The Silver Screen Oasis

Just saw this for the first time on the big screen (which was a thrill all by itself) and it was fantastic. And very, very funny. It's probably one of the funniest movies I've seen in a long time. How did they get away with all the innuendo? Especially Jane Russell's number in the gym? And was I imagining things or was she wearing stylized um, male appendages as earrings in that scene??? Maybe I just have a dirty mind. Nah...

And another fine example of what a good comic actress Marilyn Monroe was. I think she and Russell were very well matched, and worked well as a team onscreen.

I only wish that some day, someone will put together a Monroe retrospective, prefacing everything the audience is about to see with the caveat "try to look past the boobs, and watch the very good actress."

Marilyn the Goddess was part of my growing up, and I liked her just fine. Marilyn the Actress was someone I discovered as I got older, and I like her even better.

I think one of the great things about MM was that even though she was a beautiful woman, she played oppisite some non conventianally handsome actors. David Wayne was an example in How To Marry A Millionaire. In GPBs it was Tommy Noonan

I'm not sure if it's true, but wasn't the dancer who mistimed his jump into the pool and took Jane Russell with him fired. This seems harsh if true as Hawks happily kept it in the film, as it added to an already great dance routine

Last night I watch Clash By Night, this is a very early MM role. I was more impressed than I'd expected. Perhaps I need to watch some of MM movies I haven't seen and reassess her.

I've always loved Gentleman Prefer Blondes.

MM was really very nice in Clash By Night, wasn't she, playing just an nice, small-town girl, not a sexpot or glamor queen, who just happened to be very beautiful. She did a good job with a part that could have been made tawdry by some other actress: a sweet and decent girl who was obviously very much in love, both emotionally and physically, with her boyfriend. From the many, many things I've read about MM, I've often thought that that role may have been closer to her real self, at least her real younger self, than any of the others she played.

To loop back to this week's guest:

"[Ryan] plainly saw that she was fragile and disorganized when she arrived on the set late every day with her personal acting coach in hand as a security blanket. When her tardiness vexed Lang sufficiently, in true teutonic form he belittled her with icy sarcasm, until Ryan had witnessed enough and asked him to go easy on her." Robert Ryan: A Biography and Critical Filmography (Franklin Jarlett)

What a nice thing.

I didn't realise that Marilyn was tardy at this stage in her career. This wasn't a lady who threw diva fits but a vulnerable young lady.

I like to think that was what she was really like. it's seeing a view of her before all the big guns got to her and costumed her and made her up. Apparently off the screen she preferred to wear no makeup.

In my mind Marilyn and Rita Hayworth seem to be more than a little alike in personality. Desireable women but not full of the confidence they should have had.

Marilyn was really very good--she has great comic timing and her delivery was always right on (at least once they got it down on film). I wonder what she would have been able to do if she'd actually seen a competent therapist instead of just popping pills to deal with her issues. I imagine she'd certainly been easier to work with and would have less trouble with her lines and confidence. Does anyone know who got her started on pills? Was it some morally bankrupt studio doctor determined to keep a picture on schedule (and keep his paycheck)?

I think Marilyn's and Elvis lives have similarities. Both had doctors who would administer the medication they wanted and wouldn't/couldn't take advice from concerned friends often banishing them from their lives.

Something I wanted to say the other day about Marilyn in Clash By Night is how lovely it was to see a lovely full figured woman on the screen. It's perhaps highlighted more because her costar was Barbara Stanwyck who's curves were lovely but more modest. It's just lovely to see her, what a lovely, round, feminine, huggable, adorable vision.

traceyk wrote:Marilyn was really very good--she has great comic timing and her delivery was always right on (at least once they got it down on film). I wonder what she would have been able to do if she'd actually seen a competent therapist instead of just popping pills to deal with her issues. I imagine she'd certainly been easier to work with and would have less trouble with her lines and confidence. Does anyone know who got her started on pills? Was it some morally bankrupt studio doctor determined to keep a picture on schedule (and keep his paycheck)?

I'm afraid it was a (in)competent therapist who started her on them.