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Niagara

Niagara

List Price: $14.98
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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: An Excellent Movie!!!
Review: This is, oddly, one of my favorite movies. Marilyn, Jean Peters, and Joseph Cotton all act at their best, and the beauty of the falls adds beautiful, graceful scenery and suspensefulness to the movie as well. I first found this movie when watching the Marilyn Marathon on AMC when I was 10. I liked it so much, I went and bought it the next day. This movie hasn't one dull moment, and I am shocked that such a good movie could be out of stock. This movie kept on building and building suspense all the way up until the shocking, unpredictable ending. If you want a real classic suspense film, NIAGARA is the film for you.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: MARILYN IN HER PRIME....
Review: This isn't the ultimate Marilyn movie ("The Seven Year Itch" holds that honor) but it's a prime look at Monroe in an unusual role as a scheming man-trap out to kill her husband (Joseph Cotton, who's excellent). She's the whole show and I wish she could have done more films like this that put her in off-beat situations giving her a chance to stretch as an actress. She's gorgeous in Technicolor and a believable vixen/victim when her plan backfires leaving her to be stalked by Cotton. You feel sorry for her at this point. Jean Peters is good as a sympathetic neighbor but Casey Adams (as Peters' husband) is woefully miscast and clearly out of his league here. He nearly sinks the whole film as a co-star and there's way too much of him in the film. But that's the only complaint. Otherwise, Monroe keeps us glued to the screen when she appears and we root for her no matter what she's up to. There's beautiful Niagara scenery and a great scene where she appears at an outdoor party in a sexy red dress and requests a sexy song to be played. She then proceeds to sing along with the record as she closes her eyes obviously thinking of her lover. The song "Kiss" later is reprised as the lovers' theme song and figures in an unusual plot to lure Monroe to Cotton---whom she thinks has been killed by the lover as part of their plan. Marilyn shows here what she had to become the icon she is now. This movie nicely represents the reasons people fell in love with her. How right they were.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Childhood Imprint
Review: This movie holds a special place in my heart, not because it is a great movie (it certainly is), not because of it's great director and not even because of Marilyn Monroe!

This movie imprints in my brain, because when I was 10, (I am now 56) I went from Communist China to HongKong for temporary visiting my parents for 6 months. The experience to a new environment itself at 11 was enough to stir my psychie and excited me tremedously. One of the movies that imprints deeply in my brain is Niagara which my Dad brought me to see.

Obviously at 10, I was not old enough to understand the inticacies of the man-woman relatinship, but some scenes got stuck in my mind forever. Scenes like the little boat falling down the Niagara Falls, the scene when "the man" held "the woman's" body and all the belles on top of the screen stopped ringing etc... imprinted in my mind and gave me a sense of fear, confusion, nostalgia and yes excitement at watching Hollywood big screen picture in Technicolor!! (I did remember it was in COLOR)

I returned to China after 6 months and the memory of this movie faded but not not lost from my memory. My parents died 5 years ago. And there was no one who could help me to find out which movie that was that imprints so deeply in my mind. I almost gave up hope, because besides the scenes I ccould not remember anything else, not even the name of the movie (I spoke no English at 10). But lately the feeling of nostalgia overwhelms me and I had to find out which movie it was that was so stuck in my mind.

Since I did not know the movie name, and I could not even recall Monroe (nor Cotton) starred in it, the chance of ever finding it was slim. But I tried. I could recall Joseph Cotton's face which helped me to link him to several other movies he starred in after I left communist China forever at age 16. That put the name Joseph Cotton with the face I remembered. (actually I remembered mainly of a square face and lots of wrinkles :)

Two pieces of info finally helped me to find the movie. One is the name Joseph Cotton and the other is Niagara Falls which I finally figured out the where the movie location must have been because of the boat falling off the Falls created such anxiety in me, even after almost 50 years, I can still remember the feeling. I did a GOOGLE search and finally the movie that has imprinted in my mind for so long has a name, it is called "Niagara"!!

I have not got hold of it's DVD yet. But - you guessed it - I will!

What does this have to do with a movie review? Well, my experience tells me, how deep a movie impresses a person has a lot to do with life experience. I am certainly very happy I have found the movie. I am looking forward to re-experience the feelings I had when I watched it as a little boy of 10. The funniest part is, I had no recollection of Marilyn Monroe - the sexy Goddess who drives so many men crazy - in the movie all! :D

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Monroe in color from 1953
Review: This mystery is Monroe's best film in my opinion. Although she co stars with Jean Peters in this film, and is killed off before the movie ends, her performance is memorable. This should be out on DVD soon- its just a matter of time.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: The best acting of Monroe ever!
Review: Two scenic marvels : the Niagara Falls and the several states of undress of M.M. and since the script is very handled and quite evident , you have to recognize the emotive tension, the first rate direction and this overwhelming cast with Joseph Cotton and Jean Peters.
This glorious film noir will show you the infidelity , the betrayal , the greed in its purest nakedness . May be the best film noir of Henry Hathaway.


Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Lots of fun
Review: Well done, fast-paced suspense drama. Monroe is a hoot. Has the kind of plot, characters and setting I would expect from Joel and Ethan Coen.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A Superb Thriller! Worthy of a Hitchcock!
Review: Well made and riveting. Monroe is underplayed but unforgettable. Cotten plays his "baddest". Supporting characters are superb. A DVD edition is much wanted!

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Different Positions
Review: What can I say, I'm just a big, old Marilyn fan! This movie came out before audiences (female primarily) didn't realize she was no threat to any other woman, and so many negative comments were made about her, especially in this film while it was playing on the screen -- but they did go to see it. Without spoiling it for anyone who has not seen it yet, look for Marilyn's position on the floor in the penultimate and last shot of her! Check it out! Also, as much as was made of her long walk across a cobblestone street, much more interesting is the shot of her as she leaves the honeymoon cabin in a lavender suit being closely watched by Casey Adams.


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