River of No Return (1954)

Director:

Otto Preminger

Writers:

Frank Fenton (screenplay)
Louis Lantz (story)

Release Date:

30 April 1954 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Adventure | Western

Tagline:

MARILYN MONROE...Sultry, flaming, exciting as never before - on a desperate river journey...experiencing the violence and madness of desperate men!

Plot:

Matt Calder, who lives on a remote farm with his young son Mark, helps two unexpected visitors who lose control of their raft on the nearby river...

Plot Keywords:

River | Raft | Gambler | Native American | Vaudeville

Cast

Robert Mitchum	...	Matt Calder
Marilyn Monroe	...	Kay Weston
Rory Calhoun	...	Harry Weston (gambler)
Tommy Rettig	...	Mark Calder
Murvyn Vye	...	Dave Colby (prospector)
Douglas Spencer	...	Sam Benson (prospector)

Runtime:

91 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.55 : 1

Sound Mix:

4-Track Stereo (Western Electric Recording)

Certification:

West Germany:12 (f) | Canada:G (video rating) | Argentina:16 | Australia:PG | Chile:18 | Finland:K-16 | UK:PG | USA:Approved (PCA #16625, General Audience)

Filming Locations:

Banff National Park, Alberta, Canada

Company:

Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation

Trivia:

This movie was not the first meeting of Robert Mitchum and Marilyn Monroe. Mitchum had worked at Lockheed Aircraft with Monroe's, then known as Norma Jeane Baker, first husband James Dougherty. The two had met on at least one occasion during the mid 1940's.

Goofs:

Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): When Matt and Kay are in the cave, Matt trips (stumbles) when he is walking over to hang up Kay's bloomers to dry. It appears he stumbles over his feet.

Quotes:

Kay Weston: One thing about this, the longer you last the less you care.

Movie Connections:

Featured in Marilyn Monroe: Beyond the Legend (1987)

Soundtrack:

River of No Return

White Water Rafting With Marilyn and Mitch

Of all of Marilyn Monroe's leading men, Robert Mitchum was the only one who knew her back when. In 1941 before he made his screen debut in a Hopalong Cassidy film, Mitchum was among other things an aircraft factory worker and one of his friends was one James Daugherty. Of course Jim had a wife Norma Jean at the time and Bob and Dorothy occasionally socialized.

He knew all about her psychological problems and when it came time to do a film with her when both became screen legends, Mitchum was not about to get himself involved. That probably helped because during the shooting Marilyn and director Otto Preminger stopped speaking and would only communicate through Mitchum.

Marilyn's a saloon gal involved with a no good gambler/drifter in Rory Calhoun. Calhoun and Monroe nearly drown on a river when Mitchum rescues them and their raft. No good deed goes unpunished so Calhoun takes Mitchum's horse and Mitchum, Monroe, and Mitchum's son Tommy Rettig use the raft to go after him. They're kind of forced to because the Indians are on the warpath.

She's certainly quite a distraction for a man on a mission and at one point Mitchum does give into lust ever so briefly. Which does make River of No Return one of the more realistic westerns ever done.

Twentieth Century Fox decided to go whole hog on this one, shooting the film up in Banff. But with Marilyn and Otto feuding it was not a happy set. Otto walked off the picture and Jean Negulesco finished it out. Joe DiMaggio flew up to the set because of rumors of Mitchum and Marilyn, that were completely unfounded, but Joe was the jealous type. As for Mitchum legend has it that he and another legendary drinker, Murvyn Vye, killed many a bottle during the long evenings.

Done in cinemascope and 3-D, River of No Return should be seen on the big screen. Not even a letterbox DVD does it justice. And 3-D was definitely the medium for Monroe. Marilyn even has some nice songs to sing in this one.

It's not a great western, still it's entertaining enough especially in those rafting sequences. But it was a film Otto Preminger shuddered about when recalling.