MM apparently refered to this film as a Z Grade cowboy movie (somewhat of an insult to mitchum) i thought she was very good in it and the movie is a very entertaining 90 minutes.
I also was amused when, in the scene where Calhoun steals the horse, the backdrop could be seen waving in the breeze
maybe she didn't like it because I heard it didn't go too well with the critics. but whatever it was beautiful!!
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i heard that she did not break her leg but faked it because she was sick of Otto's bullying or was having issues with Fox. Apparently the doctors referred to it as "possibly a sprain"
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She also had to do most of her stunts and almost drowned.
Wow, that must have been tough.
If she had really broken her leg the filming would have been delayed for months. Alas it was not. I am sure she had bad memories of the filming due to the jealousy of Joe Dimaggio and the in-fighting with Otto. It does not sound like she had much fun during the filming. Add all that to doing her own stunts and almost drowning-you have your answer.
http://www.tcm.com/mediaroom/index.jsp?cid=186977
The Truth is out there.
And yet with all that strife and unhappiness, she still managed to give a spectacular performance. As a viewer, one would never have known that she wasn't happy during the filming. She was that good and talented.
...why thank you ever so, I never buy insurance. - Lorelei Lee
Does anyone know if she got on well with Mitchum, was it luke warm professionalism or did they not like each other?
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Not toward her. Mitchum, like everybody else,hated MM's drama coach Natasha Lytess, who insisted on that over-enuciation which compromised MM's dramatic performances. Mitchum would slap MM on the ass before a take sometimes and say, "Come on, now, let's talk like a human being!"
Later, Monroe got rid of Natasha, and the affectation. Not that Natasha's replacement, Paula Strasberg, ended up doing MM an favors--just another leech.
It's also interesting to know that it was the first film where Marilyn actually had a handsome, virile leading man--not a geek like David Wayne!
shareShe had two of them. Rory Calhoun wasn't chopped liver. But Preminger didn't get much chemistry between either of the pairs. If he'd directed Monroe carefully and sympathetically, we could have had some lovely moments between her and all three men (including little Tommy Rettig).
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"How can we be safe if you're not torturing anybody?"
In the 1950's, it was considered something of a personal comedown for a major actress to be cast in a western as they were rarely prestigious pictures. Very few glamour girls wanted to do them. Then too, Marilyn was just beginning to want to be consider a "serious actress" and this movie, while very entertaining, it pretty much a programmer, something made just to fill the theaters and obligations without much thought to making a great film.
shareBUS STOP has a cowboy theme too. Well, an underlying theme if we think about it because it is a drama. Anyway...
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Life is very long when you're lonely.
BUS STOP though was a major play from a major playwright, any movie version would be a feather in the cap of the actress who got it. RIVER OF NO RETURN is basically something of a oversized "A" western programmer, a bigger budget film but similar to the sort of films competent but second-level movie stars like Virginia Mayo, Rhonda Fleming, and Yvonne DeCarlo did over and over in the 1950's so I can see Marilyn resenting being made to do it when she was the biggest female movie star at the time. It's still a pretty good film, however.
shareMarilyn was great in this film, and she has such a lovely singing voice.
The Divine Genealogy Goddess
She was dubbed.
shareNo, she was not dubbed. If you are a Marilyn fan, you would know that she always sang most of her songs in films.
The Divine Genealogy Goddess
That is an issue up for debate.
The Divine Genealogy Goddess
That was definitely her singing. She recorded it in the studio and they "dubbed" it over her performance, but it is her voice. There's no mistaking it.
shareShe felt forced into it. She didn't like the script. She eventually gave in--she had little choice at that point--because she liked the songs. The film's producer had wanted her for the movie for that very reason--he liked the way she sang! And, Mitchum was an old friend.
But Otto Preminger, hated Monroe almost instantly. He ridiculed her way of speaking (the over-enunciation she learned from Natasha Lytess, whom Preminger also loathed.) But MM was a trouper throughout the film and the cast and the rest of crew loved her.
And, it actually made money, despite its reputation as a "bomb."
Seen today, it's beautiful-looking film, and when Monroe manages to relax her diction, she's quite appealing as a tough cookie. It's certainly a change from the dim blonde roles Fox preferred. And one might argue that the studio WAS attempting to expand her image, no matter what MM thought.
I like the movie, but her reasons for not liking it were pretty understandable.
You want something corny? You got it!
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