Watch Marilyn For Free

That was an excellent one.

When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

The acting in this movie is really good.

MY ORIGINAL COMMENT: This compilation does less than justice to the memory and talents of Marilyn Monroe in three principal ways:(1) Photographically. The CinemaScope extracts of course look good. The SuperScope 55 reprint from Gentlemen Prefer Blondes it must be admitted looks fabulous (though the original choreographer and photographer would hardly approve). The other Technicolor prints are likewise most acceptable. But the black-and-whites look awful. Printed on color stock and reprocessed to sit in the center of the CinemaScope frame, they appear washed-out, grainy, dupey-looking, with an odd but unbecoming bluish tinge.(2) Historically. No mention is made of Marilyn's movies that are not represented here, aside from Fox's own Let's Make Love, which is presumably not included in this anthology, fully deserving though it is, because its initial box-office take was disappointing. This gives the impression that Marilyn made all her photo-plays for Fox when in point of fact some of her best work was released by other studios, particularly The Asphalt Jungle, Clash by Night, The Prince and the Showgirl, Some Like It Hot and The Misfits. Even the Fox line-up is shy of three of her important movies, namely As Young As You Feel, Let's Make It Legal and the already mentioned Let's Make Love.(3) Personally. No insight into the real Marilyn is provided here. The emphasis is entirely on Monroe's physical charisma. The approach is bland, superficial and uninvolving to the point of appearing uncaring. The choice of Rock Hudson as presenter/narrator is a curious one. Professionally, he never appeared on camera with Marilyn. Privately, he was never a friend, nor even a member of the most outer circle of her acquaintances. I've read many books on Marilyn but from all of them I could only find one oblique comment that could in any way refer to Hudson — and that was disparaging. Isn't it typical Hollywood that when almost all her Fox co-workers were available, the producers of this anthology should look outside the studio to search out someone least qualified for the job?OTHER VIEWS: Above is my original view. Seeing the movie again on TV recently, I've changed my mind. In fact, I now regard "Marilyn" as a smashing compilation of nothing but the best! In fact, with so much rich fare to choose from, it was inevitable that a few personal favorites were omitted. I particularly missed Marilyn torching the title song from "River of No Return", but just about every other highlight from a fabulous career is spotted: the famous Walk from Niagara, a chorus step with Dan Dailey in "A Ticket To Tomahawk", grand entrance with George Sanders in "All About Eve", sidewalk encounter with "Soapy" Laughton in "Full House", and the final, alas! all-too-brief clips from "Something's Got To Give", which show her at the height of her powers, more beautiful, more seductive than ever! The anthology concludes with the "Diamonds Are A Girl's Best Friend" production number from "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes", fabulously reprinted in SuperScope 55.

Fox released this tribute to one of the studio's greatest stars a year after her death. Its virtually unknown today; I once added a reference to it to her Wikipedia page; typically it was soon deleted by some clod, much to my amusement. I saw it several times many years ago; it used to be shown on TV on rare occasion. It contains clips from many of her films, along with some newsreel footage etc. It was interesting particularly because for many decades this was the ONLY way to see clips from the unfinished "Something's Got To Give", but even more fascinating were the costume and makeup tests she did prior to beginning filming, where she exhibits this amazing uncanny ethereal radiant beauty. She had been dieting to prepare for the film, allegedly on champagne and oysters, and it really shows. Unfortunately behind the scenes she was continuing to wreck herself on drugs and alcohol; today she would be seen as a major candidate for an "intervention" and a stint in rehab. Hopefully someday the rights-holder will at least make it available for streaming. Unfortunately the existing film elements may be badly deteriorated by now.

The clip of Diamonds Are A Girl's Best Friend used in the doc is not an alternate CinemaScope take. It is the exact version lifted from the original Academy Ratio version of Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. However, the doc was released as a Scope movie, and they zoomed-in on the 1.33 image to create a faux Scope version. Wish it were an alternate version, but sadly it is not... That said, the documentary is a lot of fun, especially in light of Rock Hudson's known public history today compared to that of 1963. It's also interesting watching Rock being manly by smoking while watching the clips - looks terribly effected from today's perspective. It does contain the clips from her unfinished film which has been released on DVD a while back.

Ohhhhhh. drat.Yes, folks, I am astounded this excellent doco has been so neglected and forgotten as to not be available on video or DVD ...and incredibly not commented upon or reviewed on the IMDb. I can't be the only person in 2005 who knows this exists. Anyway, here's the info: made in 1963 as a Marilyn Monroe - Fox release to take the place of SOMETHING'S GOTTA GIVE which, as we all know was scrapped adding to her demise. Fox filled in the schedule blank (and mopped up as much MM sympathy cash as possible) by creating this 90 minute documentary with intros and links shot in cinema-scope on a blank stage with Rock Hudson narrating the clips from all her Fox films. It looks a lot like the format used later in THAT'S ENTERTAINMENT PART 2 with ladders and spotlights and studio bits for the narrator to wander through before various scenes or musical numbers are presented. Those films with sequences originally shot in 1.33 are presented as such in center frame and the cinema-scope clips fill the whole screen. I have also just discovered thanks to Box office Bill on the Roxy page on the Cinema Treasures site that in 1952, the "Diamonds Are A Girl's Best Friend" song number was shot in two formats: the 1.33 look as released in the feature GENTLEMEN PREFER BLONDES and an experimental cinema-scope version which sat in the vault until it was (now) possibly used as the finale for this c/s doco. I remember showing MARILYN at my cinema in the 70s and 80s and remarking how good this sequence looked in cinema-scope, thinking it was a cropped version of the 1.33. Well, not the case and there is the truth of it. Very good. Thankyou Box office Bill. So it was used eventually, but in a sad celebration. Apart from all this, MARILYN is an excellent doco and today more so as it compiles all the best Fox bits as a stand alone feature. Fox should rediscover their own excellent compilation feature here and get it out into stores on DVD tomorrow! Now if we can get FOX to do the same style of doco with "a celebration of Cinemascope" and a "Fabulous Foxes" and a "Technicolour Two hours" compilation we would sing their praises, instead of moaning the vault is locked. Start with MARILYN. This documentary is a major discovery for anyone in any century.