About the title (above) - 2019 Kino Blu-ray has a very blue cast in the opening titles / credits, while the 2026 Kino shifts toward green. Is this a mistake in the new transfer? Unlikely. This is almost certainly a new color grade from the fresh 4K scan of the original 3-strip Technicolor camera negative. In Technicolor restorations, titles and credits are often the first thing graded because they’re static, high-contrast, and use pure colors. Different timing decisions (or different reference prints/elements) can produce exactly this kind of swing — blue → green — especially when moving from an older master (which may have had a cool bias) to a new recombine/grade. Saying that, I never saw this theatrically and am only giving my opinion. Colors are richer and darker on the new restoration, detail and contrast rise. The HD presentation looks wonderful.

Color bleeding / fringing (inherent to many pre-1954 3-strip Technicolor films due to slight shrinkage and misalignment of the color separation negatives) is still present in some wider shots but appears better controlled and less distracting than on earlier masters thanks to the new recombine and grading. Overall, this is the most faithful and pleasing presentation the film has received on home video.

Koch / Kino 2019 - Blu-ray TOP

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The soundtrack has been upgraded to a 24-bit (still DTS-HD Master dual-mono track - cleaner and more dynamic than the 16-bit version. Hans J. Salter’s (Winchester '73, Undercover Girl, Man Without a Star, The Killer that Stalked New York, The Strange Door, Cover Up, Man Without a Star, Scarlet Street, The Land Unknown, The War Lord, The Mole People, The Strange Case of Doctor Rx,) stirring score - full of classic Western themes, tension, and orchestral sweep - benefits noticeably from the improved depth. Kino offer optional English subtitles on their Region 'A'-locked Blu-ray.

There is a new audio commentary by film historian / writer Julie Kirgo and author/screenwriter C. Courtney Joyner  - insightful, enthusiastic, and informative. They place the film in the context of Mann and Stewart’s collaborations, discuss visual style (expressionistic lighting, use of rugged Oregon landscapes to mirror moral conflicts), production details, and the film’s themes of redemption, greed, and frontier violence. There is also an archival commentary by film historian Toby Roan - detailed and packed with production history, cast backgrounds, and Western genre knowledge (carried over from the 2019 release.) There is an original theatrical trailer and bonus trailers for Canyon Passage, High Noon, Night Passage, and Gunfight at the O.K. Corral.

Bend of the River is a landmark Western and the second of five collaborations between director Anthony Mann and star James Stewart (Winchester '73, Bend of the River, The Naked Spur, The Far Country and The Man from Laramie) - a partnership that redefined both men’s work in the genre and helped usher in a more psychologically complex, postwar strain of the American Western. Based on Bill Gulick’s 1950 novel Bend of the Snake, the film follows remorseful former border raider Glyn McLyntock (Stewart - Rear Window, Vertigo, It's a Wonderful Life, The Man Who Knew Too Much, Night Passage, Anatomy of a Murder, Harvey, The Shop Around the Corner, Broken Arrow, The Rare Breed, Shenandoah,) now a wagon-train guide leading Missouri farmers to a new life in Oregon in 1866. After rescuing the charismatic but shady Emerson Cole (Arthur Kennedy - Bright Victory, The Tough Ones, Killer Cop, Nine Guests for a Crime, The Man from Laramie, Crashout, Red Mountain, The Lusty Men, A Minute to Pray, a Second to Die, Trial, Champion, Elmer Gantry, Shark) from a lynching, McLyntock forms an uneasy alliance with a man who shares his dark past. The settlers - led by the stern Jeremy Baile (Jay C. Flippen - The Killing, They Live by Night) - face Indian attack, supply shortages, a gold rush, betrayal, and the brutal realities of frontier greed. What begins as a classic wagon-train epic steadily darkens into a tense morality play about redemption, temptation, and the thin line between civilized settler and outlaw. Julie Adams (billed as Julia Adams - Creature From the Black Lagoon, The Looters, Six Bridges to Cross, Horizons West,) brings warmth and quiet strength as Laura Baile, the settler’s daughter who becomes the romantic focal point. She’s no passive damsel; wounded early by an arrow, she recovers in Portland and must choose between the two men who represent very different futures. A very young Rock Hudson (Seminole, The Golden Blade, Bengal Brigade, Giant, The Last Sunset, Battle Hymn, Showdown, Seconds, All That Heaven Allows, Magnificent Obsession, The Undefeated, The Tarnished Angels, Taza, Son of Cochise, Blindfold, Ice Station Zebra, Hornet's Nest,) appears as gambler Trey Wilson, who starts cynical and self-serving but gradually commits to the settlers’ cause. Though his role is somewhat peripheral, Hudson’s easy charisma and physical presence add another layer of shifting loyalties to the ensemble. Miss Encino at age 17, Lori Nelson (Day the World Ended, I Died a Thousand Times, Revenge of the Creature, All I Desire,) plays Marjie Baile (in her first feature film,) the younger daughter of Jeremy Baile (Jay C. Flippen), the stern, religious leader of the settler wagon train.She is the secondary female lead (Julie Adams plays her older sister Laura). Marjie is sweet, pretty, and somewhat more lighthearted than her serious older sister. She quickly becomes smitten with Rock Hudson’s character, the charming gambler Trey Wilson. Their budding romance provides one of the film’s lighter romantic subplots and gives Trey additional motivation to side with the settlers. Mann’s direction is masterful. He uses the stunning Technicolor Oregon locations (Mount Hood, the Columbia River, Timberline Lodge) not just as pretty backdrops but as psychological mirrors: vast, unforgiving landscapes that reflect the characters’ internal moral struggles. The film’s action - wagon chases, river gunfights, ambushes - is gritty and realistic rather than balletic; Mann favors messy, desperate violence that carries emotional weight. Thematically, Bend of the River is rich. It explores redemption versus the scepticism that “a man can’t change from bad to good” (Jeremy Baile’s recurring line). It dramatizes moral duality through the McLyntock/Cole pairing, the corrosive power of greed during the gold rush, and the fragile line between civilization and savagery on the frontier. Like many postwar Westerns, it carries an undercurrent of disillusionment: even the “good” men must resort to outlaw methods to protect the innocent. Hans J. Salter’s stirring score and Irving Glassberg’s (The Price of Fear, Backlash, Captain Lightfoot, The Black Shield of Falworth, The Black Castle, The Duel at Silver Creek, The Strange Door, Shakedown, I Was a Shoplifter, Undertow, Larceny, Casbah, The Web,) vibrant Technicolor cinematography give the film an epic sweep that belies its intimate character drama. This Kino Blu-ray is the definitive home video edition of Bend of the River. The improved 4K-sourced transfer (especially color accuracy and reduced registration issues), upgraded 24-bit audio, and excellent dual-commentary package make it a clear upgrade over the 2019 Blu-ray. Strongly recommended for fans of Mann/Stewart Westerns - one of their finest collaborations.

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ADDITION: Kino - Region 'A' - Blu-ray (April 2019): This is very similar to the Koch - skin tones are slightly warmer and the image minutely darker but it is not enough to pick-and-choose. It has the same minor color bleeding (see Simon's comments below) and same marks indicating it is from the same source. Technically both transfers are simple-layered with similar bitrates.

Kino has a slight edge in audio with a more roust DTS-HD Master 2.0 channel mono track. But it isn't very consequential. The Kino also offers English subtitles but is region 'A'-locked.

The big difference is that Kino add another excellent commentary by Toby Roan - who shares his extensive knowledge of westerns and the tinniest of details regarding the background of the production. He is always impressive. There is also a trailer.

Well, not a significant advancement in a/v but the commentary sells it. The Kino is warmly recommended for this classic Anthony Mann / Jimmy Stewart western genre effort.   

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ADDITION: Koch Media - Region FREE - Blu-ray (October 2017): The 1080P can, for the most part, look quite pleasing but it has instances of color bleeding although it was minimal.

RE: Color bleeding, Simon tell us in email: "As you probably know, this is inherent in only pre-1954 3-strip Technicolor movies...... The 3 negatives shrink slightly at different rates.

The 3-strip process is a dye transfer process from 3 b/w film negs shot simultaneously thru color filters. The cameras were huge & bulky. The colors are pretty permanent, unlike post 1954 single strip color that is highly prone to fading of different colors at different rates. For some reason the 3 b/w negs are not equally stable in film dimension, although theoretically they should be.

The first time this was publicised was when MGM did their WS reissue of Gone with the Wind around 1960 or early 61..... They had to re-register the 1939 Technicolor negs---especially the yellow, as I recall reading then...... Perhaps the mis-register was more obvious because of the big blow up they gave the movie to maybe 70mm & cropping off the top & bottom to give it a WS ratio, which was so badly received critically that it was junked for subsequent reissues.

Probably it’s not been as noticeable in DVD releases of older 3-strip movies because of the lower resolution.

I feel it unlikely that the Germans had access to the original U-I negatives but maybe Universal supplied them with a digital copy from the states--- I don’t know... It may also be that the negs had already gone out of registration when a new Bend of the River print was pulled in the 1960s or 70s for TV consumption....anyway, U-I did not go to the cost of re-registering that MGM afforded for GWTW or more recently Warners for Wizard of Oz or any other of the pre-1954 color movies in their library, to which they gave a primo release.

There’s probably a bunch of technical writing on this subject that I’ve not seen, & the particulars to how much which color separation negative shrinks.....but I’ve never researched.....

However, we are liable to see the color haloing from the out of register colors in any pre-1954 movie BD that has not undergone expensive restoration, or perhaps been drawn from perhaps a single color master that was made from the 3 color before they shrunk.

It was a problem with the Barefoot Contessa BD last year." (Thanks Simon!)

Discerning eyes will notice it but overall the colors are brighter and richer than the older DVDs. My preference would have been for finer, more consistent, grain - it can tend to look blotchy. Detail advances and the score by Hans J. Salter (The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T., Man Without a Star, Cover Up, The Wolfman, The Mole People) via a lossless DTS-HD Master mono (in either English or German DUB options) - 16-bit - sounds very nice if lacking powerful depth. There are both optional English or German subtitles and the Blu-ray disc, starting with the Universal logo, is Region FREE. NOTE: the 2nd English track (4th, optional, track of the presentation) is an isolated effects and score track - also in DTS-HD Master.

Extras list a 'TV Synchro' which is the same video transfer but seem to offer an alternate German DUB (it starts with the 3rd track option - the second German track of the disc.) There is also a trailer, some artwork (mostly posters and titlecards) and another gallery with photos.

This is an imperfect video appearance - requires re-registering 3-strip - but I suspect it has more to do with the source and a restoration is required. The film, certainly warrants it, but will it ever come? I enjoyed seeing this classic on Blu-ray despite the weaknesses. A pure, Anthony Mann, western gem with a great cast. Winchester '73 and many more of the director-actor pairings need to be released on BD.