Over at the San Francisco Chronicle, film critic Mick LaSalle considers MM’s enduring appeal. He writes about her quite often, and I always find his commentary interesting.
“I think her biggest problem was that her career happened in the 1950s. (As a child, she idolized Jean Harlow and would have been quite at home in the early 1930s.) Alas, the musical and sex comedy genres brought out the 1950s’ worst qualities – their mix of the prurient and the puritanical, the leering and the sanctimonious, the salacious and the judgmental. It was an era that celebrated the woman as child – either oblivious to sexuality (Audrey Hepburn) or oblivious to the consequences of it (Monroe). After spending half her career being simultaneously worshipped and degraded, no wonder Marilyn wanted to be taken seriously most of all.”