There is a lot of talk that Marilyn was a comic actress but also wanted to be recognized as a dramatic actress. But this movie was a western and not a comedy so it seems to me that this was early enough in her career that she had already proven that she could perform drama.
I mean we never hear of Claire Trevor as being only a comic actress, just as an actress, so why does Marliyn get the put-down?
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Sounds like arguing politics. She worked herself into a frazzle to be thought of as a dramatic actress when she had already proven that she could.
Years ago a saw bits and pieces of a movie where Shirley MacClaine played a Lucille Ball-esque (or so I thought) comedienne, whose director husband refused to consider her for a dramatic role and she implored him to reconsider become comedy was harder than drama, and that the dramatic actresses couldn't do comedy.
Maybe in hindsight Shirley's character could have been a Marilyn-esque actress as well.
I would think that part of the problem was that Marilyn made it look so easy that critics didn't think that she was really acting.
It would seem that Marilyn's attempt to "prove" herself as a dramatic actress would have been more to expose the stupidity of those that thinks that she couldn't as it would be for her to stretch her talents.
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Case in point;
From the Trivia Page of Judy Holiday:
"Despite her image of a "dumb blond", she was actually very smart. Her I.Q was measured at 172. She often said that it took a lot of smarts to convince people that her characters were stupid."
Note: Unlike Marilyn, she won an Oscar playing a dumb blond, but she had also originated the role on Broadway. Not being a outright movie star, she might have lost the role in the film version, if Katherine Hepburn had not pushed hard for her to get the role.
Well, "River" is very entertaining movie, and Miss Monroe is at her absolute peak of young, womanly beauty. There is just something unusually attractive about her here--incredible bone structure! BUT, hard as she tries, she is still in the grip of Natasha Lytess, who convinced her to over-enunciate. That was okay--even appropriate in "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes"--you imagine social climber Lorelei would speak like that. But it screwed up a lot of dramatic attempts, as "River" is a prime example. She is natural (and tough!) in some scenes, riotously affected in others ("He didn't treat me like a tramp. He treated me like wo-man!") It's frustrating, because it IS a variation on the dizzy blondes, and it's a pity Lytess had to be around, making her talk like a Martian.
The Strasbergs relaxed her speaking, but were vampires just like Natasha. They didn't really help her, only themselves--to her money, her fame.
i read somewhere i cant remember but during the initial screening of Niagara people laughed at her performance.
The only Abnormality is the incapacity to love
That's remarkable scarletto. I love her acting as a 'bad' woman, as a sort of sociopath, in Niagara. But then I'm not objective, because I love her in everything. It all becomes a blur after a while...Bus Stop, The Seven Year Itch, The Misfits, even All About Eve.
"Did you make coffee...? Make it!"--Cheyenne.