Marilyn at Niagara Falls

For Marilyn 3.0, I think that discussing a movie in which she played a slighlty different role than usual is appropriate.

I would say this picture is less outrageously famous than the others, hence I will very slightly go into the plot. Niagara falls: two couple's lives meet up by chance, while on vacations by the Falls. One couple is just ordinary; the other one is going through some major crisis: Rose (Monroe) is too beautiful for her jelous husband (Cotten). Pink dresses, hints of mental desease, a young lover ready to do everything add up to a criminal climax.

This said, let's make one thing straight: I do not particularly like the movie. The story is straightforward and with no unexpected twists (not even in how so stupidly the characters act sometimes); the attractions is not even in the way the director takes you there: you know where you are going and you know how you are getting there. One overall positive note: you actually feel like you are at the falls and, sometimes, in the falls.

Moving on to the point, what about Marilyn in this movie? Well, many have said that this movie is proof that Monroe could also play in dramatic roles and could get out of her usual character. I don't doubt that she could, but I do not really see it from this movie in particular. First of all, she is barely on the screen at all (I am talking about actual minutes). Secondly, let's stop for a second and think about who Rose is: she is a woman who seems to be too beautiful to be happy, too wanting to ever be content, too much. It could be different than naive Sugar, sure, but isn't it not just Marilyn herself? Or at least the one in everyone's imaginarium?

I do not see this picture as a stand out point in her career; this does not mean I did not like her in it. She sure did play her part right: the scene were she sings sitting on the stair is just marvelous. Even if her actual minutes on screen are short, she is basically all I remember about the movie. And when she runs up the stairs of an empty building instead of trying to flee in any other way, I found myself thinking: you too Marilyn!?!

From what I have heard and read, Marilyn wanted to be a professional, a good actress, not a bimbo. In all the characters she has played where she interprets "the usual", I always thought she was a great actress. She is no less good in this picture, but I do not feel this movie proves a point, mostly because I don't think Marilyn had anything to prove.

Director: Henry Hathaway

Writers: Charles Brackett, Walter Reisch

Stars: Marilyn Monroe, Joseph Cotten and Jean Peters