Admirable film.

Absolutely Fantastic

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

This may have been Marilyn Monroe's least favorite film she starred in, but it's my favorite of her films I've seen. I think that's because, like Gable's "Call of the Wild", and "The Tall Men", there is a single man, who finds a beautiful woman(married or not) out in the middle of a wilderness, and spends the rest of the film trying to convince her that their chance adventure together was for a cosmic purpose..... It begins with Robert Mitchum, as Matt Caldor, returning to the area of northern Idaho where he was before he spent 6 years in a penitentiary for shooting a man who was about to shoot his friend. As it happened, he had to shoot the man in the back, something Matt's half grown son: Mark(Tommy Rettig) found repulsive. The great irony of the film is that near the end, Mark finds himself in the same situation, when Marilyn(Kay)'s former boyfriend (Rory Calhoun, as Harry Weston) is about to shoot Matt, who doesn't have a gun. Mark uses a store-displayed rifle(why would such a rifle be loaded??)......Matt was introduced to both Mark and Kate when he arrived at a mining camp near his homestead, after his 6 year absence. Kay was an entertainer for the rowdy miners, and had picked up Weston as a boyfriend. He won a gold mining claim in a gambling game, and wanted to register it at the far off town, down river. He foolishly decided to raft down the known dangerous river, rather than taking a horse trail. Kay went with him. They got into trouble, as they passed Matt's farm, and Matt had to rescue them. Kay sang a number of songs, some as she strummed on her guitar on the trail. The best song is the title song, sung several times, at the beginning, and near the end, when Kay sang her version in a saloon.. These can be heard at YouTube. All the songs were composed by the team of Lionel Newman and Ken Darby. In addition, the traditional "Red River Valley" was heard in the mining camp.......There are some legitimate gripes by others.. Yes, there were too many closeups of the struggles on the raft in the rapids that were obviously studio shots in front of a back projection screen. Instead of a romantic hug and hard kiss, we only get Matt's dramatic forced kiss and rape attempt. This didn't seem to shake up Kay too bad, and at the end, she submitted to Matt's carrying her out of the saloon, and onto his buckboard, with the implication that she would live with him on his farm, even with dangerous Indians around......Matt's original motivation for taking the dangerous river route was 2 fold.:1)To flee from the Indians ,who burned his house, and 2) To get even with Weston for stealing his rifle and horse and leaving him knocked senseless.. In part, he was accomplishing that by stealing his woman. Kay's original motivation for staying with Matt, rather than going with Weston, was that she figured the injured Matt would need some help for a while, and Weston promised to return after he filed his claim. When the 3 reached the claims town, they found Weston busy at his favorite occupation: gambling, suggesting he wasn't planning on returning. I've already told the rest....The outdoor shoots were done mostly in and around Canada's national parks in the Rockies. Apparently, there were also some shots on Idaho's Salmon River, which is sometimes described as 'The river of no return'. Despite it's shortcomings, I didn't lose my interest at any point. Marilyn is often seen in revealing tops, and Mitchum is hunky enough to keep the women interested. The story is relatively simple, with only a few significant characters.

WOW, no wonder Marilyn Monroe is a timeless Icon, what beauty, what class what charm and what a soulful voice, she could of been just a great singer, she did it all.... And I don't know to what extent her guitar playing was but if sure looks to me like she was playing the guitar, could of been open tuning.... Norma Jeane, timeless vibrations you gave us Dear, Thru ages-never another talent will be your peer....... You left us lovely Goddess way to soon, see you act and dance, feel your soul croon... Yes it came thru on the silver screen, millions of devoted fans on your divine feminine team. Too soon you left us, our tears testify, Jolton Joe Knew and loved my oh my... Yes our 1st lady of sexual flame, burned out to fast, it was them who were to blame............ We all love you Marilyn

So who sings the song behind the titles? No one is credited on screen. The producer paid Tennessee Ernie Ford to record the song, and he did include it on some of his albums. But to me, the singer seems to be Robert Mitchum himself. I'm very familiar with Ernie Ford--a big favorite of mine, in fact--and the voice simply does not sound like Ford's. But it does sound like Mitchum, who took stabs at singing several times in his life, recorded at least two full albums (one all calypso!) Did he make a side deal with Ernie Ford and the orchestra, and record the song for this movie? The producer still claims it was Ford, but it sure doesn't SOUND like him.

Average western which again proved that Marilyn Monroe could not act. Here, she attempted to strum on a guitar, as a dance hall queen in love with gold prospector Rory Calhoun. Coming off his successful airplane pilot two years before in the smash-hit, "With A Song in My Heart," Calhoun, as the evil person here, comes off rather calmly.Robert Mitchum, as the jailed man, who picks up his son in a camp where Monroe is singing and Tommy Rettig, of television's "Lassie Fame," steal the film here.Rettig learns that his father was jailed when he shot someone in the back. Ironically, he will learn that cruel lesson once again at picture's end. Exploring the relationship that develops while rafting with Mitchum and Monroe forms the basis of the film. It's only partially successful at best.