Steamboat Round the Bend (1935)

BACKGROUND
 

Ford’s final film with Will Rogers captures the growing conflict in America’s national identity as it grew from an agrarian outpost into a full fledged global empire. Oddly enough Steamboat Round the Bend can be seen as a comedic counterpoint to The Informer in that yet again a man is condemned to death but this time the mood is playful and surreal rather than dark and expressionistic. 

 

Instead of a brooding misfit who has betrayed his own principles and people we are presented with a humble riverboat captain who is the victim of a “hanging judge” who has taken it upon himself to rid the world of those he considers undesirable. Even while making a lackadaisical bit of Americana Ford exposes the sinister underbelly of the American establishment.

 

PLOT SUMMARY

A medicine man tries to save his nephew from hanging after the young man accidentally kills a man in self-defense.