River of No Return (1954)

User Rating:

6.5/10   

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:

Average Shot Length (ASL) = 20 seconds

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 "Getaway: (#16.35)" (2007)

Soundtrack:

I'm Gonna File My Claim

Mitchim offers a portrayal of total integrity with all the conviction of a Joel McCrea or Randolph Scott...

Otto Preminger's "River of No Return" is set in Northwest Canada, in savage Indian territory, in the gold rush days... The plot is weak but the scenery is spectacular and the action of the river dramatically powerful... Otto Preminger knew how to create tension and threat in the grandeur and menace of the Canadian Rockies…

The film opens in the 1875 with widower Matt Calder (Mitchum), coming to town, where his ten-year-old son Mark (Tommy Rettig) is waiting for him... He has served a term in prison for shooting a man in the back, even though he shot the man only to keep him from murdering a friend... Mark has now been sent to join his father, who has bought a farm for them...

Mark has made the acquaintance of Kay (Marilyn Monroe), a saloon singer, while waiting for his father.... Calder thanks Kay for her kindness to his boy, and father and son depart for their farm...

One day, Calder sees Kay and gambler Harry Weston (Rory Calhoun) in trouble on a raft in the river near his home... He helps them ashore and learns that Watson is in a hurry to get to town to register a gold claim... So eager is he that he steals his rescuer's only horse, and leaving his girl behind as well, rides away...

The predicament of those left is deepened by the fact that Indians are on a rampage and are due to attack the farm at any moment... The only way left to get to town is by a wild river...

Photographed in Technicolor and CinemaScope, the film is designed to exploit the splendors of the mountains, trees and rapid rivers plus the magnetic pleasant figure of Marilyn who is the only charming woman surrounded by two handsome men and a charming kid...

Marilyn sings 4 numbers in the film: "One Silver Dollar," "I'm Gonna File My Claim," "Down in the Meadow," and "The River of No Return." The little boy, Tommy Rettig, played another big-scale Western, Delmer Daves' "The Last Wagon," with Richard Widmark, Felicia Farr, and Susan Kohner...