Marilyn Monroe: 10 Movies From Playboy's #1 Sex Star of the 20th Century
Sep 13 '02
The Bottom Line Hope you'll enjoy these as much as I do!
Many actresses have tried to recapture the sweet incandescence of Norma Jean Mortensen Baker, better known as Marilyn Monroe, and have indubitably failed. Her trademark breathy voice may annoy some people, but to me it seemed perfectly natural and disarming. Can you conjure up Marilyn with any other voice? If I could find her very first film, Dangerous Years, from the mid forties, no doubt she would sound as charming!
I’ve been a fan of hers over the years, delighting in her screwball comedies as well as thrillers and romances. She possessed innate comic timing, expressed a vibrancy of emotion and impressed critics and moviegoers alike. Her purred songs were part of her mystique in much of them, but like in Elvis Presley’s twenty-nine movies, many songs were forgettable, also, as well as numerous lackluster movies among the thirty she appeared and then starred in. I will share with you ten that she excelled in to highly recommend for your viewing pleasure. First, though I hope you will enjoy these examples of Marilyn quotes found at imdb.com as much as I do.
My illusions didn’t have anything to do with being a fine actress. I know how third rate I am. I could actually feel my lack of talent, as if it were cheap clothes I was wearing inside. But my God, how I wanted to learn, to change, to improve!
I want to be an artist…not an erotic freak. I don’t want to be sold to the public as a celluloid aphrosidical.
In order of when they were released...
1. Don’t Bother To Knock (1952) Roy Ward Baker, director. Marilyn seems inspired by her own childhood trauma to effectively portray a nutcase thinking her dead husband lives and lonely Richard Widmark must be him. Spooky, suspenseful sometimes, it proved that Marilyn was much more than a sex pot.
2. Monkey Business (1952) Howard Hawks, director. Cary Grant and Ginger Rogers pull off this very, very silly movie with ingénue Marilyn fitting right in. Cary’s initially brusque character creates a youth elixir that transforms a chimp, him and his wife (Rogers) into unforgettable, childish fools.
3. Niagara (1953) Henry Hathaway, director. Joseph Cotton co-stars with Marilyn as a married couple in a Hitchcock-like thriller set around Niagara Falls. Marilyn plots with her lover to kill her husband, but it doesn’t turn out to be so easy!
4. Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953) Howard Hawks, director. Jane Russell brilliantly helps to showcase Marilyn’s blossoming talent and glamour as they search for the perfect husband. Lots of chemistry and witticism to enjoy.
5. River of No Return (1954) Otto Preminger, director. Robert Mitchum, as rugged and deadly as the Canadian savage territory of the movie, hooks up with the skittish vulnerability of Marilyn for an intriguing romantic adventure.
6. Seven Year Itch (1955) Billy Wilder, director. Tom Ewell, never before seen by me, but perfect for his role of a fantasizing middle-aged man whose family takes a summer trip without him and he meets Marilyn, his coquettish, beautiful neighbor. Nothing but old-fashioned flirting to tease our heartstrings!
7. Bus Stop (1956) Joshua Logan, director. Don Murray as a rodeo cowboy and greenhorn around women like the café singer thoughtfully played by Marilyn. He decides she is his angel and must marry him, then learns how to listen and love.
8. The Prince and the Showgirl (1957) Laurence Olivier, director. Filmed in London, Marilyn is a delightfully candid showgirl in a play the less enchanting Prince (Olivier) attends. He meets her backstage and soon they are getting to know each other and themselves better. Opposites attract here, it would seem.
9. Some Like It Hot (1959) Billy Wilder, director. Screwball comedy with Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis pretending to be women so they can get a job with a “girl” band. Marilyn as the playful, boozy singer and cast are over the top!
10. The Misfits (1961) John Huston, director. Clark Gable and Marilyn in their last roles. Marilyn’s soon-to-be ex-husband Arthur Miller (Death of a Salesman) wrote the psychologically insightful script where Marilyn’s lost child persona and Clark Gable and Montgomery Clift’s similar lostness in the rodeo cowboy circuit makes for one of the most disturbing, but memorable movies I’ve seen.
Thanks for reading! I could have babbled on much longer about how spectacular these movies and Marilyn look, but I hope these sketches have paid a small tribute to the irresistible, undying glory that is Marilyn Monroe.
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Member: Jan Peregrine
Location: Lincoln, NE
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