I find this woman fascinating so I’ve decided to work my way through as many films of hers that I can find. I’ve seen a few already but I want a better idea of how she evolved in her short time as the biggest movie star on the planet. I’m staring with Niagara and How to Marry a Millionaire.
Suggestions for others I should seek out especially are welcome 🙏
I've not yet seen Niagara but How to Marry a Millionaire is a great movie, I'm surprised you missed out Gentlemen Prefer Blondes though it’s a similar kind of film to Millionaire, I watched that one before Millionaire. She's charming in The Prince and the Showgirl, lovely in Some Like It Hot and gorgeous in The Seven Year Itch too!
River of No Return with Robert Mitchum is also good.
If you use OK.RU, you can find most of her films there!
I haven’t really skipped anything mate, I’m just going for whatever I can find at this point. My Mum has ..Millionaire on DVD so I’ve borrowed that from her and I found Niagara at the 2nd hand DVD shop I go to for $2.
The ones I’ve already seen are All About Eve, Some Like it Hot, Bus Stop, Don’t Bother to Knock (years ago, I think I’ll rematch that) and The Misfits which so far is head and shoulders the best performance I’ve seen from MM. Tragic it was her last completed performance it hints of much greater things that could have come 😢
Of course I’ve also seen her iconic, Madonna-copied performance of Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend from GPB but not the film itself. Looking forward to that.
Thanks for the streaming tip too, much appreciated Rio.
First up
Niagara (1953)
A far more interesting film than I was expecting. A Technicolor noir pastiche that still feels unique enough to stand on its own merits. There are a few. The falls are a constant backdrop and as far as backgrounds go it’s an effortlessly spectacular one. The story seriously lags for the first three quarters, which is a damn shame because with a few simple edits the pacing issues would be gone. When it shifts gear in the final act it’s top-shelf noir. The cinematography and use of shadows in the penultimate bell tower scene is as good as any of the noir classics.
Monroe commands your attention but the performance only really becomes anything more than the breathy, pouty showing you’d expect when she kicks into full femme fatale half way into the movie. There’s a great scene where she is laughing on the bed with her husband which is one of the most natural things I’ve seen from her. It’s an incongruous scene though, feels out of place in building the tension for an impending showdown between them. I totally understand why they kept it though. Joseph Cotton and Jean Peters are both excellent and manage to compliment Marilyn’s magnetism with performances sympathetic to her inexperience at the time.
3.5/5