Niagara
Feature Length Narrative Film / 1953 / USA / Color / 92’
English; with Turkish subtitles
Director: Henry Hathaway | Producer: Charles Brackett | Screenwriter: Charles Brackett, Walter Reisch, Richard L. Breen | Starring: Marilyn Monroe, Joseph Cotten, Jean Peters, Max Showalter, Denis O'Dea | Director of Photography: Joseph MacDonald | Editor: Barbara McLean | Music: Sol Kaplan | Directors of Photography: Lyle R. Wheeler, Maurice Ransford | Costume Designer: Dorothy Jeakins, Charles Le Maire | Production: Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corp.
“Marilyn Monroe and ‘Niagara’ a raging torrent of emotion that even nature can't control!” From the film’s tagline.
One of the last films to be shot in Technicolor, this film-noir classic from 1953 heralds the birth of Marilyn Monroe as the sultry and devastating Rose, one of the most well-known femme-fatales of the history of cinema and turns her name into an unwavering icon. A crime of passion story, the film’s plot revolves around newlyweds Polly and Ray Cutler who arrive in Niagara for their honeymoon and get pulled into a deadly intrigue after meeting another couple named Rose and George Loomis in their camping area. Niagara, directed by Henry Hathaway and written in collaboration by three Academy Award winners (Charles Brackett, Walter Reisch and Richard L. Breen) is considered one of the classics of film-noir genre with amazing performances by Marilyn Monroe, Joseph Cotten and Jean Peters, with its pacing that conveys the feeling of impending doom up to the finale and three-dimensional characters that were ahead of their time. Joe MacDonald’s cinematography which turns Niagara Falls’ natural grandeur and eeriness into a unique set piece for this morality game evokes respect even today.
Marilyn Monroe’s performance as an evil and calculating woman, while being very different from her regular comedic roles, reflects human sexuality and passion in a way that is both mesmerizing and terrifying. With her ruby red lips, her iconic pink dress by Dorothy Jeakins which affected the fashion world as deeply as it did popular culture and her platinum blonde curls, we can’t take our eyes off the gleaming Marilyn Monroe, whose famous strut down the cobblestone street stills hold the record of being the longest walk in the history of cinema.
