The Prince and the Showgirl

Rating:
Summary: A Royal Bore!
Review: His Highness Grand Duke Charles, Regent of the Balkan state of Carpathia, with the fake, unintelligible accent (Laurence Olivier) meets Elsie Marina of Wilwaukee (Marilyn Monroe) in what has to be the longest, dullest 1 1/2, 2, 3 hours I have spent watching a movie in a very long time. He may have been the best actor of his generation, but you would be hard pressed to prove it from Olivier's performance here. Monroe, of course, plays the role she was usually assigned, the sexy dumb blonde.

I suppose Olivier should get most of the blame for this fiasco since he directed the movie in addition to starring in it. In Olivier's defense, however, I recall that he wanted his wife Vivian Leigh to play the role of Elsie rather than Ms. Monroe. Of course Ms. Monroe could have turned the offer to play Elsie down.

There are occasionally mildly funny scenes in the movie, but they are few and far between. After all a comedy should be funny.

Oh, 3/4 of the way through the movie, Elsie breaks out into song! Do I need to say more?

Both these actors made many good movies. This is not one of them.

Rating:
Summary: One reason to watch it
Review: I have two complaints about this film. (1) The special effects used for the coronation parade are very bad; and (2) the song Marilyn sings is very poor (but thankfully brief). However, there is one overwhelming reason to take this film to heart. I have 17 films in which Marilyn Monroe appears or stars, and I can say with certainty that in this one, she is her most radiant, most charming, and most beautiful. And because this is her "happiest" film, she giggles, and she laughs, and it's marvelous! My favorite film will always be "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes," and I think Marilyn's best acting is in "The Misfits." But in "The Prince and the Showgirl," I see Marilyn Monroe as the gorgeous American Icon we all love and cherish. Although the movie is not all that good, it showcases the Ultimate Marilyn. For her, and for her alone, I must give this film 4 stars.

Rating:
Summary: The Prince... The Showgirl... The Calamity.
Review: I rate this the most un-interesting of all of Marilyns roles. As a devoted & lifelong M.M. fan, this is the only one of her films that I've only gotten through twice. The first time, just to see it, the second time, to see if I was possibly mistaken in my negative appraisal of it. I wasn't. While Marilyn is certainly at her most etherally beautiful, this film was destined for failure from the beginning. The notorious pairing of Monroe with Laurence Olivier was a mis-calculation from its inception. It is obvious that Olivier needed a "commercial" hit movie at that point in his career, and, while his wife, Vivien Leigh, had originated the role of Elsie Marina on stage, Marilyn Monroe Productions bought the rights to "The Sleeping Prince", its original title. Also, Marilyn at that time was a highly commercial draw, and her name with Oliviers would be more of a guarantee of box office dollars (they thought.) It soon became obvious what everyone suspected, that Olivier did not respect and was secretly humiliated by a co-starring role with Americas notorious sex symbol. Also, it was reported that, because this was being produced by M.M. Productions, she was literally in an "in- charge" position, which equally humiliated him. In "The Noel Coward Diaries", Noel Coward, a good friend of Oliviers, expressed the general snobbish opinion when he writes, in the year 1956, that starring with Monroe was a humiliating but commercially necessary decision for Olivier, and "to hell with eminence", a barely disguised aspersion on Marilyn. Her arrival in England was met with an immediate press conference, where she was condescendingly queried as to what her favorite Beethoven numbers were, and, how long did she think a whale could stay under water ??, the implications being obvious. To add to all the pressure and high expectations of such a pairing, M.M. had recently wed Arthur Miller, immersing her in a highly intellectual world, where the insecure Marilyn, though naturally bright and intuitive, was ill equipped to always hold her own. The fact that Olivier was also hired by Marilyn to direct this film didn't help, and his comment to Marilyn near the beginning of the shoot, "Okay, Marilyn..Be sexy!", was an obvious assumption as to where Olivier thought Marilyns only true talent lie, and only served to undermine her already shaky confidence. The "most exciting combination since black and white !", as Joshua Logan deemed this collaboration , went from bad to worse, with Olivier detesting Marilyns growing insecurities, and what he viewed as her unprofessionalism. He also hated "The Method", the acting style which M.M. had been influenced by in her continuing studies at The Actors Studio. By the time this film wrapped, everyone involved was barely on speaking terms, and Marilyns exit from England was the opposite of the fan fare she confronted upon her arrival. The movie was almost universally panned upon release, with many noting the obvious lack of chemistry between the principals. Oddly enough, Olivier was surprised with a screening of this film , many years after its filming, and Marilyns death, as a joke by friends of his. They were all surprisingly unaminous in their appraisal after its viewing, as Olivier wrote: "Everyone was clamorous in their praises, I was as good as could be...and Marilyn! Marilyn was quite wonderful, the best of all. So...what do you know ?" Be that as it may, I still rate this the least interesting of her roles... she was not respected before her arrival to film this movie, or in the environment created around her during its filming, and it shows. It does no service, I feel, to her brilliant career, except as a further visual testament to her beauty. Even that is not enough for me to sit through this laborious mistake again. To see M.M. at her magical best, watch "Bus Stop", "Some Like It Hot", or "The Misfits."

Rating:
Summary: So Boring!! I would rather have been at the dentist
Review: I thought "The Prince & The Show Girl," (DVD) was about as good as it gets with MM. A fun tale of opposites attracting. Monroe in one of her finer films.

Rating:
Summary: MY FAVORITE MM FILM
Review: I've seen this film perhaps twenty times since it came out in 1957 and find the glowing DVD version perfection, much better than the laserdisk.When I first saw it, I believe it was projected through a lens masked for widescreen. So I was disappointed through the years when the videocassette and laserdisk versions weren't in widescreen. Now I'm delighted that the DVD isn't in widescreen, since the show was shot in standard format and we get almost the whole negative image on screen, with only a shot or two faintly cramped or with a figure not quite as fully seen as it was meant to be. No such worry about MM though, no image of her gets trimmed: the magnificent ballgown she's poured into becomes a character in itself. For me, this is MM's greatest performance just as "Camille" is Garbo's. In "Camille" you never catch Garbo acting, every line feels tossed off or thrown away except the big ones, which get the full heartcry the script calls for. In MM's film her every line flows from her with an assurance she matched only in "Bus Stop" and never feels acted. Inge's "Bus Stop", aside frin MM's scenes, strikes me as far less interesting than Rattigan's neatly built comedy, whose scenes without MM retain strong interest both because of the script and of Olivier's hand for detail and grip on staging. Also, Jack Cardiff fills the screen with glowing color to match the decor and costumes and much of my delight lies in having the full screen aglow, wall to wall and top to bottom with luscious light--light focused often on MM's sheer glory. Olivier's line readings are great fun, a grotesque joy, but MM reads like an angel and steals the show with her heartfelt method realism. What can one say about her that isn't less than she deserves here?
For the horrors behind the filming, you might turn to Colin Clark's "The Prince, the Showgirl, and Me: Six Months on the Set with Marilyn and Olivier" (St. Martin's Press, $20.95) where this angel's neuroses are revealed in full. And yet Sybil Thordyke, her costar here as the Queen Mother, said of MM during the shooting that MM was the only one on the set who knew how to act on film and be natural. The crew often thought she wasn't acting--until the rushes starte showing up. Colin Clark himself (he's the son of art historian Kenneth Clark, was Olivier's gofer on the set, and later helped establish NYC's PBS station Channel 13) said that when the film was done, despite the endless agony everyone had working with her, MM was "a force of nature" onscreen, although the whole crew threw her wrap party's gifts into the garbage. Yes, one must admit that MM had more serious flaws than we the still living. But do we take issue with the model for Velazquez's gorgeous Venus in "The Toilet of Venus" (who may have been a waitress he hired) whose long bare body and glorious behind have the same pale rosiness as MM's skin under Cardiff's lighting, while Cardiff treats her hair and eyes and mouth, her bottom and her bitty little belly, with all the care of Velazquez. We no longer remember Velazquez's model but that painting of her captures the eternal feminine. And someday MM's Elsie Marina in this film will rise in the heavens of art and be remembered while MM becomes a receding historical figure, like Pola Negri the Vamp whose dark eyes once spilled their eroticism over the planet, and just as Garbo the unread rather brainless woman fades farther from view every year while her Marguerite Gautier in "Camille" remains a serene image of artistic divinity.
As a footnote, let me add that all the actors are superb, as is the score. I was so delighted by the score (not to mention MM's sweet singing) in 1957 that I wrote a fan letter to Richard Addinsell, the composer (best-known for his "Warsaw Concerto") and he wrote back about his thankfulness to Olivier for his not asking him for "music by the yard," as was the custom when Addinsell wrote film music for others, but rather allowed him to let go and write every note from the heart. That music adds no little lift of pleasure to the images--and to MM and Olivier's big waltz scene at the ball. May I live to see this wonderful movie many more times.

Rating:
Summary: Luminous Marilyn Lights Up Slow Film
Review: The Prince and the Showgirl was the second of two films which were designed to prove Monroe was a "real" actress and not just a light comedienne (the first was 1956's "Bus Stop"). And while her performance does show a broader range than her previous characterizations, and she is almost unbelievably luminous here, the film is disapointingly slow and not very compelling. I've never showed it to anyone that wanted to watch it through to the end. The problem seems to lie in the script; the storyline is just not cathartic or action-packed enough to warrant a full length film of it's telling. It probably worked better as a stage play. However, it is a must for fans of Marilyn for her ethereal beauty alone. And to her credit, her artful performance makes one wish she had better material to work with. I'm not sure she ever played any role as clear headed as her Elsie Marina ("Something's Got To Give"--had it been finished, would have rivalled it) and it is refreshing to see her playing someone who is not in a kind of stupor for once. While "Prince and the Showgirl" was not a success, it does prove Monroe's range and acting abilities were greater than anyone probably suspected. How much greater, sadly, will never be known, as her subsequent 4 film roles allowed her even less opportunity to showcase her talents--even "the Misfits", which only highlighted her ability to play an unhappy and troubled person in vague, muted tones.

Rating:
Summary: Sophisticated Drawing Room Fare
Review: This is not one of Marilyn Monroe's most entertaining pictures; it's not fast-moving and it's not flashy, nor does it contain any extravagant musical production numbers, but it does boast a fine, subtle performance from the actress. During the 1911 coronation of King George V, an American showgirl in England (Monroe) matches wits with the Prince Regent of Carpathia (Laurence Olivier) in what is a charming drawing room comedy. Monroe gives a delightful, sweet, comedic performance against Olivier's austere, gruff prince. The two fall in love throughout the course of the film while at the same time Monroe helps mend the relationship between Olivier and his son (Jeremy Spenser), the future king of Carpathia. Dame Sybil Thorndike also appears in the film as the Queen Dowager and steals every scene she's in! She's an absolute delight. This is also a beautiful film to watch and was stunningly photographed by renowned cinematographer Jack Cardiff. Also be advised that the then modern appearance of the two stars on the cover of the DVD do not reflect how they appear in the movie; this is a period picture that takes place during 1911 and all of the performers are appropriately costumed.

Rating:
Summary: MARILYN IS BRILLIANT.
Review: This Movie seems a bit dated and slow at times but curiously enough does get better with repeated viewing.
There is very little chemistry here between Laurence Olivier and Marilyn Monroe and it certainly isn't her Fault.
Besides being at once beautiful,funny and touching,Marilyn also delivers a brilliant Performance. It's hard to take your Eyes of her when ever she appears on the Screen, no matter who else might be in the same Shot.
The only thing i find really annoying in this Film is the drawn-out Church Scene with the awful Music.
This is a must have for any Marilyn Fan, of course,but anybody that enjoys romantic Comedies will also like this Film.

Rating:
Summary: Marilyn Monroe is perfect in this 1957 comedy, now on DVD!
Review: Warner Brothers gives us an outstanding remastered video & sound DVD. The Technicolor Full Feature picture quality and clarity are eye candy to watch.

Marilyns co-star Lord Lawrence Olivier also Directed & Produced this satarical comedy of royalty meets show business.

Summary: The year is 1911 Olivier a touring European Prince meets a showgirl (Monroe) backstage in a London theatre. His immediate attraction to her prompts an immediate invitation for a midnight dinner back at his royal suite. Her beauty & candid wit keeps the prince off guard. A romance begins and the reality of royal service constantly interfere. Will they find happiness ever after?

Marilyn as always is beautiful and her comedy skills are unmatched. The Special Features include; Cast & Crew, Trailer and Announcement Newsreel.

This is a fun movie especially for Monroe fans. Enjoy.

Rating:
Summary: Marilyn Monroe is perfect in this 1957 comedy, now on DVD!
Review: Warner Brothers gives us an outstanding remastered video & sound DVD. The Technicolor Full Feature picture quality and clarity are eye candy to watch.

Marilyns co-star Lord Lawrence Olivier also Directed & Produced this satarical comedy of royalty meets show business.

Summary: The year is 1911 Olivier a touring European Prince meets a showgirl (Monroe) backstage in a London theatre. His immediate attraction to her prompts an immediate invitation for a midnight dinner back at his royal suite. Her beauty & candid wit keeps the prince off guard. A romance begins and the reality of royal service constantly interfere. Will they find happiness ever after?

Marilyn as always is beautiful and her comedy skills are unmatched. The Special Features include; Cast & Crew, Trailer and Announcement Newsreel.

This is a fun movie especially for Monroe fans. Enjoy.