Niagara (1953)

Worth Watching Again and Again!

Filmed in beautiful technicolor, this thriller is like a Hickcock movie without his profile to find. Marilyn Monroe played an unfaithful wife who met her just end; like Virginia Barnes, she lathered on the bright red lipstick. She wore that stuff to bed even her makup was impecable. Even in the hospital, she was fully made up, shades of Doris Day. She sure could walk funny in her skin-tight clothes. The falls themselves was the star of the movie.

In the years since this was filmed, the water flow over the falls is manipulated and pollutted. In Newsweek, an article about the dangerous surrounds and the water is barely there in the winter but full flow during the tourist trade -- with no one suspecting the falls are poisonous. A company dumped hazard wastes which was never cleaned up.

Marilyn was Marilyn as in all her other movies, only the names were changed and she stayed the same flamboyant, sexy scene stealer. Much of the action took place at the bell tower (also a particular song LaVie EnRose) interwoven throughout the suspense making for a scary ending. Jean Peters looked like a young Jane Russell, as the newly-married honeymooing couple and caught in the middle. Mark was not there. The yellow helicopter was really something. And so were the Fifties cars. September 25, 2008

Above average thriller

This is a fairly good thriller, despite the flaws in the plot and despite some atrocious acting, for which the director is to blame. The final scene is as thrilling as any "chase" ever filmed.

The plot flaws are by way of coincidences. Joseph Cotton just happens to show up in the oddest places where Jean Peters can see him. And he apparently managed to move around over a large area on foot but fast. In fact, the plot revolves around the encounters between Cotton and Peters. There is also an unbelievable scene in which Peters goes into Cotton's motel room alone to bandage his hand, after she knows he's off his rocker and has seen palpable evidence of it.

Cotton and Peters were competent actors, and it shows in this movie, especially in the last 15 minutes or so. Marilyn Monroe was--well--Marilyn Monroe, with too much lipstick and a little girl whispery voice. But the real clinkers are Don Wilson and Peters' husband. I kept expecting Wilson to launch into his LS/MFT routine from the Jack Benny show. Peters' husband was the 1950s movie version of an unctuous traveling salesman.

But the best parts of the movie are the marvelous views of the falls and the haunting carillon bells. Apparently all of this was shot from the Canadian side, because the New York town of Niagara Falls was very unattractive when I was last there, just after this movie was shot. I watched this again just for the falls and the bells. September 19, 2008

Seductive Thriller. . . .

"Niagara" is virtually the only Marilyn Monroe movie that explored the seamy, unsavory side of her Blonde Bombshell glamour. Undulating across the screen in a flaming red dress, Monroe plays a conniving, unrepentent adulteress with a jealous, near-psychotic husband (Joseph Cotten) shadowing her every move. Set up in the idyllic (and ironic) honeymoon atmosphere of Niagara Falls, this thriller owes a great debt to the suspenseful, tales-of-the-unexpected style of Alfred Hitchcock. Aside from the provocative chemistry between Monroe and Cotten, "Niagara" offers a tantalizing glimpse of the kind of actress Marilyn Monroe could have become had she been more frequently afforded the chance to escape the typecast of a dumb-but-voluptuous-blonde (even if she was a supremely gifted comedienne in such roles). Though Monroe's screen time here is cut relatively short, this movie gives yet another testament to her astonishing presence (so much so that she is sorely missed whenever she is not onscreen). As such, "Niagara" ranks among the best of Marilyn Monroe's movies.
September 4, 2008

Mesmerizing Moroe

Monroe as a sympathetic villainess. No dumb blonde characature, rather, a silken lusty unfaithful wife plotting the demise of her mentally unstable husband. No spoiler here... let's just say all does not go as planned.

Monroe sings exquisitely "Kiss" .... this scene alone reveals Marilyn's genius of seduction and performance. She owns the celluloid, the lens, the viewer. It may surprise you to see her in this light. The scene is short, hypnotic, and flawlessly executed.

Monroe steals the show every time. This is one of my all time favorite Monroe films. August 28, 2008

A Different Kind of Roll for Marilyn Monroe

The movie opens with a young couple crossing over to the Canadian Side of Niagara Falls on their way to a motor lodge overlooking the falls. They are on a belated honeymoon. However, their cabin is taken by a gorgeous blonde (Monroe) and her psychotic husband to say the least (Joseph Cotten).

While touring at the falls the young bride (Jean Peters) sees Monroe in the arms of another which will fuel her suspicions later on. When Cotton turns up dead, Monroe checks out and our honeymooners get their cabin, however Cotton, who is not so dead after all, sneaks in to kill Monroe (who's lover had tried to kill Cotton, but Cotton got the better of him). Peters screams, Cotton flees and nobody believes her. Just a nightmare her husband says.

But you know it wasn't. Marilyn Monroe turned in a great performance here as did Jean Peters. Cotton was pretty believable as a mentally unstable husband and the best part of all was the restoration. I'd never seen this movie, so I was able to come at it fresh and I liked it a lot. If you haven't seen it, you should.

Reviewed by Stephanie Sane March 24, 2008

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