BORDER RIVER (1954)

Confederate soldier Joel McCrea just stole $2 million is gold from the Union army and heads to a lawless area on the Mexican border called Zona Libre to buy weapons for the Rebels.  Things are much harder than planned with all kinds of double-dealing and backstabbing going on to get his gold.  Not to mention an undercover agent tracking him down and the unforeseen difficulty/pleasure of a sexy Yvonne De Carlo falling for him.  And to make matters even worse the local warlord is in love with De Carlo.

I enjoyed BORDER RIVER.  Joel McCrea is as wonderful as ever, Yvonne De Carlo turns in a good performance, solid direction, the bad guys are just bad enough and quite believable, beautiful outdoor scenery.  There might not be enough physical action to entertain everybody, but I thought the verbal jostling back and forth about the gold more than made up for it.

Recommended for Western fans.

DON JUAN DEMARCO (1994)

DON JUAN DEMARCO is a delightful, little movie about a young man (Johnny Depp) who thinks that he is a direct descendent of the legendary (and fictional) Don Juan.  He is committed to an mental institution for a 10-day review after he tries to commit suicide.  His doctor (Marlon Brando) is very close to retirement and kinda of depressed about his career coming to an end, but once he gets to hanging around Depp and listening to all of his fantastical stories about being raised and a small Mexican village and all of his sexual conquests he starts to see the true beauty in life.

I really enjoyed the idea of DJD.  The first hour was great, but towards the end it kinda runs out of steam.  Even with the disappointingly "Ehhh." ending it's still a nice film to watch on a rainy afternoon.  Good acting by Depp, Brando looking like he weighs about 500 pounds, Bryan Adams' "Have You Ever Really Loved a Woman?", Faye Dunaway kind of wasted with a forgettable role, plenty of smiles. 

I'm not a 100% sure why, but for some reason this film reminds me of HARVEY.

DON'T GAMBLE WITH STRANGERS (1946)

I enjoyed this low-budget "poverty row" picture way more than I thought I would.  The story is about a professional gambler (Kane Richmond) who teams up with another professional gambler (Bernadene Hayes) and together they travel around acting like a brother and sister all the while liberating money from suckers.  One day they come across a rich guy on a train who takes a liking to the sister, so they let him win a little thinking it'll lead to a bigger score.  Making up a story about going to the same town as him, they start working on him when out of nowhere an even bigger score appears.  Next thing you know the two are making money hand over fist when Kane sets his eyes on a local young lady that's set in to inherit a fortune!

There isn't much action, but the 67 minute runtime flies by watching the unscrupulous Kane running over whoever he has to to make money.  Fast story, interesting ways to get around an obviously low budget, a young lady who singing voice sounds like a tea kettle whistling, solid direction by the workhorse William Beaudine (who also directed the previous year's BLACK MARKET BABIES as well as 70 other movies between 1942 and 1953!!!) and good performances by a number of familiar faces including Addison Richard, Charles Trowbridge, Anthony Caruso, Philip Van Zandt, Edith Evanson, Harold Goodwin, Mary Field, Leonard Mudie and more.

Recommended.