HENRY HATHAWAY
Bil’s rating (out of 5): BB.5.
USA, 1953. Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation. Screenplay by Charles Brackett, Walter Reisch, Richard L. Breen. Cinematography by Joseph MacDonald. Produced by Charles Brackett. Music by Sol Kaplan. Production Design by Maurice Ransford, Lyle R. Wheeler. Costume Design by Dorothy Jeakins. Film Editing by Barbara McLean.
Other than Don’t Bother To Knock, this is a rare opportunity to watch Marilyn Monroe enjoy her darker side. She plays a woman unhappily married to Joseph Cotten who plots with lover Richard Allan to lure her husband into the wondrous Niagara Falls and murder him. The deed is eventually accomplished, or so she thinks, because after a while friends staying at the same motel as her start seeing him pop up places. The story is interesting, but the playing out is pretty lurid and not all that exciting, nor is the acting top notch. Though it’s a very dramatic role, Monroe was still not allowed to escape the production without performing at least one song, so the film makers have her casually throw off a sweet rendition of “Kiss” while sitting by a camp fire.
