Fluß ohne Wiederkehr

Life is like this river,sometimes peaceful,sometimes wild.A "river" movie,before the "road movie" genre was invented,Otto Preminger's work remains extremely beautiful:an unusually inventive cinemascope which enhances the scenery :the raft tossed by the tides of misfortune,seems like a grain of sand in these deep valleys,these ancestral forests.

A story as linear as the river,which focuses on one of Preminger's favorite subjects:redemption (see "where the sidewalk ends","forever Amber").If someone does something wrong,Kay says ,it's because he's often compelled to do so.Mark,the young boy ,will understand ,and little did he know it would not be long !

The songs (the title track and "one silver dollar" ) are sumptuous,and add magic to this odyssey of redemption.And when Kay throws her high-heeled shoes in the dust,what a nice way to pick up the pieces!

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.

Love is a rider on the rider on the river of no return.

This was an interesting film, a western that covers a very short period of time about a man released from prison to pick up his son and start a farm in gold mining country. Marilyn Monroe, who is gorgeous as ever in this film, is a saloon singer in the closest town. Her and her gambler boyfriend are headed to a larger city to make a claim on some land that he won gambling. On the way down the river on a raft they get themselves in trouble and our farmer along with his son save them...only to have their kindness repaid by the gambler stealing their only horse and only gun...leaving them at the mercy of the natives who seem to be on a war path of destruction. This leaves the farmer, played by Robert Mitchum, Marilyn and the farmer's son defenseless and on the run from the natives. Down the river they head...

This film was filled with action...including a mountain lion attack! There is also a moral story about leaving people, especially children defenseless.

The end is pretty fun and makes this film worth it. If you are a western fan or a fan of either Marilyn Monroe or Robert Mitchum, I recommend giving it a watch.

An unexceptional story beautifully directed by Otto Premiger, whose handling of this routine material makes it work as well in its way as the best of Anthony Mann. A stolen rifle figures prominently in this western, as does an Indian attack, the budding romance between a puritanical homesteader with a past and a saloon singer in trouble, and of course the eponymous and oftentimes violent river they raft down. The northwest scenery is breathtaking. Preminger gives a nice drive to his narrative without stressing any one element for too long. For a while it's a farmer-son story, then a badman story, then there's a journey down the river, then a romance, then an Indian attack. Scenes play out dramatically rather than melodramatically despite the genre limitations of the script, and this shows Preminger's steady hand. He doesn't mind making his movie a bit of a travelogue or nature film if the mood strikes him, and therefore the picture has a nice diversity, and many lovely things to look at. Chief among its many scenic attractions is Marilyn Monroe in the female lead. I can't say that this is her best performance but it's one of her best non-musical or comedy roles that isn't too serious, which is to say it's not at all like How To Marry a Millionaire, Bus Stop, The Prince and the Showgirl or The Seven Year Itch in that there's no air of a heavyweight property with lots of money and talent behind it, which works in the movie's favor, as it is a pleasant surprise. This is perhaps Miss Monroe's only 'throwaway' role of her starring career, and she makes the best of it by playing her part naturally and with none of the ironic, self-referential self-deprecation one often finds in her major starring vehicles. Robert Mitchum is excellent in the male lead, as is Tommy Rettig as his son, who more than holds his own with these two adult heavyweights. The songs Monroe sings are all pretty good and well-delivered and add to the story in each case, which is unusual. One cares for these people, who behave credibly despite the mechanical plot devices, and the movie ends on a touching visually and musically orchestrated grace note, as if something of profound importance had just transpired.

I just love this movie, except for that one scene (everybody knows which one). It's a very good venue for Mitchum and perhaps the best Monroe ever had. Really great actors make you forget that they are either actors or stars. These two do that quite well in spite of a loosely written script and a bit too much sweetness in the person of the boy. I think I love this movie as much for the fact that someone finally let Monroe act as I do for the fun of watching it. She did a good job of bringing her character, rather than Marilyn, to the screen. I enjoyed the scenes between her and the boy. She was very believable as a nurturing, protective figure. She would have done well as an actress. This movie is just a small sample.. Lonestar