Marilyn Connects

From Fritz Lang's "Clash By Night", 1952.

Water Hazard

More from Otto Preminger's "River of No Return"

The indians swim through rapids toward the raft intent on killing the heroes.

 

Mitchum dispatches one but the other manages to board the raft and appears to lunge for Monroe's throat.

 

A moment later we see that it was not her throat he was after but her blouse, which he rips off.  It seems that once aboard the raft--or perhaps all along--his thoughts turn to rape.  So single minded is he that he fails to make even the most rudimentary attempt to prevent Mitchum from hurling him into the water.

Preminger demonstrates both the Indian's sub-human savagery and Marilyn Monroe's cleavage.

Fire in "River of No Return"

In "River of No Return" Otto Preminger uses another dissolve as a foreshadowing device.   By this point in the film there has been nothing but animosity between the two leads.

After a brief dip in the rapids, Marilyn Monroe must be relieved of her wet clothes and wrapped in a blanket.  Robert Mitchum aids circulation in her calves.

The intimacy of the moment sets something stirring between them.  Something hot.

Monroe's come-hither gaze, Mitchum's tender (actually rather claw-like) caress: the flames of passion are fully ignited.

Unmistakably a fire.