Titreenp SERIOUSLY. This is what the crap Hollywood still puts out?

MamaGravity good back-story, and good acting

Curapedi I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

Quiet Muffin This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.

billcr12 Robert Mitchum was teamed with Marilyn Monroe for this star driven vehicle. Bob is fine, but Ms. Monroe plays to the camera with a breathy, pouting demeanor which is annoying to the point of distraction. She sings a few tunes at a saloon while the patrons swoon over her. Her fiancé is the 40's b actor Rory Calhoun. The only thing I ever saw him in was a horror-comedy from 1980, Motel Hell. He steals Mitchum's horse and rifle on his journey to claim a gold find. The two stars spend most of the movie on a river with dangerous rapids. Mitchum has a nine year-old son with him to add to the intrigue and bring out Monroe's maternal instincts. It does not work on any level. Avoid MM's horrible affectations and look instead for several of Mitchum's better work, such as Cape Fear, Night of the Hunter, and Out of The Past.

hhg2 I came across this oldie recently and was excited by the cast (early Monroe and Mitchum) and was even more pleasantly surprised to see that it was directed by Otto Preminger. However, that excitement did not last long. The plot was so amateurish and bad that it defies logic and description. That is a lot to overcome. I do add a star or two in my rating because of the cinematography and because watching Monroe sing her three or four songs was interesting. Given the plot/dialogue's limitations, Monroe's performance was quite good and presaged a future star. Mitchum played the moody, brooding loner quite well--as always.Only for film historians and die-hard movie buffs.

Vilan Trub There are westerns and then there is River of No Return. We have seen black listed characters, reformed cons and courtesans, and those from the outer fringes of a western frontier on screen before. It isn't until River of No Return,however, that we see characters that we can truly believe have been to prison, shaved with cold water, or any for that matter, and have made money selling nothing but themselves. Robert Mitchum and Marilyn Monroe bring a reality to the underworld of a time gone past that John Wayne could never hope to imagine. This is not to say that Stagecoach isn't a masterpiece, it's just a declarative statement that with Otto Preminger's 1954 throwaway we truly have a diamond in the rough.The movie opens with Robert Mitchum's character, Matt Calder, roaming through a Dodge City'esq village trying to locate his son. He is an ex-con and makes it very clear that his only goal is to peacefully raise his kin. With these first shots, Otto Preminger creates an environment we immediately believe to be riddled with scum and trash. Calder appears as a master navigator of this ocean, one with genuine and admirable intent, and the audience is invited to put down their popcorn and enjoy the ride. The movie offers everything one would want out of the western genre (actually filmed in Canada). It's intense and gritty and we get to take a peek into a side of life we only dare take with a life preserver around our waist. We then hear a voice and get to lay our eyes on Kay Weston, played by Marilyn Monroe. It appears as though she's been waiting at that saloon for years before a camera crew happened to stop by and film a Hollywood production. It is Kay's boyfriend who robs Matt Calder forcing the group to travel down the river in search of the stolen property. The first act carries through naturally and beautifully and before you know it you're watching what has already become one of your favorite movies. Then some stuff happens.The movie has sequences, especially those taking place on the river, that are beyond dated. The effects are difficult to watch without laughing and the fights appear to be choreographed by Jack Horner (the director from Boogie Nights). The reason why these sections of the picture are so difficult to watch is because they are always sandwiched by some of the most beautiful and poetic filmmaking the screen has ever seen. Where John Wayne's character in Stagecoach is from the beginning an advocate of the prostitute he is traveling with, Matt Calder looks down upon his travel-mate. The developing sentiment between them is troubled but invited, it is interesting and feels like something we're more familiar with from a 1970's anti-western. The duo, along with Calder's son, arrive at the town of the final showdown. What happens is unexpected and reminds the audience that they are not just watching another movie.In all the movie is uneven but beautiful. What could have been a masterpiece was instead left to rot, evident from the apathy the director must have had for his material. What the viewer must remember is to enjoy what is right about the movie and to accept the faults for what they are. In the end River of No Return will be a rewarding adventure and introduce a new generation to just how cool Robert Mitchum really was. A coolness that could still be used in cinema today. As for Marilyn Monroe, she does what she's unfairly forced to do with every picture she participated in, proves she can act.

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.