It is very easy to label an old film featuring well known, even great actors and made by an able director as a classic when it is far from it and Yellow River is it.

The film is routine, confused and contradictory. Maybe if it was made in the 1960s during the era of the counterculture it would had made more sense.

The film features a gang of bank robbers led by Gregory Peck who ride into a small town that has only Anne Baxter and her grandfather who have found and hid gold and are forced to share it with the gang but the gang soon turn on each other and Peck wants to do the decent thing with the two people whose lives they have entered. Its clear early on he is attracted to Baxter and sparks might fly.

Of course the gang of bad men in a town with one beautiful cowgirl gives you an uneasy feeling especially as one of them has loathsome desires for her and is willing to force himself on Baxter. The others are cyphers but its Richard Widmark who is the only one to rival Peck who stands out as the one who wants the gold all for himself if it came to it and not happy that Peck wants to make sure that Baxter and her grandfather get their share of the gold.

How some of the gang switch sides is unconvincing, even Peck's motives are unclear although it might be more to the fact that he is Gregory Peck so he cannot be a complete rotter.

The film is a diversion, nice to see actors such as Widmark and Harry Morgan is early roles but it is below par and wrestling with the Hays Code did it no favours.

It's interesting that when it comes to Westerns, most people don't think of Gregory Peck--even though he's made some of the very best films of the genre. Sure he made a lot of other types of films, but this film, THE GUNFIGHTER and THE BIG COUNTRY are absolutely top-notch films.

This film is odd in that Peck is the lead but he isn't exactly a hero. In fact, when the movie begins he's running with a gang of slimy desperadoes. However, through the course of the film, his character changes--revealing SOME decency underneath all that filth. However, despite this change, his character is still very believable and compelling--not preachy or one-dimensional. As a result, this is more of a "thinking person's" film--not just some cardboard characters fighting it out in the middle of the town (something that almost NEVER happened in the Old West). So, take my advice and see this film. The acting, direction and especially the writing make this a must-see Western,...even if you don't particularly like Westerns!

UPDATE: I just saw a remake of "Yellow Sky" called "The Jackals". Instead of the old west, it's set in South Africa and is also quite good.

In 1867, in the West, the gang of bank robbers led by James "Stretch" Dawson (Gregory Peck) and formed by Dude (Richard Widmark),Bull Run (Robert Arthur),Lengthy (John Russell),Half Pint (Henry Morgan),Walrus (Charles Kemper) and Jed flee after robbing a bank. However, they are hunted down by the cavalry and Jed is killed. They decide to cross desert and the soldiers stop chasing them. They arrive dehydrated and almost dead at a ghost town called Yellow Sky but a young woman called Constance "Mike" Mae (Anne Baxter) shows the location of a spring. Soon they recover and learn that Mike lives alone with her grandfather Charles Kemper (James Barton) in a house nearby the ghost town. But Dude snoops around at the area and finds prospecting tools near the house. He suspects that Mike and her grandfather could have gold hidden somewhere in the house. The outlaws press Mike and her grandfather and they make a deal with Stretch that promises to take only half the gold. But greed and lust split the gang and Stretch, who has fallen in love with Mike, has to take a decision and choose a side.

"Yellow Sky" is a highly entertaining western, despite the contradictions in the flawed story. Stretch is an outlaw that lives a conflictive situation between the gold and his love for Mike. The Grandpa sees a group of strangers stealing his savings and consequently the future if his beloved granddaughter but he saves the outlaws from the apaches. Walrus and Half Pint choose to stay with Dude and they end with Stretcher again. Dude and Lengthy are coherent characters.The sequence when the cavalry is pursuing the outlaws is impressive. Their crossing through the desert is very realistic and disturbing. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): "Céu Amarelo" ("Yellow Sky")