Robert Mitchum with Marilyn Monroe in River of No Return (1954)
Vitals
Robert Mitchum as Matt Calder, taciturn farmer, widowed father, and convicted back-shooter
Pacific Northwest, Summer 1875
Film: River of No Return
Release Date: April 30, 1954
Director: Otto Preminger
Costume Designer: Travilla
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
The first week of August would contain major milestones in the lives of Robert Mitchum and Marilyn Monroe, two of the biggest stars of the ’50s, as Mitchum was born August 6, 1917, and Monroe died August 4, 1962. Mitchum and Monroe shared the screen just once, as the leads in Otto Preminger’s western River of No Return.
Released 70 years ago at the end of April 1954, River of No Return was a refreshingly small-scaled, personal, and generally non-violent story in contrast to the classic westerns associated with John Wayne and John Ford at the time. Indeed, Frank Fenton’s screenplay was adapted from a story by Louis Lantz that had itself been inspired by the 1948 Italian film Bicycle Thieves. Most was filmed on location in Calgary through the summer of 1953, followed by studio shots in L.A. and long shots in Idaho, where the Salmon River doubled for the eponymous waterway.
Mitchum stars as Matt Calder, a widower recently released from prison who seeks his virtually unknown nine-year-old son Mark (Tommy Rettig) who had been left in them care of saloon singer Kay Weston (Marilyn Monroe) in a rowdy northwestern boomtown. After the reunited father and son save Kay and her fiancé Harry (Rory Calhoun) from the dangerous rapids near their homestead, Harry attacks Matt and absconds with his horse while Kay remains with the Calders.
Eventually, Matt, Kay, and Mark take Harry’s log craft to embark on a journey down the treacherous river to confront Harry in Council City. “The Indians call it the River of No Return,” Matt explains to Kay and Mark. “From here on, you’ll find out why.”
What’d He Wear?
William Travilla designed the costumes for River of No Return, continuing a collaboration with Marilyn Monroe that began two years earlier with Don’t Bother to Knock (1952) and would include her iconic looks in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953) and How to Marry a Millionaire (1953) through The Seven Year Itch (1955), and Bus Stop (1956). Thus, most of the costume effort likely—and understandably—went into dressing Monroe in her colorful saloon dresses to the anachronistic jeans she fills out like no one else could, resulting in Robert Mitchum spending most of the film dressed in a surprisingly timeless shirt, trousers, and jacket that keep him looking relatively contemporary to both 1950s audiences and even modern viewers today.
Mitchum’s Matt Calder frequently pulls on a taupe-brown sueded leather barn coat, aged and distressed to show years of hard wear and which he lends to Kay to wear—with a rope tied around her waist—as they approach Council City. Lined in a light-tan leather, the jacket has a one-piece collar, toggle-button front, two large open-top hip pockets, and set-in sleeves with plain cuffs.
Throughout the adventure, Matt wears a slate-blue mini-checked shirt detailed with a narrow point collar, wide button-up front placket, and button cuffs. While this type of shirt wasn’t unheard of in the 1870s, it’s more contemporary to the film’s production than its setting, when men like Matt may have been more prone to wearing “popover shirts” with plackets that did not extend the full length of a shirt’s front.
Matt’s light slate-blue flat-front trousers coordinate to his shirt and rise high to Mitchum’s natural waist, where he holds them up with a wide belt of smooth black leather. Like his button-up shirt, trousers with belt loops existed to a limited extent in the 1870s but they wouldn’t become widely standardized until a half-century later, as Levi’s didn’t event start adding belt loops to their denim jeans until 1922. Matt’s belt closes through a tall rectangular brass-toned single-prong buckle. He keeps his knife sheathed in a light-brown leather scabbard looped over the right side of his belt.
I don’t think anyone was making women’s jeans like that in 1875, but—based on how Marilyn looks in them—I don’t think anyone’s complaining, either.
The trousers are styled with slanted front pockets but no back pockets. The bottoms are likely plain-hemmed and tucked into the calf-high shafts of his smooth black leather riding boots. On each side of the shaft, the boots have short white, red, and, blue-striped pull tabs.
Like any self-respecting western movie hero, Matt completes his outfit with a cowboy hat. Crafted from a light-brown felt with a matching narrow grosgrain band, the hat has a round “telescope”-style crown and curved brim, curled around the edge.
The Gun
“I can hit anything you see,” Matt assures his son Mark when demonstrating how to use the family’s repeating rifle. Though the lever-action design suggests a classic Winchester, the receiver and barrel are more aligned with the Marlin Model 1889.
Not developed until the late 1880s as its name implies, the Model 1889 is technically anachronistic for River of No Return‘s 1875 setting, though lever-action rifles like the Winchester Model 1873 were already abundant enough to earn their reputation as “the gun that won the west.”
Matt shows Mark how to handle and fire his Marlin Model 1889 rifle, which features an octagonal 24″-long barrel.
After nearly a decade producing Ballard rifles, derringers, and “pocket” revolvers, the Marlin Firearms Company was incorporated in 1881, the same year they introduced the top-ejector Model 1881 lever-action rifle designed to fire big-bore ammunition like .45-70 Government. Marlin continued evolving its rifles through the decade, including the Model 1888 and Model 1889, both designed by L.L. Hepburn and chambered for the Winchester Center Fire (WCF) family of .32-20, .38-40, and .44-40 cartridges, with the Model 1889 also chambered for .25-20 WCF.
Though the Model 1888 was a top-ejector like the Model 1881, the Model 1889 was Marlin’s first lever-action rifle to feature Winchester-style side ejection. Also distinguished by its flat solid steel top receiver intended to be safer in the event of hang-fire cartridges, the Model 1889 featured a blued steel finish, varnished walnut stock, and color case-hardened hammer, lever, and buttplate. The barrels were octagonal or rounded and ranged between 24″ and 32″ long with buckhorn rear and blade front sights.
More than 55,000 Model 1889 rifles were manufactured throughout the following decade, though relatively limited after Marlin introduced its popular Model 1893 and 1894 rifles. Marlin essentially ceased production of the Model 1889 by the early years of the 20th century.
How to Get the Look
Robert Mitchum in River of No Return (1954)
Aside from the cowboy hat and riding boots, which are best left existing in their context, Matt Calder’s brown suede coat over a mini-checked shirt and coordinated trousers remains a smart casual weekend look even when not navigating a dangerous river crossing.
- Taupe-brown suede barn coat with toggle-button front, open-top hip pockets, and plain cuffs
- Slate-blue mini-checked cotton shirt with narrow point collar, wide front placket, and button cuffs
- Light slate-blue flat-front trousers with belt loops, slanted front pockets, and plain-hemmed bottoms
- Black smooth leather belt with brass-toned rectangular single-prong buckle
- Light-brown leather knife scabbard
- Black leather calf-high riding boots
- Light-brown felt telescope-crowned cowboy hat with narrow light-brown grosgrain band
Do Yourself a Favor and…
Check out the movie.
The Quote
What does it matter how you kill a snake? What does it matter which way he’s facing?
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