Movie Maven

Some Like It Hot (1959)
Starring: Marilyn Monroe, Jack Lemmon, Tony Curtis
Written by: Robert Thoeren and Michael Logan
Directed by: Billy Wilder
Official Website

Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953)
Starring: Jane Russell, Marilyn Monroe, Charles Coburn
Written by: Joseph Fields
Directed by: Howard Hawks
Official Website (IMDB)

(Photos: Left: Monroe, courtesy of suetuthill.com. Right: Lemmon, Curtis, Monroe courtesy of flickr.com)

I've had the distinct pleasure of viewing two Marilyn Monroe films lately and decided to speak a bit on my woefully incomplete knowledge of her work and life. She's always fascinated me, in the way that all tragic characters fascinate- with a mixture of glorification and hero-worship and morbid curiosity.

The first movie I saw was Some Like It Hot- an old favorite of mine. For those who have seen it (and shame on you if you haven't) it's more like a security blanket or cup of hot cocoa than a film, from the first shot of the grim-faced gangsters to the last unforgettable line- "Well, nobody's perfect." It surrounds two musicians (Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon) during the 1920s who have to flee Chicago after witnessing the St. Valentine's Day Massacre. They decide to dress as women and hide out in an all-female band headed to Florida. On the way they meet Sugar Kane Kowalczyk (Monroe,) the band's beautiful lead singer and ukulele player. And then the fun begins.

I could ramble at considerable length about all the things that are fabulous about this movie (the sheer comic genius of Lemmon and Curtis, the plot that's both satisfying and engrossing, and the great music are just a few things that come to mind) but what really struck me watching it this time around was Monroe's talent. I mean, real talent. Some could consider her part a throwaway bit- the gorgeous, if ditzy blonde romantic interest- but Monroe takes it on with grace, sweetness, and surprising wit. She keeps pace perfectly with her two co-stars and all three play off of each other beautifully.

The second film was Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, a musical which I had never seen before (I know, I know, shame on me). This one has two lounge singers Dorothy and Laralei (Jane Russell and Monroe) on a transatlantic cruise to France... and then the fun begins. Monroe is again the scheming dumb blonde, while Russel is her intelligent, sensible friend. Zany and predictable and giddily sexist, it's an example of classic '50s movie making, and the humor stands up pretty well today.

It's a little painful to watch Monroe now, years after her tragic (and common) demise; after hordes of biographers and historians and enthusiasts have unearthed every torrid detail of her short, brutal history. I hadn't known much about Monroe, besides the fact that she was a size 14, married Joe Dimaggio, and killed herself in her mid-30's. But just reading down the mini-biography in her IMDB profile is depressing.

-Mother was a deranged film cutter at RKO that abandoned her to a sequence of foster homes. She never knew her father.
- She was nearly smothered to death at two, nearly raped at six.
- She was paid a nickel a month at the LA Orphans home for kitchen work- they took back a penny every week to go to the church.
- She married three times, with no marriage lasting more than four years. When she married playwright Arthur Miller she didn't own a veil to match her beige dress and dyed one with coffee.
- She was also smarter than anyone gave her credit for: she owned more than 200 books, including Tolstoy, Milton and Whitman, loved Beethoven and studied at the Actor's Lab in Hollywood and took literature courses at UCLA. This really interested me. In my mind it goes along with the fact that she struggled all her life to become a "serious actress"- she wanted to be respected, not just gawked at.
- Four months after being dropped from the movie Something's Got to Give, she was found in her Bentwood home lying face down, nude on the bed, dead apparently from a drug overdose.

All these facts seem inconceivable when watching Monroe. She's known for her sex appeal, but what always struck me was the childlike enthusiasm and innocence she brought to her roles. I think for many people this translated to "dumb blonde," but it was more subtle than that. In many ways it was a complete departure from who she actually was. It takes a lot of talent to pull that off.

There's a moment at the end of Gentlemen Prefer Blondes when Loralei explains to her beloved's millionaire father Mr. Esmond (Taylor Holmes) the practicality of her wish to marry a rich man. "If you had a daughter," she asks, "wouldn't you want her to have everything she wants?"

"Say, they said you were stupid," says Mr. Esmond. Loralei flashes him a smile and tellingly confides, "Oh, I can be smart if it's important. But I know men don't like it very much." It's the secret that Monroe lived her life by- the reason she never got the career she wanted. And it's the reason she's still viewed only as a sex goddess, no matter how many shelves of Milton and Tolstoy she may have possessed.