Movies

As two couples are visiting Niagara Falls, tensions between one wife and her husband reach the level of murder.Marilyn Monroe was given first billing in "Niagara" which elevated her to star status. Her following two films of that year, "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes", with Jane Russell, and "How to Marry a Millionaire", with Betty Grable and Lauren Bacall, were even bigger successes.Films like this are what I really wish Monroe was remembered for. She is more often than not seen as the "dumb blonde" of "Seven Year Itch" and other such films. But "Niagara" and "The Misfits", for example, show she was actually a rather good actress and not just an object.

Marilyn Monroe always wanted to be a straight-dramatic actress. She succeeded in this 1953 film.Unhappily married to Joseph Cotten, the two are at the famous falls where Monroe plots with her lover to kill Cotten.Jean Peters and Richard Allan (who also went under the name of Max Showalter) are a married couple who befriend the two.They try to comfort Monroe when they all think that Cotten is dead. Monroe soon realizes that the plot has gone awry and that her lover is instead dead. Cotten has gone totally insane by her actions and plots her demise. The chilling scene where Monroe meets her end is done extremely well as the chimes ring. The latter was supposed to signify the death of Cotten by her lover.Cotten fleeing with Jean Peters, in the boat by the Falls, is done in an exciting, ambitious way. The end is marvelously staged. ***

Joseph Cotten was an outstanding actor whose talents have been terribly under-appreciated. He is great in this movie as an abusive husband. The very sexy Marilyn Monroe is his wife, who is having an affair with another man. They meet a pair of young newlyweds on their honeymoon. Max Showalter as the young husband is one of the most annoying characters I've ever seen. Jean Peters as his bride does the unthinkable, managing to look almost as beautiful as Marilyn herself.This is a suspenseful and entertaining movie, which makes great use of the scenery surrounding Niagara Falls.