Details

Release year: 1954

Storyline

The titular river unites a farmer recently released from prison, his young son and an ambitious saloon singer. In order to survive, each must be purged of anger, and each must learn to understand and care for the others.

Top credits

Directors

Writers

Cast

Robert Mitchum — Matt Calder
Marilyn Monroe — Kay Weston
Rory Calhoun — Harry Weston
Tommy Rettig — Mark Calder

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Did you know

• Both Otto Preminger and Marilyn Monroe were forced to do the film against their will due to contractual obligations. They both expressed their frustration over the script, which they considered below par. However, the film was a box office hit upon its release and remains a popular classic western.

• While most of the cast and crew went to lunch, Marilyn Monroe preferred to go underneath the set, between all the pillars and dust, to find Bandit the raccoon. She would put him in her lap, pet him, and talk to his owner Ralph Helfer about animals and horses.

• During post-production, Otto Preminger departed for Europe, leaving editor Louis R. Loeffler and Stanley Rubin to complete the film. Jean Negulesco was called in to film a few retakes. The dailies reconfirmed Rubin's belief that Preminger had been the wrong choice for the project. He felt the director had failed to capture the Western aura, had ignored key elements in the plot, and had badly directed action sequences, leaving them looking staged and static. In several cases, studio and location shots didn't match.