La rivière sans retour

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...

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.

"River Of No Return" spotlights one of Marilyn Monroe's best early performances, once more showing the world that she was more than just another sex kitten, that there was real talent behind her beautiful figure. Most contemporary critics failed to recognize Marilyn's extraordinary gifts other than the obvious ones. Too bad she was short changed in the song department. Had Marilyn been allowed to strut her stuff with a composition comparable to Marlene Dietrich's ribald "See What The Boys In The Backroom Will Have" from "Destry Rides Again," she would have brought down the house. Instead Marilyn is stuck with three ditties that don't deserve their big movie status, "I'm Gonna File My Claim," "One Silver Dollar," and "Down In The Meadow." The exception is the bewitching title ballad hauntingly sung by Tennessee Ernie Ford over the opening credits and later with verve and longing by Marilyn.

Not only does Marilyn exhibit a marvelous acting style, but she is paired with one of the most underrated actors in Hollywood history, Robert Mitchum. Why critics have often failed to notice his abilities as a performer is amazing, with so many inventive portrayals to his credit. Rory Calhoun has his moments as a low-life scoundrel loved by Marilyn. And little Tommy Rettig is ideally cast as Mitchum's abandoned son. His role in "River Of Not Return" is perhaps the reason he was later chosen to play a similar part in TV's "Lassie."

Joseph LaShelle's cinematography is breathtaking, except for the obvious rear projection used in the treacherous raft scenes depicting Mitchum, Monroe, and Rettig fighting the rapids on the River Of No Return. The beauty of Alberta, Canada's Jasper National Park is spellbinding and definitely an asset. The footage shot along the Toutle river in Washington State supplements the Canadian grandeur.

A major weakness of the movie is the lackluster script and threadbare story. Since the plot is a simple one, director Otto Preminger must emphasize the interplay of the leading characters with as much analysis as possible. Here the writer Frank Fenton, who based his screenplay on a story by Louis Lantz, is unable to rise to the task. Though many of the lines between Mitchum and Monroe and good ones, there are not enough of them to sustain an entire film.

Matt Calder (Mitchum) seeks his son entrusted to a friend when Calder went to jail for killing a man (possibly in self-defense). His son, Mark (Mark follows Matthew in the Bible), is left to wonder around a boom town until taken in by the local dance hall queen, Kay Weston (Monroe). Once Matt finds Mark, the two journey to Matt's farm on the banks of the River Of No Return. Floating down the river come Kay and her husband, Harry Weston. Both are in danger of drowning. Matt saves them only to have Harry steal his horse and take off. Kay has a distorted image of Harry in her mind, bent out of shape by the pliers of love. Matt perceives Kay as nothing more than trash, but his son knows a different side of her, a kind and loving woman. The three take off down the River Of No Return: She to get back her man; he to kill her man; and the boy to try to work it all out in a peaceable manner, with an ironic twist to the story at the end.

The River Of No Return, as the name implies, is symbolic, but of what? The metaphor is not easy to reconcile with the story, except in places. See what you can do with it.

You won't waste your time watching Robert Mitchum in any movie as he has proved himself to be an actor to take note of. In this movie, he gives a stable performance as a rugged pioneer type adventurer and good father who is trying to make a go farming in the wilderness. If things aren't hard enough, Indians harass, strangers become unpredictable and the work does not become easier. The rafting scenes remain fake but the real life shots of the river remain beautiful. Monroe detracts from the picture as being too much when she should be just a little however that is the part they wanted her to play. Unfortunately they like selling her as a sex object first and an actor second which comes through in some scenes almost like they were afraid the picture wouldn't do well and needed some additional assurance. The fact is it did do well and in no small part to Preminger's directing while filled with criticism still delivered a watchable entertaining film. Behind the scenes there was much ego and unprofessional conduct which reminds us all that wherever we go and whatever we do the people add or detract from the experiences. This film could have used more specific emphasis on the area and when it took place as that is always interesting history. Instead, they made it more for the actors than the viewers is how it came across. Good movie to snack by with a tasty drink and just enjoy watching a piece of movie making history with times gone by...

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.