Turner Classic Movies (US) are showing a ‘Battle of the Blondes’ season this month, including two Monroe movies - Niagara and Some Like it Hot.
TCM’s review of Niagara is particularly interesting:
“To make strong impressions in this setting, the human stars have their work cut out for them. The one who succeeds best is, not surprisingly, Marilyn Monroe as the wicked wife, who riles her husband by wearing lusciously colored low-cut dresses, and tantalizes the audience by showering behind a translucent curtain and playing peek-a-boo with her curvaceous body behind towels and sheets. These hijinks aside, Monroe gives a nicely controlled performance, blending the sultry and the sinister without upstaging or eclipsing her costars… an overhead shot of Monroe lying supine in the carillon tower, framed by silent bells hanging above, has a canted perspective worthy of a Salvador Dalí dreamscape. These are only a couple of the creative images that make Niagara more than a routine suspense story and travelogue; it’s a first-rate specimen of Technicolor noir in the late years of the original noir cycle.”
TCM have also selected their ’10 Favourite Marilyn Moments’, including her seduction of Louis Calhern in The Asphalt Jungle; her comedic turn as an inept stenographer in Monkey Business; and her love scene with David Wayne in How to Marry a Millionaire.
