The Bottom of the Bottle [Beyond the River] ** (1956, Van Johnson, Joseph Cotten, Ruth Roman, Jack Carson) – Classic Movie Review 9701

Director Henry Hathaway’s 1956 The Bottom of the Bottle [Beyond the River] stars Van Johnson as a drunken escaped convict Donald Martin, convicted five years before for killing a man in self-defence in a barroom brawl, who visits his estranged rich lawyer brother Pat ‘P.M.’ Martin (Joseph Cotten) on his Arizona ranch.

Donald (Johnson) wants help in evading the law by fleeing across the Santa Cruz River to Mexico to be with his children (Kim Charney, Mimi Gibson and Sandy Descher). But PM (Cotten) isn’t at all happy to see him. PM (Cotten) has never told anyone had a brother, and even tells people former drunkard Donald (Johnson) is his friend not his brother. But eventually his wife Nora (Ruth Roman) makes PM see the error of his ways.

Written by Sydney Boehm, this Georges Simenon novel adaptation is dour and dreary, and should be more involving. And neither the brightly coloured acting nor the grubby-looking photography (in De Luxe Color and CinemaScope) help much, though the Arizona location shooting and score certainly do.

Also in the cast are Jack Carson, Margaret Hayes, Bruce Bennett, Brad Dexter, Peggy Knudsen, Jim Davis, Margaret Lindsay, Harry Morgan, Nancy Gates and Pedro Gonzalez Gonzalez [Gonzalez-Gonzalez].

The Bottom of the Bottle [Beyond the River] is directed by Henry Hathaway, runs 88 minutes, is made and released by 20th Century Fox, is written by Sydney Boehm, based on the Georges Simenon novel, is shot in De Luxe Color and CinemaScope by Lee Garmes, is produced by Buddy Adler and is scored by Leigh Harline.

© Derek Winnert 2020 Classic Movie Review 9701

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