Cubussoli Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

SoTrumpBelieve Must See Movie...

GazerRise Fantastic!

Juana what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

Hunter Lanier In theory, I should have loved "River of No Return." Otto Preminger is one of my favorite directors; I love Mitchum, and Monroe is often good; there's cowboys, violence, excitement and attractive women playing instruments. It was like biting into a shiny apple, only to find the worm equivalent of Times Square.The premise is promising: an ex-convict (Robert Mitchum) rounds up his son--who he gave away before he went away--and heads off to a small piece of land to start anew as a farmer. The area is a hotspot for gold, but Mitchum doesn't care; he just wants to live quietly. But one thing leads to another, and Mitchum, his son and a dance hall singer (Marilyn Monroe) end up on a raft, going down rapids to get revenge on a man who stole Mitchum's gun and horse.First thing's first, the film is gorgeous--shot in Cinemascope. The opening shot of the movie is a big "look I've got," as the camera pans around Mitchum, showing acres and acres of grassy, mountainous land. Likewise, Cinemascope is a naturally companion when shooting a river--where a large chunk of the film takes place. But the cinematography is so good, it makes the jumps to green screen incredibly jarring. Not to mention, the rafting sequences--the film's big set-pieces--aren't exciting in the least, as time after time, it's just a raft moving forward and two people pushing levers back and forth.There's a lot of little things I love about this movie. The relationship between the three main characters--Mitchum, his son, Monroe--is deep and full of potential. This only exemplifies the weakness of the screenplay, as these characters are given nothing to do or say after being set-up in an auspicious manner. That said, there are several story beats that rang true with me, but not enough to add up to anything special. There's even one single moment--very brief--where the film made me remember why I love movies. That's worth something.Despite the natural pleasure of watching a western starring Robert Mitchum and Marilyn Monroe, directed by the great Otto Preminger, the film is less than the sum of its parts. It almost made me sad, as there's a great movie in there somewhere.

dougdoepke Great Canadian scenery, but episodic storyline, at best. To escape marauding Indians, farmer Mitchum, son Rettig, and barroom showgirl Monroe escape down a roaring river on a raft, encountering a number of perils along the way. With this kind of adventurous premise, the movie should overflow with suspense, but it doesn't.What the result shows is that legendary director Preminger was much more at home with drawingroom intrigue, e.g. Laura (1944), than with outdoor adventure. Here he films a spotty screenplay in unengaged fashion, adding nothing to the action. In short, events in the movie unfold without pulling us in. Then too, many of the river process shots are clumsily blended with the live shots, a constant reminder that this really is a movie.Mitchum's excellent in a tailor made role. He looks fully at home as a macho man in the Canadian wilderness. For Monroe, however, this is her only starring role in an adventure film and it's understandable. She looks decidedly uncomfortable, except when doing her showgirl act, which is when the engaging side of her personality really comes out. Nonetheless, the movie exploits her tangible assets with frequent dips in and out of the water, in provocative fashion. All in all, however, I see why this film is infrequently mentioned in her list of cinematic highlights.Anyway, unless you have a yen for grand Canadian vistas or Marilyn's buxom appeal, my advice is to skip it.

zardoz-13 Don't look for anything scandalous in this straightforward outdoors adventure. This river rafting epic with Robert Mitchum and Marilyn Monroe captures more beautiful scenery that it conjures up memorable violence. Mitchum is a farmer tilling land for wheat in the middle of nowhere. He has just gotten out of prison for shooting a man in the back. What difference does it make, he argues, where you shoot a man if he is a polecat? Eventually, he has to explain his disappearance to his nine-year old son Mark Calder (Tommy Rettig) who joins him at a mining camp. Mitchum rides into town, finds his son, and they head back to his farm. Meanwhile, Monroe is a saloon girl strumming a guitar. She has been helping little Mark since he arrived and was abandoned by a guy named Martin. As it turns out, Monroe is in love with a no-good skunk named Weston (Rory Calhoun) who swindled a frontierman's out of a mining claim. Now, Weston is trying to get to Council City to record his claim before the legal owner make it there. He borrows Mitchum's horse and rifle and leaves him with a knot on his head. Mitchum, Monroe, and the kid commandeer the raft and flow down river. Yes, there is the inevitable showdown between Mitchum and Calhoun, but the surprise is in who shoots Weston to keep him from killing Mitchum.

Robert J. Maxwell Rather a fun adventure movie, with Mitchum, Monroe, and Mitchum's young son forced to travel down a scenic mountain river to Council City, where Mitchum is after revenge against the man who left him to die. The odyssey is packed with action and danger, what with the rapids and the generic Indians attacking at every turn, not to mention the evil mountain men they meet, the hungry mountain lion, and the treacherous gambler who is Mitchum's target. If it's less tense and artful than, say, "The African Queen" or "Deliverance," it's more lively than "Huckleberry Finn." Marilyn Monroe is conspicuous because she's pretty sexy and gives a good performance. I couldn't count the number of times her blouse came off due to dunking in icy water or ripping by men who were less than gentlemen. Monroe is a saloon singer, a tough broad but don't worry. She has a heart of gold. She pronounces the "t" in every word that contains one -- like "wait" and "wanted" -- as if reading aloud a spelling test for school children. I could never make up my mind about her acting ability. Sometimes her speech sounds artificial, sometimes deliberately stylized, rarely natural. It's a conundrum.Mitchum is hefty and is awash in intuition about "the Indians." "When they paint their faces, they're after you." "Don't worry, they won't attack after the sun goes down." "They're just making sure we're gone." Usually, when the Western hero comes up with insights like this, it's because he's been raised by "the Indians." For Mitchum, it's just a gift. There's no particular reason "the Indians" are always ready to kill him. It's a less perspicuous impulse. Maybe they had some crazy idea that since they were here first, Mitchum had no business carving a farm out of their hunting grounds.The film has its silly moments. Soaked by the rapids, Monroe must peel off her wet clothes -- women are always peeling off their wet clothes in these movies and I kind of like it -- then wrap her nude body in a woolen blanket and have Mitchum give her a vigorous rubdown, skipping only the area between her patella and her sternoclavicular notch. Mitchum, believing her to be nothing more than a saloon singer, treats her pale, tender limbs like pieces of pemmican.Mostly, you'll probably notice the scenery. Aside from some too-obvious studio stages, the movie was shot in Banff and Jasper National Parks in the heart of the Canadian Rocky Mountains. In life, the place is an assault on the senses. The mountains themselves rise abruptly out of the high plains of Alberta like row after row of gigantic shattered teeth. There is no place quite like it. The streams are full of perch and northern pike but be sure you get the license.