River Lady

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.