MovieChat Forums > River of No Return (1954) Discussion > Sound, Guitar and Piano

Sound, Guitar and Piano

posted 17 years ago by jonesus
5 replies | jump to latest

I always enjoy "River of No Return". I have never heard a stereo version. IMDB says it was in 4 track 35mm magnetic. I have seen it in the cinema many, many years ago, and have seen it on TV/DVD but always in mono. I guess the magnetic recordings must have got lost. Pity as the haunting background music would be nice in stereo.
I do think it was MM playing the guitar.
There is another scene near the end of the film where MM goes into a bar and the pianist is playing in the background. The whole scene is one long shot, and you can see the piano players hands apparently in sync with the tune. I wonder if this was really the piano and not dubbed later, and that's why it is on one continuous shot.

[–] greenpen33 17 years ago

Yes I just watched this movie and it was really good. It would be very fun to hear it as a radio show

Jennie

[–] BobDaviesML 17 years ago

I have the stereo DVD (region 2) and it is very atmospheric. great separation of sound. I listen a lot through headphones, which helps.

Bob

[–] pjwoodall1 16 years ago

Anybody ever notice John Doucette in that scene. He's the bald guy with the moustache who objcts to Mitchum taking Monroe away. Very ubiquitous character actor, sort of Bob Wile with a sense of humor.

I read years ago, whenever Ed Platt would blow his lines on GET SMART, they would threaten to replace him with Douctette. I think he played a similar role on Don Adams' next series.

[–] Dog112 14 years ago

I streamed it on Netflix. In a scene where Mitchum and Monroe were talking, Mitchum's voice came from my center speaker and Monroe's came from my right.

I have to disagree on the guitar playing. She does not press on the frets hard enough to allow the strings to sustain vibration, and she strums the strings so lightly that the sound could only be heard a few feet away in a quiet room.
.

[–] DavidStHubbinsUSA 14 years ago

I'm a recording guitar player and watched her play. I always watch carefully whenever there is a string performance in a movie by an actor. As is normal the songs were dubbed in from a studio recording, normal for those days. While because of the clean strumming and chording I doubt she played the actual music but she definitely was taught and practiced the simple strumming and fingering for at least the song she sang at the camp.

I was impressed with her exact low E bass line and strum including top percussion, they were near perfect most of the time. Her chording however was not correct. It's clear she practiced the song because she did finger her c and g chords right but during the shoot she would go from at times chording correctly and then forget to change chords.

I do believe she practiced at least that song quite a lot as she was relaxed and comfortable with her thumb draw bass line, full strum and left hand fingering looked natural which takes some playing. It doesn't look relaxed until after a lot of practice. She really did take her acting seriously. I'm sure she brought in a teacher for realism.

It was a simple 3 chord song that she didn't play in the recording or the sync for the movie but I fully believe that alone she could play that song. Her stage performance was a mess so I don't need to go there but she didn't know that one as well if at all but she was in front of more people and dancing so there was almost no left hand movement except up the board once which was a complete fake. She did better than most actors do though.