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.

Noirism

Horizontal shadows, a hallmark of film noir, in two scenes from Otto Preminger's "Laura".

Here the blinds are down in broad daylight.  There are mini-blind shadows on the wall of the next room at a different angle, indicating a second light source--the sun plus one?

In this scene the artifice is so obvious it borders parody.  The shadows cover the entire rear wall virtually from floor to ceiling yet do not touch the actors.  The source of the light is to the left of the frame where, as we know from other shots of the room, there is a wall--the only windows are behind the camera's point of view.

Waldo Lydecker's Guilty Conscience

From Otto Preminger's "Laura"

In one of the subtler clues in the murder case, Waldo Lydecker appears to be pursued by a man dressed in black during a dissolve.

Blind Justice

From Otto Preminger's "Laura".

Throughout his investigation into Laura's murder, Detective Marc McPherson is frequently shown with his eyes in shadow, suggesting impartiality.

"Lustitia" -- Hans Gieng, 1543

The earliest know representation of blind justice.