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.
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.