Just so...so bad

It is a whirlwind of delight --- attractive actors, stunning couture, spectacular sets and outrageous parties.

There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

Usually films set on the Mississippi are concerned with the area south of St. Louis to the New Orleans area and the delta. But River Lady is set in the country north of Minneapolis/St.Paul and it deals with the men who chop down trees and some women who scheme to get them. Such a woman is Yvonne DeCarlo riverboat gambling queen who sets up shop to take the logger's wages away and she's pretty good at it. She's got it bad for Rod Cameron, tough talking, two fisted logging man whom she thinks can do better. She buys into John McIntire's failing company on the condition that Cameron be made boss only he's not to know about her asking. But also McIntire's daughter Helena Carter takes an interest in Cameron. All the while Dan Duryea another riverboat gambler who like DeCarlo is watching and waiting for a moment to move in on the logs and Yvonne. He gets his opportunity.The characters are nicely developed though I think that Cameron was a bit of a lug. Although Duryea usually plays oily creatures in his films like this one, I can't believe DeCarlo didn't see he was far more suited to her.Some nice logging sequences and a nasty fight with loggers for both Duryea and Camerone mixing it up at the end as Cameron tries to dynamite a log jam. Action fans should like this.

Yvonne de Carlo did her share of mediocre westerns, but not this time. Here she is prettier than usual, also more subdued. The film takes place in a community of lumbermen who cut enormous trees. They also move them down the river. Also in the river there is the "River Lady" a boat where they gamble, managed by Sequin (Yvonne). Beauvais (Dan Duryea) is her partner in planning mischievous deals. But the great performance comes from Helena Carter (Stephanie), she is unforgettable as the woman who is not corresponded in her love for Dan Corrigan (Rod Cameron). A rare western, ignored in most anthologies efficiently directed by George Sherman in glorious Technicolor.

Originally planning to buy a DVD of the wonderful Film Noir/proto-Giallo title The Screaming Mimi on its own,I got caught by surprise,when the DVD seller told me,that due to postage cost,I would have to order a minimum of 2 titles.Searching around the sellers list of available titles,I was delighted to spot a movie starring an actress who I've been reading a lot of praise for from fellow IMDb'ers called Yvonne De Carlo,which led to me happily getting ready to visit the 'River Lady' for the first time..The plot:Returning to a small logging village,the crew on a gambling ship called the River Lady reveal that they are planning to buy out all of the small time log distributors,so that they can become the dominating force.Standing in the way of the plan is local businessman H.L. Morrison,who is desperate to not lose his business to the River Lady's leading crew members Sequin and Bauvais.Seeing Morrison's business as an easy target,Sequin cuts a secret deal which leads to her boyfriend Dan Corrigan getting a job at Morrison's company.As they start to make plans on taking over Morrison's business,Sequin and Bauvais begin to fear that Corrigan will stop the small time businesses from running down stream.View on the film:For their excellent adaptation of Houston Branch and Frank Waters novel,writers D.D. Beauchamp and William Bowers use the woodland village setting to give the movie a strong folk atmosphere,with the writers making the residences of the River Lady be the high gambling and drinking kind,compared to the down to earth and humble village residences.Thanks to making each set of residences be different from each other,the writers place a nice 'big guy v little guy' at the heart of the title,with the writers also wonderfully showing each of the villagers' being tempted by the wild life style of the River Lady.Directed with a real elegance by George Sherman,the beautiful Yvonne De Carlo gives a wonderfully frosty performance as Sequin,with De Carlo showing Sequin to have her eyes on the prize,and nothing else which could cause Sequin to lose her seat at the River Lady's gambling tables.Joining De Carlo,Dan Duryea gives a delightful boo-hiss performance as Beauvais,whilst a stern Rod Cameron shows that Corrigan will do everything possible to stop the river from flowing into Beauvais and Sequin's hands.

The "love quartet" aspect of "River Lady" (rich, power-driven Yvonne De Carlo and precocious Helena Carter love rugged tree logger Rod Cameron, crooked businessman Dan Duryea loves Yvonne) is slight and banal, though Helena Carter glows in one of her first roles, and this must be one of the very few instances where (SPOILER!) Yvonne De Carlo doesn't get her man! More interesting is the "business" aspect of the film: the independent loggers fighting collectively against the syndicate that wants to monopolize the market (and drive their wages down). Also interesting are the scenes of the actual process of tree-cutting and log-transporting streaming down the river. A compliment I can pay to this movie is that it looks like it could have been made in the 1950s, but the actual production date is 1948. **1/2 out of 4.