Featured Flick: Niagara

VisionTV presents Marilyn Monroe Week, five nights and five movies starring Hollywood’s most glamorous leading lady. Starting at midnight, August 5, watch Monroe in her most famous films: Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, The Misfits, River of No Return, Some Like it Hot and Niagara. Click on each title for details on the movie and a retrospective look at what it meant to her career and her reputation. And, as always, we’d love to hear your comments below.

Tonight’s Feature: Niagara (1953) — Friday, Aug. 9 at Midnight

Director: Henry Hathaway

Starring: Marilyn Monroe, Joseph Cotten

Plot: A thriller that follows Niagara Falls honeymooners George and Rose Loomis (Cotten and Monroe) whose lives become chillingly entangled with another couple also celebrating their wedding day.

Memorable line:

Ray Cutler (On seeing Monroe in a revealing outfit) “Hey, get out the firehose!”

50 years later: In the other movie she filmed in Canada, the director decided that Niagara the Falls and Monroe’s sensuality would occupy the bulk of the screen time in this tense thriller. She gamely plays the femme fatale role that, though largely overlooked at the time, actually turned out to be one of her best on-screen performances. Andy Warhol used a publicity shot from Niagara for his famous multi-coloured, silkscreen painting of Monroe.