Review of River of No Return (1954) by Donald W — 20 Oct 2013

This movie was made at the peak of Marilyn Monroe and Robert Mitchum's popularity. It's a Western because it is set in the old west but it's really a romance story. The story was set in a fictional gold rush camp on a fictional river that flowed down to a fictional town.

They filmed the river shots with stunt doubles on a river in Idaho and the outdoor mountain scenes in Canada with the actors. At least at the end of the movie they acknowledge that it was filmed in Canada.

Today they film movies in Canada and take the Canadian government's subsidies without any acknowledgements. Back then there were no government subsidies to make movies. The story is full of clichés.

The Marilyn Monroe looks good in the Saloon girl dresses and in the blue jeans while going down the river. I doubt that any woman wore blue jeans in the 1800's. The trip down the river gave them an excuse to get her wet in a white blouse.

In order to justify the trip down the rapids they had to have hostile Indians chasing them. They never explained why the Indians were trying to kill them. If he was squatting on the Indian's land he was in danger even if he had a rifle.

They didn't have anything the Indians would want once they left the farm and cabin. Then the Indians kept letting themselves get shot. The real Indians in the old west weren't that stupid. They would never have been in range of the rifle.

They probably wouldn't have let themselves be seen. And why did she keep dragging that guitar around. If I were shooting the rapids the last thing I would bring would be a guitar. But they needed Marilyn to sing during the movie.

At one point in the movie they had Robert Mitchum's character try to force himself on Marilyn's character. I thought he was the good guy. She's supposed to be a Saloon girl. If she is supposed to fall in love with him, let him be a nice guy about it and let her be a little bit more receptive.

You never felt like the two main characters really cared about each other during the movie. The ending when he takes her out of the Saloon it seems like a forced ending.