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Bookmark this pageNiagara (1953)
Director: Henry Hathaway
Movie review
From Time Out Film Guide
Marilyn's first real starring vehicle, a steamily melodramatic thriller into which she fits a trifle uncomfortably: unbecomingly costumed, uneasy with dialogue, and exposed to acres of footage designed to ram her down the audience's throat as a heartless, lusting bitch, a sexpot honeymooner scheming to kill her husband (Cotten), a mentally disturbed war veteran who has his own ideas. Odd to realise (this was after all her eighteenth film) that Hollywood took so long to discover the vulnerability that became Monroe's distinctive quality. Worthseeing for Hathaway's superbly crafted direction, even if it needed a Hitchcock to merge the symbolism of the location (the falls, the belltower) with the themes of sexual domination and envy.Author: TM
User reviews of this film
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- timmay said...
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Posted on Feb 18 2009 20:13
i think thats unfair, MArilyn was a great actress and she suits this role quite well
its just peoples concepitons of her that made people not accept her in a non comedic role (loke at the fame of the fame in some like it hot and how to marry a millionaire, versus those in bus stop or the misfts) this film would not really have worked or have been memorable without her. - Report as inappropriate
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- Lecour said...
- Posted on Nov 18 2007 18:52 I think Jean Peters tdeserves the best notice on this one. She proves she's the only actor in this film that can actually act -and does so with bravura.
- Report as inappropriate
Cast & crew
Director: Henry Hathaway
Producer: Charles Brackett
Cast: Marilyn Monroe, Joseph Cotten, Jean Peters, Denis O'Dea, Casey Adams, Don Wilson, Richard Allan, Lurene Tuttle full cast
Duration: 90 mins
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