Marilyn Monroe Programming Note

 I have blogged about Marilyn Monroe a few times. Well, brace yourself. I'm about to do it again. I love her work. To me, she is still one of the most under-appreciated actresses of her day. That's probably because she was reviewed and interviewed mostly by men who were dazzled by her beauty and sex symbol charisma and were oblivious to her multi-talents. 

Marilyn Monroe's work still holds up and one example airs on cable's TCM (Turner Classic Movies) this coming Tuesday, June 14th. The movie is the 1953 comedy, HOW TO MARRY A MILLIONAIRE, also starring Lauren Bacall and Betty Grable.

By the early 1940s, 20th Century Fox studios had landed on a format that proved very successful. Make movies about three young women looking for love and husbands -- hopefully rich husbands. We see this in the hit Betty Grable musical MOON OVER MIAMI (1941), in the musical THREE LITTLE GIRLS IN BLUE (1946), HOW TO MARRY A MILLIONAIRE, the drama, THE BEST OF EVERYTHING (1959) and THE PLEASURE SEEKERS (1964) starring Ann-Margret.

In 1953. Fox contract player knocked out three home-run performances, each one different. First was the crime drama, NIAGARA. In a cabin amongst honeymooners, she plays the blond bombshell married to an older, depressed Korean war veteran who seems to suffer from PTSD. She's having an affair. She and her lover plan to murder the gloomy husband. Monroe is just as effective a blonde femme fatale wife who gets tripped up in her own devious game as Lana Turner was in THE POSTMAN ALWAYS RINGS TWICE and Rita Hayworth in THE LADY FROM SHANGHAI. Monroe sizzles when she sings "Kiss" along with a record on a record player. I bet she carbonated the hormones of many male moviegoers watching NIAGARA.

Next came the Fox film version of the hit Broadway musical, GENTLEMEN PREFER BLONDES. Monroe took on the role of Lorelei that had made Carol Channing a star on Broadway. The story was altered, updated and jazzed up to suit the talents of its stars. At first, Fox planned to give the Lorelei role to Betty Grable. Grable who had been Queen of the Fox Lot since 1941's MOON OVER MIAMI. But Monroe got the part because, being a stock player, she could be paid less. She was not a star like her co-star, Jane Russell. Monroe, as the dumb like a fox blonde, is completely different than she was as Rose in NIAGARA. She's a true-blue friend who loves diamonds and a bookworm of a rich man's son. She's sexy with a wide-eyed innocence. This musical comedy shows off her brilliant comedy timing. And notice how she listens to her fellow actors. She's in the moment. Lorelei's scene with the little froggy-voiced boy on the luxury liner has Monroe doing the kind comedy scene one would've associated with Lucille Ball in those days.

In addition to that, Marilyn Monroe could sing! One of the highlights of GENTLEMEN PREFER BLONDES is her now iconic "Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend" number. 

I saw Chita Rivera in a one-woman Broadway show about her life and career. She talked about the choreographers she'd worked with and one of them was Jack Cole. She said that Cole's choreography was very specific and demanding but wonderful. Marilyn Monroe performs Jack Cole's choreography in GENTLEMAN PREFER BLONDES as if she was born to do it. Even Gene Kelly was impressed with Monroe's dance moves. (Kelly did a cameo in her 1960 comedy, LET'S MAKE LOVE, which also featured musical numbers choreographed by Jack Cole.) Marilyn could act, sing and dance.

Next came HOW TO MARRY A MILLIONAIRE which further proves that she was a pro at comedy. In this one, with its trio of lovelies seeking rich husbands, Monroe is the one with the bad eyesight. In her words she's "...as blind as a bat." But she has succumbed to the famous Dorothy Parker adage, "Men don't make passes at girls who wear glasses" and refuses to put on her spectacles for fear they'll make her look like an old maid. 

HOW TO MARRY A MILLIONAIRE shows Marilyn Monroe's knack for physical comedy. The scene where she checks herself in a ritzy ladies' lounge mirror and then tucks her glasses into her purse before she exits breaks me up laughing every single time.

And there's Monroe's airplane scene. Pola (Monroe) is a lovable ditz. A guy she's dating wants her to come from Manhattan to Atlantic City, New Jersey for the weekend. He gives her a schedule of flights from LaGuardia. But, at the airport, she does not wear her glasses. Instead of boarding a flight to Atlantic City -- which would've taken a little under 30 minutes -- she boards a plane to Kansas City, Pola has been on that flight for over an hour and doesn't realize she's made a mistake.

If Jennifer Lawrence or Scarlett Johansson had delivered those three performances in the same year, they probably would've been in the Oscar race for some of that work. Marilyn Monroe was never nominated for an Oscar.

HOW TO MARRY A MILLIONAIRE airs at 8p ET Tuesday, June 14th, on TCM.