony Scott’s paranoid thriller Enemy of the State has a lot going for it. Aside from the kinetic direction that doesn’t let up, the movie features Will Smith in his prime alongside Hollywood stalwarts Gene Hackman and Jon Voight. Smith portrays Robert Dean, a Washington DC labor attorney who unwittingly comes into the possession of evidence showing that National Security Agency bigwig Thomas Reynolds (Voight) had a Congressman knocked off.

   With no one to trust, Dean eventually turns to the mysterious “Brill” (Hackman), a former NSA employee who now works as a freelance spy for the right price. The two men – of very different personalities and temperaments – must work together to bring down Reynolds and his henchmen.

   Set primarily in Washington DC and Baltimore, the movie benefits tremendously from on-location shooting, particularly one sequence in Dupont Circle. The movie also has a strong supporting cast, including a youthful Jack Black and a not yet famous Scott Caan, son of Hollywood heavyweight James Caan. Seth Green (Buffy the Vampire Slayer) portrays a NSA tech guy, though he is for some unknown reason uncredited.

   The politics of the movie, for better or worse, are written on its sleeve. The tension between privacy rights and the government’s desire to monitor threats through surveillance and satellites is front and center throughout the film, with the script taking a decidedly civil libertarian approach to the debate. Notably, the movie was released in 1998, several years before 9/11 would change everything.

   Overall, I enjoyed this one, but I have no desire to watch it again. Final assessment: come for Smith, but stay for Hackman and Voight. They’re both very good here.

FOUNTAIN OF YOUTH. Apple Original Films, 2025. John Krasinski, Natalie Portman, Eiza González, Domhnall Gleeson, Arian Moayed, Stanley Tucci. Director: Guy Ritchie.

   Given the title of this film and the fact that I’ve placed it in the Action Adventure category, I expect that most of you are thinking right now that you know exactly how the story line will play out, and long before the movie begins.

   And most of you would be right. All but the details, of course, and they don’t matter anyway.

   But for the record, a mostly estranged brother and sister agree to work for a man with lots of money but who’s dying anyway. Object: to find – you guessed it – the Fountain of Youth. The brother is the instigator, who wants to say yes immediately. The sister needs a lot more persuasion, but she reluctantly agrees as well. She’s in.

   The trail leads them from Thailand to the US and then to Egypt and – the Pyramids, where they all have a lot of fun in not only finding what they are looking for but at the same time fending off all kinds of mercenaries on both sides, sort of, plus the police and maybe someone else whom I’ve forgotten.

   Lots of fireworks in this one, folks, and a lot of money went into the production, which is quite superb. It all works well enough – even more than well enough, in fact – except for the fact that it’s all been done before. (The ending suggests that another adventure may even be in the offing. It all may be done again.)

DEATH DRUMS ALONG THE RIVER. 1963. Richard Todd, Marianne Koch, Albert Lieven, Walter Rilla. Screenplay suggested by the story of African adventure Sanders of the River by Edgar Wallace. Directed by Lawrence Huntington.

   This international production is set in 1960s sub-Saharan Africa, in an unnamed British colony on the cusp of independence. The protagonist and hero, Commissioner Harry Sanders (Richard Todd), a fictional creation of the prolific Edgar Wallace, is an upstanding civil servant devoted to his work in keeping the peace. Not an easy task, to be sure.

   The plot is fairly basic. After one of his policemen is stabbed to death by the port, Sanders sets out to not only find the killer, but to undercover an illegal diamond smuggling operation that he believes runs from neighboring Senegal. Sanders’s investigation eventually takes him to an upriver hospital settlement run by Dr. Schneider (Walter Rilla) and staffed by the beautiful Dr. Inge Jung (Marianne Koch) and Dr. Weiss (Albert Lieven).

   Filmed on location in South Africa, Death Drums Along the River features beautiful scenery and provides a great backdrop to the story. Unfortunately, the movie never reaches the level of excitement one would hope for in such a tale. At times, the movie can feel scripted and stale, rather than fresh and alive. That said, I’m a sucker for these types of films – murder mysteries in exotic locales where no one can be trusted. I liked it well enough, but I can’t say that it’s going to be everyone’s cup of tea.
   

NATIONAL TREASURE. Walt Disney Pictures, 2004. Nicolas Cage, Diane Kruger, Justin Bartha, Sean Bean, Jon Voight, Harvey Keitel, Christopher Plummer. Director: Jon Turteltaub.

   National Treasure was released about twenty years ago. I’d heard of it, of course. But never took the time to watch it as I always thought it was going to be merely a shallow imitation of the Indiana Jones franchise. I was wrong. Although the film has its myriad flaws and lacks grit, this Nicholas Cage vehicle is definitely its own thing.

   For those unfamiliar with the basic premise, Cage stars as Benjamin Franklin Gates, an early American historian and adventurer who decides to steal the Declaration of Independence from the National Archives. Why? Because he’s convinced it’s got an invisible treasure map on the back, one that would lead to the Templar Knights’s war spoils.

   Along for the ride are Gates’s sidekick, computer expert Riley Poole (Justin Bartha), and Dr. Abigail Chase (Diane Kruger), an archivist and Gates’s nascent love interest. Opposing the intrepid trio are Ian Howe (Sean Bean), a criminal who wants the treasure for himself and FBI Agent Sadusky (a somewhat miscast Harvey Keitel). Then there’s Gates’s father, Patrick Henry Gates (Jon Voight), a disillusioned old man who no longer believes there’s a national treasure to find. He’ll eventually change his mind.

   There’s something very childlike and innocent about National Treasure, which makes sense given that the movie was released by Walt Disney Pictures. But there’s plenty to admire about a film that tells a story, sticks to it, and never cheats the audience. Just because the critics didn’t particularly like this one doesn’t mean you can’t. Overall assessment: goofy, watchable fun with a cast committed to the bit. You don’t have to feel guilty if you like it.

THE HUNTER. Paramount Pictures, 1980. Steve McQueen (Papa Thorson), Eli Wallach, Kathryn Harrold, LeVar Burton, Ben Johnson. Director: Buzz Kulik.

   Steve McQueen, in his final movie role, portrays bounty hunter Ralph “Papa” Thorson, a towering real life figure whose unorthodox career choice was the source material for The Hunter. The movie is very much a mix of action, drama, and romance, with plenty of time devoted to Thorson’s relationship with his pregnant girlfriend, Dotty (Kathryn Harrold).

   As far as the aforementioned action sequences, they are probably the best part of the film. We get to see McQueen drive a combine harvester while chasing outlaws; fight bare-fisted with a sheriff’s nephew who skipped bail; and chase a vicious killer through Chicago, with a particularly breathtaking scene taking place on a train. Literally.

   The glaring problem that The Hunter has is similar to the flaw found in many biopics. The writers simply don’t choose a good entry point into the story. Here, it takes nearly thirty minutes for the movie to find its legs. There’s a lot of effort devoted to showcasing Thorson’s eccentricities, such as his love of classical music and old vintage toys.

   Which is fine. But not as the expense of introducing a primary antagonist early on in the running. (Eventually, there is a primary villain: an ex-con who blames Thorson for being sent away to prison.)

   Overall assessment: in many ways, the movie feels more like a TV pilot tasked with introducing a character than a comprehensive feature film with a solid plot. But there’s plenty of good stuff in here too. Eli Wallach being one of them.
   

A MESSAGE TO GARCIA. 20th Century Fix, 1936. Wallace Beery, Barbara Stanwyck, John Boles, Alan Hale. Director: George Marshall.

   During the Spanish-American War, an American courier is sent with a vital message to the leader of the Cuban rebels, aided by an ex-American soldier, now a small-time thief and adventurer, and an aristocratic Cuban woman.

   As the courier, John Boles makes very little impression, and while Barbara Stanwyck is immaculately beautiful, the show is really all Wallace Beery’s, as a loutish but devoted oaf, and like the movie itself, twice as large as life itself.

CHINA. Paramount Pictures, 1943.  Loretta Young, Alan Ladd, William Bendix, Philip Ahn, Iris Wong, Sen Yung, Marianne Quon. Director: John Farrow.

   Although it was surely marketed as a patriotic flag waver during World War II, China really does stand the test of time. It remains a solid adventure/war film that has a lot going for it. Directed by John Farrow with some outstanding tracking shots, the film stars Alan Ladd as Mr. (David) Jones, an oil salesman and war profiteer living in Shanghai.

   China may be at war with the Japanese, but America is not. So he sells oil to the Japanese, irrespective of their geopolitical ambitions. Along for the ride is his sidekick Johnny Sparrow (William Bendix), a sentimentalist who longs for his small hometown in Oregon.

   Things change when Mr. Jones encounters an American schoolteacher (Loretta Young) and her Chinese students and agrees to drive them away from the front lines. Things really heat up when Mr. Jones witnesses Japanese cruelty firsthand. That really sets him off. Soon enough, he teams up with the Chinese guerrilla fighters to wage war on the invading Japanese military.

   While there are some maudlin moments in the film, overall China remains primarily an action-oriented motion picture. There’s plenty of grit and explosions aplenty. It’s definitely worth a look, particularly if you appreciate Ladd as a leading man. Here, with his fedora, leather jacket, and name, he’s a proto-Indiana Jones!

TANGIER. Universal Pictures, 1946. Maria Montez, Robert Paige, Sabu, Preston Foster, Louise Allbritton, Kent Taylor, J. Edward Bromberg, Reginald Denny. Director: George Waggner.

   Capitalizing on the American movie-going audience’s love for exotic locales, Tangier is a somewhat confusing adventure/espionage film that’s nevertheless perfectly watchable lowbrow escapism. It stars Robert Paige as Paul Kenyon, a down and out reporter and Maria Montez, as Rita, a nightclub dancer, who end up working together to track down a Spanish Nazi collaborator named “Balthazar.”

   The atmosphere and coterie of unscrupulous characters are meant to take the viewer out of his humdrum existence and into a dangerous world of criminals, informants, and collaborators. It works well enough for the very short running time of the film (a mere 76 minutes), but anything longer would have likely sunk the already somewhat padded programmer.

   Directed by George Waggner, best known for the highly atmospheric The Wolf Man (1941), the movie succeeds in creating an ambiance – a sense of time and place – but is far less successful in holding together a cohesive, easy to follow plot. It’s one of those films where everyone ends up in the same room at the end and all is revealed. Not particularly sophisticated material.

   Still, it has its moments. Look for character actor J. Edward Bromberg in a small, but pivotal role, and for Sabu as an ambitious nightclub guitarist seeking to ingratiate himself with  Kenyon (Paige). Montez, for her part, is cast in a far more serious role than in the colorful exotics she did with Jon Hall.