Border River

John Chard

2019-06-12

⭐ 6

Free Zone and the Quicksand Quandaries! Border River is directed by George Sherman and written by William Sackheim and Louis Stevens. It stars Joel McCrea, Yvonne De Carlo, Pedro Armendariz, Alfonso Bedoya and Howard Petrie. Music is by Joseph Gershenson and cinematography by Irving Glassberg. During the war between Maximillian and Juarez in 1865, there was a small territory on the Mexican side of the Rio Grande River known as Zona Libre - - - "Free Zone". It was dominated by a man who called himself General Eduardo Calleja and he made it a haven for any man outside of the law. This is t…

CinemaSerf

2026-07-02

⭐ 6

The title doesn't really do much for this film, but once it gets going it's quite a fun outing for Pedro Armendáriz as he hams up nicely as rogue general "Calleja". He runs a sort of liberty port on the river between the wartorn USA and Emperor Maximilian's Mexico from which he won't extradite anyone - and so his citizenry are all a bunch of cut-throats and criminals. Newly arrived - and only just escaping a pursuing troop of Yankee cavalry - is "Mattson" (Joel McCrea) who is loaded with Confederate gold to buy guns for his side in the civil war. Getting the guns might be one challenge, but st…