ViewGuide

Created Apr 20, 2014 08:40PM PST • Edited Jan 06, 2019 10:45PM PST

1. Quality

2. Summary

   Great 4.0

   Marilyn Monroe didn’t want to appear in River of No Return, nor did Otto Preminger want to direct it, especially if Marilyn was to star. Studio contracts forced them into it and we’re all the better for it today. River of No Return is a fine mid-Fifties Western, with surprising Italian roots, a redeeming screenplay, stunning scenery and two iconic moviestars in their early primes – Robert Mitchum and Marilyn Monroe.

   Poster don’t lie: Her hair is that golden and that long. The longest of her career? And she sings several torch songs in bawdy fashion. Playing a saloon singer in a tent town, she follows her gambler boyfriend when he tells her they’ve got to hightail it down the river. Making bad choices in men was one of Marilyn’s talents.

   Italian classic The Bicycle Thief is cited as inspiring the premise, though there were no bicycles in 1800s Idaho. Horses were the invaluable mode of transportation, with horse thievery punishable by death. Stealing a poor farmer’s horse when Indians were about to attack was tantamount to murder: IOW The Horse Thief.

   Mostly River of No Return is a movie where men were men and women were Marilyn Monroe. The guys? Lots of deep voices: basses and baritones. Marilyn? A woman making her way in a brutish male world the only way she could, by bewitching men. Her never-equaled sexual power sets her scenes with Mitchum on constant quiver, when he’s not tackling her that is. In one scene he warms her up by briskly massaging her bare body, wrapped in a blanket. Think that heated up date nights in 1954?

   Marilyn Monroe fans know to watch every movie she did, even a lesser one like River of No Return. Robert Mitchum, Western and rafting fans will also find it a worthwhile view. If more than one of those rings a bell for you, click Watch Now immediately. River of No Return is a wild trip worth taking.

4. Acting

   Really Great 4.5

   Robert Mitchum had starred in dozens of movies in the decade before River of No Return filmed in `53.

   Marilyn Monroe had starred in less than a dozen, suffering terrible stage fright filming each. Yet she did some of her own stunts on River of No Return, twisting her ankle and ending up on crutches as a result.

   Mitchum never grows a stubble over the story’s multiple days, not even a five o’clock shadow, one of the many perks that come with being a top leading man in Hollywood. Drinking heavily during the production was another. Mitchum also had a music career. That’s him singing the male version of River of No Return.

   Monroe performs four terrific numbers. See the Music commentary below for details. She’s otherwise young, skinny and nimble. Director Otto Preminger hated that she had her acting coach on set, ultimately banishing the poor Stanislavsky tutor. However, Marilyn’s declamation is perfect: bold, deep and clear.

   Note that both leads – Mitchum & Monroe – contribute vocal performances of the title song. That’s talent.

   Great Supporting Cast

   • Rory Calhoun plays Marilyn’s cardsharp fiancé. Calhoun was a wild man, a real Wild Man. Per Wikipedia, he stole a revolver at thirteen, got sent to Reform School in California, escaped, robbed several jewelry stores, stole a car and drove it across state lines, thus turning it into a federal beef. He ended up in San Quentin, where he remained until his twenty-first birthday. Then he became a moviestar and got to play Marilyn Monroe’s scumbag fiancé.
   • Tommy Rettig plays a boy who discovers under most dramatic circumstances who his Dad is. Little Tommy Rettig also played Jeff Miller in all 116 episodes of Lassie on TV.
   • Murvyn Vye & Douglas Spencer cameo as a couple of scummy prospectors.

5. Male Stars Really Great 4.5

6. Female Stars Perfect 5.0

7. Female Costars Very Good 3.5

8. Male Costars Great 4.0

10. Film

    Great 4.0

    Complicated production for a genre picture based on a recycled premise: Otto Preminger went nuts over Marilyn Monroe’s dysfunctions, ultimately jetting to Europe after shooting wrapped. Louis R. Loeffler – the Editor – and Stanley Rubin – the Producer – were left to finish River of No Return. They had to call in Jean Negulesco to reshoot some scenes.

11. Direction Great 4.0

12. Play Great 4.0

    Well done for genre work.

    • The plot redeems itself at the end with the final killing.
    • Son meets man: “Would that be alright if I was your Dad?” Nice

13. Music Perfect 5.0

    Marilyn Monroe’s four saloon numbers are a tremendous highlight: River of No Return, I’m Gonna File My Claim, Down in the Meadow and One Silver Dollar. Her lovely rendition of the title song is nearby.

    There’s also classic Indian movie music when Indians in war paint appear.

14. Visuals Great 4.0

    Scenes shot at Banff and in Idaho are excellent. The crude Fifties FX scenes on the River of No Return, not so much.

15. Content

16. Edge

    Risqué 2.1

    The poster depicts a scene where Robert Mitchum grabs Marilyn Monroe by the shoulders and wrestles her to the ground with most unholy intent. Today that’d be sexual assault. It doesn’t figure into the Edginess score much however, as there’s lots of guys dying in a Wild West setting that includes lots of mighty pissed off Indians.

17. Sex Titillating 1.8

18. Violence Fierce 2.5

19. Rudeness Salty 2.0

21. Reality

    Surreal 2.3

    Fifties postcard of Americans v. Native Americans as Hollywood Westerns depicted them then.

    Movie reality aside, the actual River of No Return is the Idaho Salmon. It drops more than 7,000 feet from its headwaters to the confluence of the Snake River, all of it in Idaho.

22. Circumstantial Surreal 2.3

23. Biological Surreal 2.3

24. Physical Surreal 2.3