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River of No Return (1954)

 

Poster

   

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In this western having for spectacular backdrop the Canadian Rocky Mountains, Marilyn played a saloon singer.

The shooting took place in Canada, in the national parks of Banff (,,) and Jasper (), in Alberta, and in the Canadian Rockies.

Marilyn stayed at the Banff Springs Hotel.

Hostility reigned on the set when the director Otto Preminger and Marilyn opened a war of attrition.
Preminger made clearly understood that he worked on this movie only because he owed it, with his contract, to the Fox; Darryl Zanuck painted the new cinemascope in glowing colours for him, and some critics noticed that Preminger wanted more to shot the spectacular landscape than wresting a dramatic interpretation from his actors.

As many of his fellow members, he had forbidden Marilyn's drama teacher, Natasha Lytess, to come on the set, to call her back only if the Fox head office asked him that as a favor.

Physically, it was a very demanding part for Marilyn, a big part of the action implying to make the protagonists falling in the river at the time of the crossing of its frightening rapids.

For these scenes, Marilyn had to be soaked with water buckets for the link shots.

Preminger insisted on his actors to make themselves their stunts, which had some consequences. Thus, the raft of Marilyn and her partner Robert Mitchum remained blocked in the rapids, and they needed to be rescued. 

In this movie, Marilyn had to sing 4 songs of Ken Darby and Lionel Newman, and she tirelessly rehearsed "One Silver Dollar", "I'm Gonna File my Claim", "Down in the Meadow" and the title-song "River of No Return", until reaching the perfection.

The summer when the film was released, the RCA sold more than 75 000 records of "I'm Gonna File my Claim" in only 3 weeks.

The 2 last weeks of the shooting, Joe DiMaggio joined Marilyn, notably because she had had an accident : during the shooting, she had fallen from the raft in the Athabasca river. A local doctor diagnosed a possible sprain; the studio doctors didn't see anything serious, but Marilyn insisted on wearing a bandage, and for few days, she limped slightly with crutches, posing for the press.

 

With the crutches

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With Whitey Snyder 

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White top and skirt

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Pool side

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September 1, 1953 : leaving Seattle 

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arriving in Los Angeles  

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Back to Los Angeles to work in studio, Marilyn turned her tricks to good account to gain time, often refusing to get out of her dressing-room for hours.

 

Shooting

With a blanket 
with Robert Mitchum 

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with Tommy Rettig 

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alone

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with the crew

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White blouse
with the crew

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with Gladys Rasmussen 

with Robert Mitchum 

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with Tommy Rettig 

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off set

                              

alone

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;-,,

on the rocks 

with the crew

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alone 

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Flowery blouse 
with Dorothy Skelton 

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with the crew 

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with the Indians

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with Natasha Lytess 

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with Robert Mitchum 

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with Rory Calhoun 

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with Tommy Rettig 

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off set

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alone

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White top and scarf

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Off set 
in Hollywood 

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with Whitey Snyder 

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with a fan 

                          
alone

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with Tommy Rettig

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Raft

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Saloon

yellow dress 

with Robert Mitchum 

                                    
alone 

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red dress 

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green dress 

with Tommy Rettig 

                                 
alone 

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Train 

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Leather jacket 

with Robert Mitchum

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with Rory Calhoun 

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alone

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off set

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Publicity pictures

bustier 

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white blouse 

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red dress 

with Robert Mitchum 

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with Rory Calhoun 

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alone

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green dress

 

 

Fitting

bustier 

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flowery blouse

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denim suit

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white lacy top

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green dress

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underwear

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costume sketch

The costumes were deisgned by William Travilla. The fitting took place at the beginning of June 1953.

 

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Hairdressing

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CREDIT

Twentieth Century-Fox, Cinemascope and Technicolor

Runtiime : 91 mn

Release date : April 30, 1954.

 

Directors : Otto Preminger, Jean Negulesco (uncredited)

Productrr : Stanley Rubin

Screenplay : Frank Fenton, Louis Lantz (plot)

Director of photography : Joseph LaShelle

Film editing : Louis R. Loeffler

Music : Cyril J. Mockridge, Lionel Newman (songs)

Costumes : Charles LeMaire, William Travilla.

 

CAST

Robert Mitchum - Matt Calder

Marilyn Monroe - Kay Weston

Rory Calhoun - Harry Weston

Tommy Rettig - Mark Calder

Murvyn Vye - Colby

Douglas Spencer - Benson.

 

CAST (uncredited)

Ed Hinton - gambler

Don Beddoe - Ben

Jack Mather - dealer at card table

Edmund Cobb - town barber

Will Wright - trader

Jarma Lewis - saloon dancer

Hal Baylor - young punk.

TECHNICAL CREW

Chester L. Bayhi - set decoration

Jack Cole - choregrapher

Ken Darby - vocal director

Bernard Freericks - sound

Addison Hehr - art director

Paul Helmick - assistant director

Roger Heman - sound

Ray Kellogg - special effects

Charles LeMaire - wardrobe director

Lionel Newman - musical director

Ben Nye - make up

Edward B. Powell - orchestrator

Walter M. Scott - set decoration

Lyle R. Wheeler - art director.

SYNOPSIS

Marilyn embodied Kay Weston, saloon singer in a makeshift town, on the way to the gold rush, somewhere in the American North-West. Among her admirers is Mark Calder (Tommy Rettig), a little boy aged 10 that his father Matt (Robert Mitchum), comes to take after having served a prison sentence : he has killed a man, shooting him in the back (a dishonorable murder - we would later know that it was actually to save his friend's life). 

Matt saves Kay and her lover, Harry Weston (Rory Calhoun), a gambler, their raft having overturned near his new house, an isolated farm he has purchased to live with his son. By way of thanks, Weston runs away, alone, with Matt's only horse in a wild ride, to join the town and make register the gold concession he has won by gambling. Unfortunately, the farm is soon besieged by an Indian warriors horde, and the river is the only solution.

Matt, Kay and Mark have to face the torrent rapids, the hostile Indians and the outlaws. Matt is annoyed to have the charge of a woman, while he's fighting for his own life and his son's one, all the more it's because of Kay's friend that they are in a fix.

However, this one, despite her sympathy towards the young boy, let out, in front of him, that Matt has gone in prison after having shot a man in his back, a revelation which deeply shoked the kid, now convinced about his father's cowardice. By the time they joins the town, Kay has fallen in love with Matt. She desperatly tris to prevent Weston, they have met again, from fighting with Matt, while this one isn't even armed. Kay jumped on Weston, but he repels her, and Matt is still alive because of his son's reflex... who shots Weston in his back to save his father.

Everything isn't fine yet between Kay and Matt. She gets ready to get back to her work as saloon singer, but Matt throws her, in a manly way, on his shoulder and persuades her to live with him and his son.

 

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