Over at the Chicago Reader, J.R. Jones takes another look at Clash by Night, the 1952 movie directed by Fritz Lang which gave Marilyn one of her breakthrough roles, as feisty cannery worker Peggy.
“Marilyn Monroe was terrified of Fritz Lang. ‘The actress vomited before almost every scene,’ writes Lang biographer Patrick McGilligan about the shooting of Clash by Night, ‘and grew so apprehensive about her dialogue that she broke out in red blotches. It didn’t help her standing with the director that Monroe was habitually late, or that she insisted on her personal dialogue coach Natasha Lytess being present on the set at all times. Or that newspaper columnists squired to the soundstage by RKO publicists ignored the veteran player, Barbara Stanwyck—not to mention the veteran director—demanding instead to interview, in Lang’s words, the girl with the big tits.”