Niagara
BB.5
(out of 5)
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.
Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation
USA, 1953
Directed by Henry Hathaway
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
Cast Tags: Denis O’Dea, Don Wilson, Jean Peters, Joseph Cotten, Lurene Tuttle, Marilyn Monroe, Max Showalter, Richard Allan, Russell Collins, Will Wright
