🍿 2022-08-13 13:50:00 – Paris/France.
No one has seen the movie yet, but the internet is already full of opinions about Blond, the upcoming fictional biopic of Netflix on Marilyn Monroe: on everything from the suitability of Cuban star Ana de Armas in the lead to the potential offensiveness of the film's allegedly explicit sexual content. Sixty years after her death at 36, Monroe still inspires a kind of protective instinct in audiences, even among generations who missed her life by decades. Yet such discussions tend to present Monroe only as a tragic icon, rather than a light-hearted, devious, and continually underrated actor. There could hardly be a better time to catch up on his abbreviated but often joyous filmography, almost all of which can be viewed in the realm of Streaming.
Newcomers to his work can head straight for the hits, none more delightful – or, thanks to BBC iPlayer, more freely available – than Billy Wilder's rambunctious comedy Some like it hot (1959), the best of all showcases of Monroe's candid sex appeal and deceptively deft comic timing. Wilder had previously exploited these assets for his playful, then spicy romantic comedy The Seven Year Itch (Amazon Prime), with its subway grate sartorial scene that ultimately eclipsed the entire film's pop culture motto. Monroe remains a delight, though her fairly literal – even unnamed – male fantasy persona isn't as lavishly crafted as Some like it hotit's Sugar Kane.
“Unscrupulous Sex Appeal”: with Tony Curtis in Some Like It Hot, 1959. United Artists/Allstar Photography: United Artists/Allstar
Rivaling that windblown white dress for immortality, her pink satin and diamond ensemble from Howard Hawks' bright and happy man-eating musical Men prefer blondes (1953; Amazon). If you've only ever seen the Monroe's Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend number out of context, you might be surprised by the wit and liveliness of the whole movie. Released the same year How to marry a millionaire (Apple TV) aimed for much the same charm, fueled by female desire and togetherness, but without the songs. The Otherwise Unmemorable Musical Revue There's no business like show business (Google Play) gave him one of his cheekiest screen moments in the sultry, overly-kitsch number Heat Wave; watch it just for that.
Monroe gets less credit for her supple, cold intelligence as a femme fatale, though the slinky and atypically Technicolored noir Niagara (1953; Google Play) and the highly influential thriller The Bad Babysitter Don't bother knocking (Amazon) are among its best vehicles. Later films split the difference between her brashness, her vulnerability, and her mystique. She's simply wonderful as an Ozark saloon singer resisting the undue coercion of a marriage-minded cowboy in the surprisingly bittersweet Bus stop (1956; Apple TV), and beat Laurence Olivier in the odd, tonal comedy The Prince and the Showgirl (Chili). Alongside Clark Gable and Montgomery Clift in the exquisitely melancholy, written by Arthur Miller The misfits (1961; Apple TV), Monroe's look of sad, conscious exhaustion makes you wonder what the tougher, more angular new Hollywood of the late '60s and '70s would have done for her.
Biding her hour… Monroe with Bette Davis and George Sanders in All About Eve, 1950. Allstar
Follow that up with the white-hot energy and sense of possibility she brought to her early roles, many of them in negligible movies that probably wouldn't be online without her supporting presence. Best to look for its audacious and Stanwyck-compliant attitude by launching the very beautiful Fritz Lang 1952 black night clash (Chili); his striking prostitute in the curious anthology film narrated by Steinbeck O Henry's Full House (1952; Amazon); or, better yet, her short but seductive cameo as an up-and-coming ingenue in showbiz gory satire All about Eve (1950; Amazon), biding her time as Bette Davis gnaws at the screen: no role has ever been more foreboding.
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A photo caption has been edited August 12, 2022 to correct the release year of Some Like it Hot.
SOURCE: Reviews News
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