Not so much a Western but more a riverboat adventure.

Patricia Medina seemed to have carved out a very good film career in Hollywood after she went there along with her then husband Richard Greene, He did OK there but achieved greater fame later on when he was back in England in ‘The Adventures of Robin Hood’ the very famous Television series

Directed by William Castle
Starring Lex Barker, Patricia Medina, Warren Stevens, Craig Stevens, John Dehner, Mel Welles

Duel On The Mississippi (1955) is one of those Louisiana riverboat films, with plenty of riding and shooting’ – we get river pirates instead of outlaws or Indians.

Lex Barker had just finished with his Tarzan films – I always thought that leaving them proved a wrong turn for Lex – he was very popular as Tarzan and had done a good job in the role.

This film is set in Louisiana at the start of the 19th century and sugar is becoming a valuable commodity. The traditional plantation owners are trying to capitalise on the sugar crop but there are pirates around intent on stealing what they can.

The leader of these ruthless thieves is “Lili” (Patricia Medina) who, along with her dad “Jacques” (Ian Keith) and “Hugo” (Warren Stevens) has set her sights on the “Tulane” family.

She owns the debt on their land and is determined to force them into ruin. However a saving grace here is that “André” (Lex Barker) who is the son very much catches the eye of Patricia Medina.

The film has a solid story of greed and revenge

Patricia Medina must have been back and forth to England because she was in ‘The Black Knight’ with Alan Ladd – made at Pinewood Films Studios here in England in 1954

The Above is an earlier Picture from February 1949 – Richard Greene and his wife Patricia Medina pack before flying to the USA.

They  were actually divorced just over two years on from this picture being taken, and much later, in 1960, she married film actor Joseph Cotton, a marriage that lasted until he died. They were very much in love throughout their marriage and often toured the USA together in stage productions

Patricia Medina was much in demand in films in the early fifties.

I would imagine that she was a girl who could stick up for herself if necessary – she had self confidence and she was good

Lex Barker is really not well remembered outside of Tarzan. He did however make quite a lot of films in Europe