In the last days of the Civil War, Confederate officer Joel McCrea and associates rob a Union storehouse of $2,000,000. They head down to a small patch of Mexican territory controlled by renegade general Pedro Armendariz and start negotiating to turn that into arms for the Confederacy. McCrea gets various offers -- and attempted beatings -- from people who think the gold and a ticket to Europe are better to have, although Armendariz's mistress, Yvonne De Carlo is warmly friendly.

This seems to have been movie shot in three-strip Technicolor, and under cinematographer Irving Glassberg, it offers the rich blacks that process excelled in. Director George Sherman, an expert in "Shaky A" westerns, directs the script well enough, and themain cast is excellent. With Armendariz weaselly under his bravado, De Carlo sad and cynical, and McCrea, as aways, bluff and straightforward. A very pleasant movie.

Border River at it's time was one of a dwindling band of westerns where you could have a Confederate hero as the lead. Joel McCrea plays a man who was a major on Robert E. Lee's staff. He's pulled off one very big heist at the Denver Mint and he's got 2 million in gold bullion. But what to do with it? Actually the miracle is how he got it from Colorado to Texas, the stuff is pretty bulky.

McCrea crosses the Rio Grande to a place called Zona Libre where neither the writ of Emperor Maximilian nor that of Benito Juarez runs. Instead the guy in charge is Pedro Armendariz who's a tin-pot tyrant and his right hand man is Alfonso Bedoya who revs up his Gold Hat character from The Treasure Of The Sierra Madre. There's also saloon entertainer Yvonne DeCarlo who's the general's personal squeeze, but she takes a fancy to McCrea and later proves invaluable to him.

McCrea's interest is to buy supplies for the Confederate army with the stolen gold. But there's a real lack of trustworthy people around from Armendariz on down. There's a whole lot of intrigue going on in the Zona Libre. There's also the looming shadow of Juarez who'd really like to put Armendariz and remove a real problem from his rear.

Border River is a competently made western with the truest cowboy hero around Joel McCrea in the lead. He and DeCarlo work well together. But the ones to watch are Armendariz and Bedoya trying to outdo each other in evil. Bedoya looks like he's having a great old time out-acting the cast of about ten different films.

As a longtime Joel McCrea fan, I thought I had seen most all, if not all, of his westerns. But I evidently was wrong (for once in my 75 years!!!),as I had never seen this one until it showed up on the Western Channel recently.

As westerns go it was "Ho-um", which was surprising considering the cast: Joel McCrea, Luscious Yvonne De Carlo, and the always hilarious Alfonso Bedoya; who's animated performance steals every scene he is in.

Other reviewers have criticized this film for its sympathetic portrayal of Southern rebels trying to get stolen Yankee gold to the Confederacy, but this is not the first film to do a similar story. Virginia City with Errol Flynn & Randolph Scott, and Great Day in the morning with Robert Stack are two that come to mind. All three of these are fanciful Civil War out west tales about a Confederate scheme at the last minute to smuggle several millions in gold bullion into the South for supplies to keep the war going. And what happens in the end of all of these strains credulity to say the least.

BUT, these are movies, NOT documentaries, and made for entertainment, to sell tickets & popcorn, not to pay homage to the South, and not to be to closely analyzed as there are plenty of ridiculous plot holes and unreal situations.

Since this film was directed by George Sherman I had expected it to have the same quality great action scenes that he had been known for in all his many westerns from the 30's & 40's. Needless to say it fell flat there for the most part.

One area that they tried to be accurate on was the type of handgun every one carried: the Remington 1858 Cap & ball, fairly correct for the period. Except during the final showdown/shootout they more conveniently substituted the Single Action Colt, which was modified to look like the Remington. My guess is that this was more economical as it allowed used of the then popular 5-in-1 blanks used in most Westerns. For the uninitiated, these were blanks that would fit & fire in any revolver of 38-40, 44-40, 45 Colt calibers, and lever actions of 38-40 or 44-40 calibers.

The best part of any western, especially ones shot in color, are the beautiful outdoor location scenes, and here they almost overshadow the weak script.

This could've been a really good western, it's a shame it didn't live up to its potential, but its worth watching if only for the two leads.