Otto Preminger directs Robert Mitchum, Marilyn Monroe and Tommy Rettig in this western romance where a farmer with a past, his estranged son and a showgirl raft along a dangerous river in chase of the cad who put our hero’s life at risk. 

A bright and incident filled adventure that gets by on the blunt force trauma sexiness of its stellar leads. Preminger is a director whose catalogue is issue fuelled, this feels lighter. A character piece about retribution and forgiveness that finds more room for dynamic entertainment than didacticism.

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