The River of No Return US : 1954 : dir. Otto Preminger : 20th Century Fox : min prod: Stanley Rubin : scr: Frank Fenton : dir.ph.: Tommy Rettig …..……….……………………………………………………………………………… Robert Mitchum; Marilyn Monroe; Rory Calhoun; Murvyn Vye; Douglas Spencer; Don Beddoe, Edmund Cobb, John Doucette, Barbara Nichols, Ralph Sanford, Will Wright Ref: Pages Sources Stills Words Ω 8 M Copy on VHS Last Viewed 5935 10.5 10 25 5,905 - - No pre 1991 Marilyn Monroe in the Old West. Robert Mitchum drank a lot. Tommy Rettig didn’t. A sepia-tinted poster seems an odd way to promote a Technicolor film, but there it is. People who drink fall over a lot. This is a proven fact. Source: indeterminate Excerpt from The Moving Picture Boy entry Calhoun) and his companion Kay Weston on Nirumand, who starred the previous year in (Monroe). After Calder rescues them from Naderi's “DAWANDEH” (or “The Runner”): the wild river, Weston robs them, and leaves everyone to die. Calder goes after “He kept on running in Naderi's "AAB, him, but is a little puzzled as to why Kay BAAD, KHAK", a drama of drought set in the would remain so loyal to the liar and cheat, parched land of the Iranian-Afghan border. while his son, pulling a “COURTSHIP OF But the Iranian authorities, who had already EDDIE’S FATHER”, tries to get the man castigated "DAWANDEH" as a slur on their and woman together. country, and had failed to get Naderi to The movie is the western equivalent of a apologise for it, now banned the showing of "road film", with Calder and Co. going up both films. Naderi was granted political asylum the river, stopping and starting, and in the USA, and Majid and his elder brother suffering threats from lions and Indians. Mansur Nirumand fled into Pakistan.” But this is no “NAKED SPUR” or “THE RIVER WILD”. It's amateurish, ultimately boring stuff. We know where it's all going, Binary Flix.com website review: and have to endure the ride with uninteresting, predictable people. The plot “Of moderate interest to Marilyn Monroe is mechanical… since Calder was once fans, or aficionados of the late Robert sent to prison for shooting a man in the Mitchum, or perhaps even director Otto back, we know that Calder will, in a “HIGH Preminger completists, this western with a NOON” moment, have to do the same at tired tale fills out the latest edition of Fox's the end of the film. Marilyn Monroe Diamond Collection. Part of the problem with the film is that it's The story (by Louis Lantz) is thin. Matt in colour. That's probably not a nice thing Calder (Mitchum) has just retrieved his to say when Fox has gone to a lot of son (Tommy Rettig) from a riotous western trouble to restore the film to its Technicolor town. But back in the woods, they are and CinemaScope splendour... but assailed by gambler Harry Weston (Rory Preminger, who was usually a master of framing was better in black and white, and DISC: B+ (As good a transfer as you here seems tired. The rear projection would want of this film) ” shots of the trio on the raft going down the – [email protected] river are ludicrous. On the other hand, Monroe was at the height of her beauty and voluptuousness, and the colour and The Cinema Laser website review: the screen size flatter her endlessly. Another problem is that it's not a very “ “RIVER OF NO RETURN” is one of my good western. In reality, it's a story that favourite Marilyn Monroe movies. Let’s just happens to be set in the west. face it, with the combined talents of Monroe, Robert Mitchum and Otto THE DISC: Preminger – how could this be anything Fox offers a superb transfer of the but great old-style motion picture widescreen film (2.55:1), enhanced for entertainment on the grand CinemaScope widescreen televisions, and proves it with scale. “RIVER OF NO RETURN” fuses a restoration demonstration as one of the elements of the western and adventure supplements. Sound is a good DD 4.0, genres into an entertaining little package with DD 2.0 Surround in French, with that allows Monroe to perform two musical English and Spanish subtitles, and close numbers. “RIVER OF NO RETURN” also captioning. Among the other supplements makes the most of its Canadian locations, are the theatrical trailer in a squeezed full by utilising the CinemaScope frame to frame, and trailers for other Diamond capture some incredible vistas. collection films: “LETS MAKE LOVE”, “MONKEY BUSINESS”, “DON’T BOTHER Set in the Northwest Territory during the TO KNOCK”, “NIAGARA”, The Diamond gold rush, “RIVER OF NO RETURN” tells Collection in general, and a stills gallery. the story of farmer Matt Calder (Mitchum), who is awaiting the arrival of his young SUMMARY son Mark (Tommy Rettig), whom he hasn’t seen in years. Picking up the boy in a The volatile chemistry of Robert Mitchum boomtown, Matt finds his son in the care and Marilyn Monroe ignites the screen of a beautiful saloon singer Kay Weston when they are thrown together by fate (Monroe), to whom the motherless boy during the wild days of California Gold has become instantly attached. After Rush. Marilyn stars as a dancehall singer heading back to their home, Matt and with a heart of gold who is aided by Mark cross paths with Kay again, when reluctant Mitchum in her futile search for she and her fiancé Harry Weston (Rory the husband that abandoned her. Otto Calhoun) are rafting down the dangerous Preminger's heart-stopping river rafting river that flows past Matt’s farm. sequences and panoramic vistas come to breath-taking life in this sweeping As it turns out, Weston is taking Kay on adventure. this ill-advised journey in order to file a claim on a gold strike that he won in a card DISC INFORMATION game. When Matt warns Weston about the dangers of travelling down this particular Features: river by raft, the gambler thanks Matt by - Photo Gallery knocking him out and stealing both his - Theatrical Trailers horse and gun. Unwilling to leave the man - Restoration Featurette that her fiancé injured, Kay stays behind to Video Format: care for Matt and his son. However, when Anamorphic Widescreen 2.55:1 hostile Indians attack his farm, Matt is Languages: forced to climb on board the raft with Mark - English: Dolby Digital 4.0 and Kay, fleeing down the river of no - French: Dolby Digital Surround return. Subtitles: English, Spanish # Sides: 1 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment # Discs: 1 has made “RIVER OF NO RETURN” Layers: Dual available on DVD in a wide screen DVD Released On: 5/14/2002 presentation that has been enhanced for Total Running Time: 91 min. 16:9 displays. “RIVER OF NO RETURN” MOVIE: C (Average '50s colour fare) is an early CinemaScope movie that should have an aspect ratio of 2.55:1. and set up features, as well as a few However, the transfer comes up a bit extras. As with the other titles in Fox’s short, around 2.35:1, cropping a small Marilyn Monroe series, “RIVER OF NO amount of information from the extreme RETURN” includes a comparison of how edges of the frame. Other than the aspect the movie looked in previous video ratio being off, the transfer of “RIVER OF incarnations and how it looks now with NO RETURN” is quite pleasing – making both film and video restoration. Theatrical this DVD a significant improvement on trailers for “DON’T BOTHER TO KNOCK”, every home version of the movie ever “MONKEY BUSINESS”, “NIAGARA”, released or broadcast. “RIVER OF NO RETURN” and “LETS MAKE LOVE” have also been provided on The image on the DVD is sharper and the DVD. A still gallery closes out the better defined than I have ever seen. Of DVD’s extras. ” course, the clarity of the transfer brings out the significant deficiencies in the film rear screen projection and optical effects work. Digitally Obsessed.com website review: Colours are a little inconsistent, but most of the time they give a good idea what an “ "I ransacked the town and there isn't a original IB Technicolor print of “RIVER OF horse to be had for the crown jewels. But I NO RETURN” might have looked like. got another idea. We can buy a raft and go Blacks appear accurate, contrast is pretty to Council City on the river. You got any smooth and the level of shadow detail is money?" – Matt Weston (Rory Calhoun) more than respectable for a film from 1954. The restored film element used for Run Time: 01h:30m:51s the transfer appears free from age related Release Date: May 14, 2002 blemishes, but there is a noticeable UPC: 024543035206 amount of film grain throughout most of Genre: western the presentation. The cleanly authored DVD doesn’t display any noticeable signs Set in Northwest Canadian Indian of digital compression artefacts. Territory, “RIVER OF NO RETURN” is an adventure tale of the gold rush days. “RIVER OF NO RETURN” is presented Photographed in Technicolor and with a Dolby Digital 4.0 soundtrack that is CinemaScope, the film was designed to representative of the film’s original sound exploit the splendours of the mountains, mix. This is that big, wide, exaggerated trees, rapid rivers and Marilyn Monroe, fifties stereo, designed for the cavernous who was riding the crest of several movie palaces of yore and to complement successful films. It is really the people that super wide CinemaScope framing.