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Since this is Marilyn's "Actors Studio thread", I figured this was the best place to talk about her dramatic roles. While the common perception of Marilyn's filmography consisting predominantly of musicals and comedies isn't necessarily wrong, one might be surprised at just how many "straight" roles she had during her career.
If we want to get very technical, her first screen appearance was void of any comedy. She played a sarcastic waitress named Evie in DANGEROUS YEARS (1947), a low-budget juvenile delinquent film that swooped in and out of theaters. This was during her first contract with Fox, but her contract was dropped within a year.
She appeared in John Huston's urban crime drama THE ASPHALT JUNGLE (1950). She apparently bet out Barbara Payton for the small, but crucial role of Angela, an aging gangster's mistress. One commentator said of Marilyn's work: "Though the part was small, it proved that Marilyn's acting range might be broader than her earlier appearances suggested." For the rest of her life, Marilyn spoke positively of director John Huston, and regularly said her role in THE ASPHALT JUNGLE was the best of her screen career.
"Desperate to avoid the pitfalls of typecasting," as one writer explains it, "Marilyn pleaded for bigger and more challenging roles." She was back at Fox with a long-term contract by December 1950, but soon grew frustrated with the small, "dumb blonde" roles she had been given in a string of lightweight comedies. She agreed to be loaned out to RKO, where she appeared in CLASH BY NIGHT (1952), a noirish melodrama starring Barbara Stanwyck. While Marilyn gets fourth billing above-the-title, she is "reduced to what is tantamount to a bit role" as a Peggy, the fish-packing girlfriend to Keith Andes. Her performance was well-reviewed, and there are many reports saying Stanwyck was supported of her admiring young co-star.
The offbeat thriller DON'T BOTHER TO KNOCK (1952) provided Marilyn with her first starring dramatic role. In the film's short running time, she manages to convey a range of emotions as Nell, an emotionally distressed young woman fresh out of a sanitarium, who is hired to look after a society couple's daughter in an upscale hotel for an evening. Some criticize the film for lacking depth, but I like how fast-moving the story is, and this just might be my favorite of Marilyn's dramatic roles. For a trivia tidbit, this was the final time Marilyn appeared on-screen with brunette hair.
Fox was ready to fast-track Marilyn into their flagship leading lady in 1952. The film NIAGARA (1953) was thereby retooled so that emphasis was taken from Jean Peters and given to Monroe. In the film, she plays Rose, and adulterous siren who conjures a plan to have her ex-veteran husband (Joseph Cotten) murdered so she can run off with her young lover. Of course, the plan doesn't go as she envisioned. NIAGARA really shows just how Marilyn "could carry a big-budget dramatic film", and she looks beautiful in glorious Technicolor. It's a shame Fox (or any other studio who could've recruited her services) failed to utilize this persona for her more often.
Marilyn had zero interest in RIVER OF NO RETURN (1954) when she was assigned to the project. In what became her only traditional Western, Marilyn plays Kay, a saloon singer with a heart of gold. Her fiancee (Rory Calhoun) abandons her, and she ends up floating down a dangerous river with a man (Robert Mitchum) and his son (Tommy Rettig), two people her fiancee had left for dead. RIVER OF NO RETURN is beautifully shot in CinemaScope and Technicolor, and is easily one of my favorite classic Westerns.
By most accounts, Marilyn's "return" in BUS STOP (1956) was heralded as an momentua Having spent more than a year studying at the Actors Studio in Manhattan, she felt a responsibility to validate her method acting training under Lee and Paula Strasberg. She stars as Cherie, a roadhouse torch singer who becomes the object of obsession for a young, right-off-the-farm rancher (Don Murray). I'm divided on this film. I used to like it a lot, but on more recent viewings, I've come to find it a little frustrating. It might've been better as a smaller, B&W character study, rather than as a widescreen spectacle.
That brings us to THE MISFITS (1961), which became Marilyn's final completed film. The screenplay had been written by her third husband, playwright Arthur Miller, as something of a Valentine present for his wife. She plays Roslyn, a recent divorcee living in Reno, who gets tangled up with three modern-day wranglers (Clark Gable, Montgomery Clift, and Eli Wallach). Her performance received mixed reviews when the movie premiered, but has since been reevaluated and garnered critical acclaim. Marilyn does give a fine performance in THE MISFITS, but the oddness of the film pushes audiences away from it.
What is your favorite of Marilyn's dramatic roles?
If we want to get very technical, her first screen appearance was void of any comedy. She played a sarcastic waitress named Evie in DANGEROUS YEARS (1947), a low-budget juvenile delinquent film that swooped in and out of theaters. This was during her first contract with Fox, but her contract was dropped within a year.
She appeared in John Huston's urban crime drama THE ASPHALT JUNGLE (1950). She apparently bet out Barbara Payton for the small, but crucial role of Angela, an aging gangster's mistress. One commentator said of Marilyn's work: "Though the part was small, it proved that Marilyn's acting range might be broader than her earlier appearances suggested." For the rest of her life, Marilyn spoke positively of director John Huston, and regularly said her role in THE ASPHALT JUNGLE was the best of her screen career.
"Desperate to avoid the pitfalls of typecasting," as one writer explains it, "Marilyn pleaded for bigger and more challenging roles." She was back at Fox with a long-term contract by December 1950, but soon grew frustrated with the small, "dumb blonde" roles she had been given in a string of lightweight comedies. She agreed to be loaned out to RKO, where she appeared in CLASH BY NIGHT (1952), a noirish melodrama starring Barbara Stanwyck. While Marilyn gets fourth billing above-the-title, she is "reduced to what is tantamount to a bit role" as a Peggy, the fish-packing girlfriend to Keith Andes. Her performance was well-reviewed, and there are many reports saying Stanwyck was supported of her admiring young co-star.
The offbeat thriller DON'T BOTHER TO KNOCK (1952) provided Marilyn with her first starring dramatic role. In the film's short running time, she manages to convey a range of emotions as Nell, an emotionally distressed young woman fresh out of a sanitarium, who is hired to look after a society couple's daughter in an upscale hotel for an evening. Some criticize the film for lacking depth, but I like how fast-moving the story is, and this just might be my favorite of Marilyn's dramatic roles. For a trivia tidbit, this was the final time Marilyn appeared on-screen with brunette hair.
Fox was ready to fast-track Marilyn into their flagship leading lady in 1952. The film NIAGARA (1953) was thereby retooled so that emphasis was taken from Jean Peters and given to Monroe. In the film, she plays Rose, and adulterous siren who conjures a plan to have her ex-veteran husband (Joseph Cotten) murdered so she can run off with her young lover. Of course, the plan doesn't go as she envisioned. NIAGARA really shows just how Marilyn "could carry a big-budget dramatic film", and she looks beautiful in glorious Technicolor. It's a shame Fox (or any other studio who could've recruited her services) failed to utilize this persona for her more often.
Marilyn had zero interest in RIVER OF NO RETURN (1954) when she was assigned to the project. In what became her only traditional Western, Marilyn plays Kay, a saloon singer with a heart of gold. Her fiancee (Rory Calhoun) abandons her, and she ends up floating down a dangerous river with a man (Robert Mitchum) and his son (Tommy Rettig), two people her fiancee had left for dead. RIVER OF NO RETURN is beautifully shot in CinemaScope and Technicolor, and is easily one of my favorite classic Westerns.
By most accounts, Marilyn's "return" in BUS STOP (1956) was heralded as an momentua Having spent more than a year studying at the Actors Studio in Manhattan, she felt a responsibility to validate her method acting training under Lee and Paula Strasberg. She stars as Cherie, a roadhouse torch singer who becomes the object of obsession for a young, right-off-the-farm rancher (Don Murray). I'm divided on this film. I used to like it a lot, but on more recent viewings, I've come to find it a little frustrating. It might've been better as a smaller, B&W character study, rather than as a widescreen spectacle.
That brings us to THE MISFITS (1961), which became Marilyn's final completed film. The screenplay had been written by her third husband, playwright Arthur Miller, as something of a Valentine present for his wife. She plays Roslyn, a recent divorcee living in Reno, who gets tangled up with three modern-day wranglers (Clark Gable, Montgomery Clift, and Eli Wallach). Her performance received mixed reviews when the movie premiered, but has since been reevaluated and garnered critical acclaim. Marilyn does give a fine performance in THE MISFITS, but the oddness of the film pushes audiences away from it.
What is your favorite of Marilyn's dramatic roles?