cult film freak: marilyn monroe

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Written by James M. Tate / 2/07/2024 / No comments / clark gable , drama , eli wallach , john huston , marilyn monroe , montgomery clift , romance , sixties , thelma ritter , western

CLARK GABLE, MONTOMERY CLIFT & MARILYN MONROE 'THE MISFITS

<p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvNaWYp2sJ-Y-bs7ruMFPiq02nYzqAQb4jlu53J0vA3sdk7Abmcns-eH3X_WEfpTpvm9QFoOsWLPu80zVFrHNmgdM3jqqP8F9wKKeVMVfJZnku54Ve1ytvlS2oxjDJ7M1FRtNlqtck8VGMCX_k88f3enc8Buh5dW4EhpnSvEnMngP1vuGRWwpI9tdR5B_p/s2084/Screen%20Shot%202024-02-11%20at%201.44.16%20PM%202.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="2084" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvNaWYp2sJ-Y-bs7ruMFPiq02nYzqAQb4jlu53J0vA3sdk7Abmcns-eH3X_WEfpTpvm9QFoOsWLPu80zVFrHNmgdM3jqqP8F9wKKeVMVfJZnku54Ve1ytvlS2oxjDJ7M1FRtNlqtck8VGMCX_k88f3enc8Buh5dW4EhpnSvEnMngP1vuGRWwpI9tdR5B_p/s16000/Screen%20Shot%202024-02-11%20at%201.44.16%20PM%202.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Title: THE MISFITS Year: 1961 Shown: Clark Gable Rating: ***1/2</u></td></tr></tbody></table><p>Most famous about THE MISFITS is that Clark Gable died right after filming, and Marilyn Monroe would live only a year or so later, both being their final films and... written by Marilyn's real life husband, playwright Arthur Miller, based on their May/December relationship with Gable as an old tough cowboy instead of scholar (trying to understand this woman as quirky as she's beautiful)... it's simply too crowded...<br><br>All that's really needed were the two soon-fallen stars... Although Eli Wallach (who ironically lasted until his nineties) has a strategic role as Gable's horse-herding partner, who initially meets the divorcing Monroe's Roslyn (living with experienced mentor Thelma Ritter) in the central town of Reno, Nevada where director John Huston injects his usual sparse B&W into natural dialogue and creative camera angles, much like an Americanized French New Wave film... even taking intentional time before completely revealing Monroe's face...</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p><span></span></p>

clark gable, drama, eli wallach, john huston, marilyn monroe, montgomery clift, romance, sixties, thelma ritter, western

CLARK GABLE, MONTOMERY CLIFT & MARILYN MONROE 'THE MISFITS

Title: THE MISFITS Year: 1961 Shown: Clark Gable Rating: ***1/2 Most famous about THE MISFITS is that Clark Gable died right after filming, ...

ROBERT MITCHUM & MARILYN MONROE IN 'RIVER OF NO RETURN'

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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Mitch & Monroe take Preminger's RIVER OF NO RETURN Year: 1954</u></td></tr>
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Robert Mitchum is not a devilish rogue this time... In fact he silently agrees with a preacher who considers a particularly rowdy gold mining town both Sodom and Gomorrah, and his name's Mark because it follows Matthew, "in the Bible."<br />
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Although he <i>is</i> alone, but not for long: After locating his 10-year-old son, left behind after a five-year prison sentence for shooting a man in the back — soon enough, father and son are working at a one house, one horse and single shotgun ranch that only the latter serves as protection for an impending Indian threat, poised within the nearby mountainside...<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-hsiE68QwmoE1gK_PiHdQZM_brOIkc3uj5YbsXWxiMtEv-K1DVHg0lGQdOg-3kPS3nGqAXb3bQ0u8yk_i2842LeXCU8z5YzLupAFBn_xROV8Nl3YfdcWnbAhivRwZNPb434DdZPJ0NDqw/s1600/10900241406_c44ef023af_b.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-hsiE68QwmoE1gK_PiHdQZM_brOIkc3uj5YbsXWxiMtEv-K1DVHg0lGQdOg-3kPS3nGqAXb3bQ0u8yk_i2842LeXCU8z5YzLupAFBn_xROV8Nl3YfdcWnbAhivRwZNPb434DdZPJ0NDqw/s400/10900241406_c44ef023af_b.jpg" width="261" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Poster for River of No Return</u></td></tr>
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The kid's only acquaintance at the town winds up, along with her gambling lover, being saved by Mitchum — helplessly tangled in dangerous rapids right outside the small ranch-house. But Rory Calhoun, though initially affable and charming, winds up... during one of the most suspenseful scenes... taking or, "borrowing" Mitchum's gun, and then his horse: he's in a hurry to acquire gold from a deed he<i> supposedly</i> won legitimately in a card game...<br />
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It's not very easy for Mitchum fans to see their hero losing a fight: and it happens right in front of his son — but this is why RIVER OF NO RETURN is a nice break for an actor who's usually impenetrable...<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEK4TKsNO3py-2WZWY0r_KjSY8siZRpBIMZfZsdg-nFwHYI_ms4hHMdHOmVrzZIc8EMAZZJ658mRHOelr9HfxurlnkPLI0ZIDIrFDP2-ZfqxDH0NznCWmD3dENo9VDoc912SC1Z8D-8HMt/s1600/Screen+Shot+2016-10-23+at+4.30.04+PM.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEK4TKsNO3py-2WZWY0r_KjSY8siZRpBIMZfZsdg-nFwHYI_ms4hHMdHOmVrzZIc8EMAZZJ658mRHOelr9HfxurlnkPLI0ZIDIrFDP2-ZfqxDH0NznCWmD3dENo9VDoc912SC1Z8D-8HMt/s320/Screen+Shot+2016-10-23+at+4.30.04+PM.jpg" width="217" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Another River Poster</u></td></tr>
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Meanwhile, the voluptuous blonde bombshell, Marilyn Monroe, singing enough guitar-slinging tunes (her character's a tent-how performer) to nearly make this a "Singing Cowgirl" picture, turns in one of her most nature performances under Preminger's extremely subtle, non-signature-style direction. He obviously did more for the actors since his usual creative camera maneuvers, that put him on equal ground with the likes of Alfred Hitchcock and Orson Welles, are used sparingly.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgS_S3ZxY3RhJi6tsPBTjJjwyR_PiJN9T99NDVpPA6PYqqySzGsJP8Xr5Si1UXeukhTTk6HvwMgk25kzhL6LkScQyxuas4t-1Ea4Lkyb19F_1bGxiM75IeVcoglz6eVs_ubU75xCD59Rg6w/s1600/river_of_no_return.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="244" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgS_S3ZxY3RhJi6tsPBTjJjwyR_PiJN9T99NDVpPA6PYqqySzGsJP8Xr5Si1UXeukhTTk6HvwMgk25kzhL6LkScQyxuas4t-1Ea4Lkyb19F_1bGxiM75IeVcoglz6eVs_ubU75xCD59Rg6w/s320/river_of_no_return.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>River of No Return SCORE: ***1/2</u></td></tr>
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As an Action-Western, RIVER is just okay since the adventurous scenes on the rapids (as the trio stand atop a Huck Finn style wooden raft) are superimposed to where there seems little to no danger as the actors are obviously safe inside a Hollywood studio: buckets of water being thrown on them, and the water's probably lukewarm. What works, however, is the bond between Mitchum and Monroe, taking longer than most films where two beautiful actors are destined for romance...<br />
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What defines Monroe's character is a stubborn determination to defend the scoundrel she's in love with, and Mitchum, although seeming, at times, like he's collecting a paycheck, plays nicely off his co-starlet that, for the most part, NO RETURN works despite its own intentionally breezy self: which basically means, this proverbial airhead has a brain, or two...<br />
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action, fifties, marilyn monroe, otto preminger, robert mitchum, western

ROBERT MITCHUM & MARILYN MONROE IN 'RIVER OF NO RETURN'

Mitch & Monroe take Preminger's RIVER OF NO RETURN Year: 1954 Robert Mitchum is not a devilish rogue this time... In fact he sil...

Written by James M. Tate / 12/19/2011 / No comments / bio , kenneth branagh , marilyn monroe , tens

MY WEEK WITH MARILYN

<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3BAGflsl7bOqx5atM-YVr7r0HnT1HIlglYB4wiEXnl6ENL5zhtnnQc72_XEC305YxqGBGVLNp4YN3KFPn_0Gd1y8lzoAclP_tfgMhRhsRes5wjexchheFnOFUnkJfRpEJoGfxj3czybUY/s1600/Michelle-Williams-as-Marilyn-Monroe-in-My-Week-With-Marilyn.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5688026819136558882" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3BAGflsl7bOqx5atM-YVr7r0HnT1HIlglYB4wiEXnl6ENL5zhtnnQc72_XEC305YxqGBGVLNp4YN3KFPn_0Gd1y8lzoAclP_tfgMhRhsRes5wjexchheFnOFUnkJfRpEJoGfxj3czybUY/s320/Michelle-Williams-as-Marilyn-Monroe-in-My-Week-With-Marilyn.jpg" style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 286px;" /></a><span style="font-weight: bold;">title: </span>MY WEEK WITH MARILYN<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">year: </span>2011<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">cast:</span> Michelle Williams, Eddie Redmayne, Kenneth Branagh<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">rating:</span> ***<br /><br />At this point, Marilyn Monroe is known for just about everything <span style="font-style: italic;">except</span> movies. Her image alone represents beauty as something eternal; since she died young, perfection is all we’re left with. So here’s a film about Monroe the actress, chosen by British icon Laurence Olivier to co-star in his 1957 comedy THE PRINCE AND THE SHOWGIRL. The first half has Monroe faltering and floundering, unable to get any line right – and by the end she’s stealing the picture, supposedly causing Olivier to return to the stage… But where’s the arc? Well it’s that middle ground the film (based on a memoir) is named after – the week long friendship between Marilyn and Colin Clark, played with noble naiveté by Eddie Redmayne, who, from a rich family and interested in show business, lands a job as third assistant director. Through his awestruck eyes we see Marilyn, not only as a timid starlet overmatched against the British dynamo, but a sweet natured, pill-popping victim of circumstance. The relationship between Marilyn and Clark lacks depth, and seems more of a fantastical valentine to a beautiful mirage than a genuine relationship, or a substantial film bio, which, if more attention was given to Kenneth Branagh as the frustrated Olivier trying to harness Monroe into his kind of performer, this would be more of. But Michelle Williams’s portrayal of the vulnerable bombshell makes everything work despite the fact that, being no match to the real Norma Jean esthetically, her performance becomes more than a lookalike/imitation: she really gets inside and pulls something out.

bio, kenneth branagh, marilyn monroe, tens

MY WEEK WITH MARILYN

title: MY WEEK WITH MARILYN year: 2011 cast: Michelle Williams, Eddie Redmayne, Kenneth Branagh rating: *** At this point, Marilyn Monroe ...

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