6.8 | / 10 |
Users | 3.9 | |
Reviewer | 3.5 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
After his wife dies, Matt Calder (Robert Mitchum) and his young son begin a new life in the breathtaking, rugged Northwest wilderness, where Calder is robbed and beaten by ruthless gambler Harry Weston (Rory Calhoun). When Weston's beautiful fiancée (Marilyn Monroe) then decides to nurse Calder back to health. Calder, to save the kid, MM and himself from an attack and catch up with Weston, takes them all on a ride down a treacherous river in this spectacular looking Western.
Starring: Robert Mitchum, Marilyn Monroe, Rory Calhoun (I), Douglas Spencer (I), Tommy RettigWestern | 100% |
Adventure | Insignificant |
Action | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 2.56:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.55:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (48kHz, 24-bit)
English: Dolby Digital 4.0
French: DTS 5.1
German: DTS 5.1
Italian: Dolby Digital 2.0
Japanese: DTS 5.1
Russian: DTS 5.1
Spanish: Dolby Digital Mono
Spanish: Dolby Digital Mono (Spain)
Thai: Dolby Digital 2.0
Japanese only available on Japanese menu settings
English SDH, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese, Spanish, Bulgarian, Cantonese, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, Greek, Korean, Mandarin (Simplified), Mandarin (Traditional), Norwegian, Russian, Swedish, Thai
50GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region free
Movie | 3.5 | |
Video | 4.0 | |
Audio | 4.0 | |
Extras | 0.5 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
She was the innocent girl next door and a va-va-voom sex symbol. A "dumb" blond anxious to be taken seriously. The archetypal exploited
starlet, a shrewd showbiz negotiator, and an on-top-of-the-world performer with a personal life in shambles. A flame snuffed out too soon and a 20th
century pop culture icon forever immortalized on the screen. Marilyn Monroe was and is a glorious contradiction, and the enigma of her life, career, and
death has inspired an ongoing stream of biographies and photobooks, critical commentary and general interest. As this year is the 50th anniversary of
Monroe's probable suicide, the tributes have been coming in at an even faster pace, from Vanity Fair covers to NBC's Smash to the
recent My Week with Marilyn.
20th Century Fox is getting in on the action with the Forever Marilyn collection, a seven-disc set that features a selection of films made
between 1952 and 1962, the decade that took Monroe from a pretty up-and-coming face to the most recognized and highly paid actress on the planet.
The films are also available individually—Some Like It Hot and The Misfits came out last year, the rest arrive simultaneously this week
—and since the set includes no exclusive special features, it's really up to fans if they want to go all in or pick and choose which titles they want.
(Unsurprisingly, you save a bit of cash with the boxed set.) Instead of writing up a single, epically long review of the Forever Marilyn collection
as a whole, we've put up a sort of overview here
of the packaging and contents, with links to these individual reviews.
Filmed in ultra-wide Cinemascope, River of No Return was another bid by Fox to lure television-addled audiences back into theaters for a widescreen spectacle unavailable at home. Between the gorgeous Canadian Rockies scenery and the appeal of Marilyn Monroe at the peak of her career, the film does have a lot going for it visually, and continues to do so with 20th Century Fox's new high definition remaster. River's 1080p/AVC- encoded transfer is beautiful—and faithful to source—from start to finish. The print is in terrific condition, with only a few blink-and-you'll-miss-'em white specks, and the integrity of the 35mm image is unspoiled by digital noise reduction, wanton edge enhancement, or compression issues. Though not sharp by today's standards, River's level of clarity is generally excellent, with fine detail visible in Robert Mitchum's craggy face and the textures of Monroe's western-burlesque outfits. It's certainly an immediate improvement over the previously released DVD. You'll notice a Technicolor credit in the titles, but the film was only printed using the dye-transfer technique; it was shot on a monopack Eastmancolor negative stock, not the bulky three-strip process of true Technicolor. Still, while not as vibrant as, say, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, the palette here makes for a mix of Wild West realism and dreamy nostalgia for a bygone era. You'll notice some slight color/brightness/grain fluctuations during scene changes—this is to be expected—but otherwise the transfer is consistent, with great contrast and a very dimensional picture.
The film's original 4-channel stereophonic sound has been broadened out slightly into today's standard DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround mix. Rear channel output is limited, however, to quiet river rapid ambience during two of the rafting sequences, as well as providing a bit of extra space for the score during one particular music cue. Otherwise, this is an exclusively front-and-center experience. Clarity-wise, the mix is excellent; Marilyn's guitar strumming and vocal cooing sound lovely, Cyril J. Mockridge's propulsive orchestral score has a decent amount of depth for its time, and the occasional effects have as much oomph as they need. The lone audio anomaly I noticed was that some of the voices peak a bit during the hectic Indian chase scene —no big deal. The rest of the dialogue throughout is clear, cleanly recorded, and easily understood. The disc includes a Dolby Digital 4.0 track for comparison, along with a rather overwhelming selection of dub and subtitle options.
Not Otto Preminger's best, and not Marilyn's either—she later recalled it, somewhat unfairly, as one of her worst films—River of No Return is nonetheless an enjoyable western adventure that glories in Rocky Mountain scenery and the romantic frisson of its two leads. If nothing else, it's worth watching for Marilyn's sultry, wink-wink musical numbers, like when she sings "I've got a fever, oooh the fever, but not for gold in the ground." 20th Century Fox's Blu-ray release is gorgeous—doing justice to the film's Cinemascope cinematography—and through the disc is devoid of new extras, fans of the film will find it worth the upgrade for the 1080p picture quality alone. Recommended!
1961
1954
1953
1955
1939
1930
1953
Warner Archive Collection
1950
1940
Signature Edition
1950
1977
1994
1948
Limited Edition to 3000
1966
1948
1942
1968
Fox Studio Classics
1935
1993
1954