Bend of the River (1952)

Possibly the best of the James Stewart/Anthony Mann westerns. Certainly the most traditional, and "nicest". James Stewart plays Glynn McLyntock, a reformed outlaw who has to bring food to a new settlement despite pressure to bring it to a mining camp instead. Arthur Kennedy is a "reformed" outlaw, who defects and decides to steal the food and take it to the mining camp. Generally top-notch stuff, with Stewart and Kennedy as something very close to different sides of the same character. Kennedy actually being evil is obvious from the start (even in the hat colour), but this shouldn't be taken as a real criticism; it's kind of necessary for the real story to work. Julie Adams is good as the love interest who initially picks the wrong man, but doesn't have a huge amount to do, being a 50s Western love interest.

A few minor actual criticisms:

• One dubious racial stereotype.
• A bit of dodgy stock footage of a waterfall.
• Some of the speeches by the leader of the settlers come across as a bit corny.
• A couple of scenes - the Indians making bird noises and McLyntock's "you'll be seeing me..." speech are lifted outright from Red River (which Borden Chase also wrote). This actually bothers me more in Red River, because I saw them in the wrong order. I'm inclined to say it doesn't matter anyway: westerns are often largely rearrangements of cliches, so a bit of copying doesn't hugely matter.
• Rock Hudson's character seems slightly superfluous; he's mostly there as a romantic interest for a minor character, and doesn't have a great influence on the story (and comes across as a bit morally ambiguous due to his non-action, which I don't think was the intent). That said, the character's probably the inspiration for "Trey Riverboat" on the Red Dwarf western episode, which counts in his favour.

They're minor criticisms though.