‘Bend of the River’ will be screened on November 13 at 1:00 p.m. at 801 Magnolia Avenue.
James Stewart (Jimmy to his friends and many fans) was one of the most enduring of American movie stars, but he earned that longevity by being willing to change his screen persona. Not that he didn’t project, like Clark Gable, a predictable presence, but over his 30 year career Stewart gave it new dimensions. With his slow drawl and easygoing manner, he was always likable—we trusted him—but he went new and surprising places as the years passed.
He began his career playing pleasant young urban guys, with no threat to them (his role in ‘You Can’t Take It With You’ is a good example), but in the 1950s he turned, surprisingly, into a Western star, hopping on a horse, strapping on six-guns and planting a battered cowboy hat on his angular head, in technicolor movies like ‘Winchester 73’ and ‘Broken Arrow.’
One of the rewarding pleasures of movies is seeing one with friends and then chatting about it when the lights come up. That’s just what the Piedmont Flix Fest, which meets on the second Thursday of each month, offers: a great movie in a comfortable setting, and then a lively discussion of it afterward.
And, in fact, November’s Flix Fest selection is one of Jimmy Stewart’s most enjoyable Westerns: Bend of the River. In it a reformed outlaw Glyn McLyntock, played by Stewart, has become a guide for farmers headed to Oregon. When he rescues a thief, Emerson Cole (Arthur Kennedy) from execution, Cole joins him on the journey. Once the settlers arrive, they discover that a trader who was supposed to send them provisions is now trying to scam them. After McLyntock and Cole travel to Portland to forcibly retrieve the supplies, Cole betrays McLyntock and steals the goods himself. McLyntock pursues him, ready for battle.
Julia Adams provides the love interest, and keep an eye out for a young actor named Rock Hudson, who had big things ahead of him.
Bend of the River will be screened on November 13th at 1:00 PM. Sponsored by the Rec Department, the event takes place in the Center for the Arts at 801 Magnolia Avenue on the second Thursday of each month. Doors will open at 12:45. The movie is free and available to anyone over 18 years of age. Participants are invited on a drop-in basis, though registration with the PRD is encouraged and can be done at https://bit.ly/3PJyxkP. Everyone is welcome to bring snacks or lunch.
The next movie in the Piedmont series is the classic romantic comedy, a winner of multiple Academy Awards, ‘It Happened One Night,’ starring Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert, to be shown on December 11.