The River's Edge (1957)

Director:  Allan Dwan

Writers:  Harold Jacob Smith, James Leicester

Composer:  Louis Forbes

Starring:  Ray Milland, Anthony Quinn, Debra Paget, Harry Carey Jr., Chubby Johnson, Byron Foulger, Tom McKee, Frank Gerstle, Lee Morgan, and LOTS of fake rocks

More info:  IMDb

Tagline:  It was kill ... or be killed ... all the way down to The River's Edge.

Plot:  A murderous thief on the run with stolen loot forces a poor rancher to guide him across the desert into Mexico. Accompanying them is the rancher's wife, who happens to be the killer's former girlfriend.

My rating:   5.5/10

Will I watch it again?  No. 

I'm down with the cast.  They're all good actors and great movie stars, especially Milland.  I've never seen a bad performance from him regardless of the movie's budget or quality.  He always shows up to win.  Quinn can be stale but he's generally a solid actor.  I'm not familiar much with Paget as I've barely seen anything of hers.  She was in SEVEN ANGRY MEN (1955) so she must be good if she could pull off playing a pissed of white guy.  I don't know what the fuck her character (Margaret) was thinking wearing heels on a desert ranch.

Milland (Nardo) can be charming but once he crosses the line of killing a cop (great scene, by the way - it's brutal), His likability factor drops until he's just weak and lot someone you want around anymore.  Quinn (Ben) does fine as the somewhat soft but tough husband to Margaret and becomes stronger as the picture nears to an end.  But he also gets sappier and sappier when it comes to his fragile relationship with his wife.  Oh, boy, do they pour the sugar on where you get that style of romantic crap where the two are talking madly in love while embracing and not looking each other in the eyes.  Yuck.

I know what you're saying.  "Hey, Scorethefilm, what about the fake rocks?  How'd they do?"  As obviously fake rocks go, they did a splendid job.  And I say, good for them for getting work.  This movie is to them as THE WIZARD OF OZ (1939) was to little people - they hired A LOT of 'em!

I'm sure they re-used them at different angles and with magical lighting, but still.  They get a lot of screen time.  Good for them.  Fake rocks are a thing of the past now that computers do all the heavy lifting.  Ahahahahahahahahaha!  But seriously, there are a lot of fucking fake rocks in this movie.  

With Margaret getting syrupy sugar sweet with both of the men, there are no surprises in this picture.  You can probably figure out how this plays out because you've seen a gazillion of these pictures to just plain know.  You don't have to be a detective with a comically funny pipe to solve this case.  It's middle of the road entertainment and some bottom of the barrel-scraping by the three leads.  They all deserve better.  It's simply OK.  It's not good nor is it bad.  But those rocks acted their fucking pebbles off!