Product Details

• Actors: Marilyn Monroe, Joseph Cotten, Jean Peters, Max Showalter, Denis O'Dea
• Directors: Henry Hathaway
• Writers: Charles Brackett, Richard L. Breen, Walter Reisch
• Producers: Charles Brackett
• Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Original recording reissued, Original recording remastered, NTSC
• Language: English
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: 20th Century Fox
• VHS Release Date: May 14, 2002
• Run Time: 92 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (96 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B000062XLV
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #289,581 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

27 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Early 1950s Suspense Featuring Marilyn Monroe & Allusions to Film Noir., September 9, 2005

By 

mirasreviews (McLean, VA USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (COMMUNITY FORUM 04)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Niagara (DVD)

"Niagara" is a sexually charged suspense film reminiscent of the film noirs of the 1940s, but in bright Technicolor. It was Marilyn Monroe's first starring role and promoted the image of MGM's new rising star. The look and demeanor which Monroe wears in "Niagara" is the image she would create over and over again on screen and with which her name is permanently associated. Polly and Ray Cutler are on a delayed honeymoon to Niagara Falls, where they take a cabin next to another American couple, Rose and George Loomis. George Loomis (Joseph Cotton) is a troubled WWII veteran with "battle fatigue" and an obsessive, unstable manner. Rose (Marilyn Monroe) is his young sex pot wife, whose attentions improve George's state of mind and whose indiscretions inflame him. When Polly (Jean Peters) is kind enough to bandage George's hand after he injures it in a violent fit, George opens up to her about his marriage and his troubles. Rose discusses her husband's illness openly and may have ulterior motives for wanting people to think George is crazy. Polly's sympathy and curiosity draw her into Rose and George's warped and soon-to-be-violent world.

Marilyn Monroe certainly looks the part of Rose Loomis, and Rose is a villainess, not a sympathetic character, which would become unusual in Monroe's career. Rose is a very good role for her, though. Whether Monroe is acting or not is debatable, but beside the point. She is acting like Marilyn Monroe. She wears glossy bright red lipstick in every scene, including in the shower, to bed, and even when it clashes with her hot pink skin tight dress. The stand-out performance here is from Joseph Cotton, as the violently unstable, self-destructive George Loomis. Cotton leaves no doubt in the audience's mind that George is suffering, sometimes hateful of his wife but deeply in love with her, and considerate in his own way when he warns Polly against allowing love to "go over the edge", "like those falls". Rose and George are equally corrupted, for different reasons. But Joseph Cotton makes George sympathetic, despite his many faults. This is in contrast to Polly's husband Ray (Casey Adams), who is a "nice guy", but essentially shallow and chauvinistic. The audience, like Polly and Ray, is at first fascinated by Rose and George. But as the film develops, the interesting, though understated, relationship becomes George and Polly, who are the story's central characters in the sense that they have an emotional arc, while the others are static. Polly is "Niagara"'s brains and its occasionally confused moral center.

For film noir buffs: The 1945 film "Leave her to Heaven" is widely reputed to be the single color film that is classic film noir. But it isn't -it isn't noir, that is. "Niagara" might be a better candidate. George Loomis is probably the only truly noir character in this film, and "Niagara" isn't as introverted as film noir. Its views of sexuality and gender roles are moving into the Eisenhower era. Nevertheless, "Niagara" takes a lot of inspiration from the crime films of the 1940s. Rose is a femme fatale, although her machinations seem more foolhardy than ambitious, and she's not a strong character. Sex is portrayed as a corrupting force, as Rose and George's relationship is contrasted with Polly and Ray's. But "Niagara" is puritanical rather than paranoid. The sex of film noir is primal but attractive, a force of nature meant to exploit human flaws and reveal the fragile and laughable condition of the characters' egos. In "Niagara", it isn't so much Rose's seduction that plagues George, but the fact that his entire self-image is vested in his wife's sexuality. Odd. "Niagara" is a sort of bright, lacquered perversion of film noir. In any case, this is quite a thoughtful film as well as being a top-notch suspense.

The DVD (20th Century Fox Diamond Collection 2004): This is a restored print of the film that looks very good. Bonus features include several theatrical trailers, a Restoration Comparison, and a Still Gallery. The theatrical trailer for "Niagara" (3 minutes) is black-and-white. There are trailers for 4 other Marilyn Monroe films and one for the Diamond Collection of DVDs (1 minute). The Restoration Comparison (1 minute) is a side-by-side comparison of the unrestored print, which was sallow and greenish, and the new one. The Still Gallery includes 18 black and white pictures and 3 color photos of Marilyn Monroe. Most are movie stills, but there are a few publicity and wardrobe photos thrown in. Subtitles are available in Spanish, captions in English, and dubbing is available in French.

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars First-Rate Scenery On Two Counts: Marilyn + Niagara Falls!, September 29, 2005

By 

David Von Pein (Mooresville, Indiana; USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Niagara (DVD)

"Niagara" is one of my favorite Marilyn Monroe movies. To be honest, though, I think Marilyn's performance here is a bit stiff and forced at times, but this film still reeled me in. "Niagara", in my view, is catapulted into the realm of "5-Star" status not merely by Marilyn Monroe's lovely presence, or on the strength of the suspenseful screenplay -- but, instead, based in large part on the outstanding on-location filming at Niagara Falls. The wealth of "Falls" scenery makes this 89-minute movie seem like a mini-vacation to Niagara Falls in many respects. You can almost feel the spray of the Fall's mist in several scenes.

In addition to the gorgeous scenery of the Falls (plus M.M.'s beauty too, of course), "Niagara's" other cast members rate pretty high marks for their work in this movie too (IMO) -- including the always-great Joseph Cotten as "George Loomis". Cotten is excellent as Loomis, Marilyn's semi-neurotic and always-suspicious husband. (It's a bit of a "May-December" relationship between Monroe and Cotten -- MM is 26 here; Cotten is 47.)

Jean Peters also co-stars in the film, and Jean is very nearly as lovely and captivating as Marilyn here. Also watch out for Casey Adams, Russell Collins, Lurene Tuttle, and Will Wright. Plus Don Wilson, who does a nice job here in a humorous role as "J.C. Kettering". Wilson for many years served as Jack Benny's sidekick and announcer on radio and TV. It's kind of fun being able to see Don in something else here.

Many people have chastised the performance of Casey Adams (aka: Max Showalter) in this film, citing his acting here as a major (or minor) debit which brings the movie down a notch or two. I disagree with any such Adams' assessment. I think Casey does just fine in this film (as the husband of Jean Peters). I think his part is played pretty well here, countering nicely that of the Marilyn and Joseph Cotten characters.

Casey has a couple of the best lines of dialogue in the movie too, when he laments to his wife: "We wait three years for a honeymoon, and spend it with a couple of spooks!" .... "Sports clothes -- Ha! All we needed here were a couple of shrouds!"

IMO, Casey's performance is many times superior to that of Denis O'Dea (who plays Police Inspector "Starkey" in the film). O'Dea seems stiff as a board when he's reading his lines of dialogue. But, not everybody can be as good as Joseph Cotten I guess. ;)


DVD TALK...........

"Niagara" arrived on DVD in May 2002 as part of "The Diamond Collection" of discs showcasing this most famous of American movie bombshells -- Miss Marilyn Monroe. The movie looks very nice on DVD too. An above-average transfer to the DVD format IMO. The before-and-after "Restoration Comparison" on the disc shows us the work that went into bringing the film's colors back to life.

"Niagara" premiered in theaters on January 21, 1953, and was originally projected on theater screens in the same ratio we find on this disc (Full Frame; 1.33:1) -- or very nearly that same screen shape at any rate; it might actually have been an ever-so-slightly wider ratio of 1.37:1 on theater screens (which is the "Academy Ratio" that was commonly used for films shot prior to the mid-1950s). But in either case, this disc does not contain a "Pan-&-Scan" video transfer, as has been advertised by some sources. There would be no need at all to P&S this movie, because it wasn't filmed in Widescreen.

Fox Home Entertainment, however, has made it very confusing for buyers of this DVD to figure out just exactly what is the screen shape of the image contained on this disc -- because (for some reason) Fox has printed BOTH "Full Screen" and "Widescreen" on the back of the packaging here. In tiny lettering at the very bottom of the back cover, it says "Widescreen Version", which is definitely an error. No Widescreen here at all. Nor would it be wanted for this Full-Frame motion picture.

This disc offers up three Dolby Digital audio choices for the listener -- The original English Mono, plus a re-mixed 2.0 English Stereo track, as well as French Mono. Subtitles can be accessed in English and in Spanish.

In addition to the interesting "Restoration Comparison", other extras on the disc include the Original Theatrical Trailer for "Niagara", five other Marilyn-related Trailers, and a Photo Gallery. A one-page printed insert also is included, with a Scene Selection guide for the disc's 24 individual movie chapters.

Like many older movie trailers, this one for "Niagara" (which runs for 3:01) features some different versions of some of the film's scenes. The studios many times put together a Theatrical Trailer using alternate "takes" of scenes within the movie. This is the case here. The differences are subtle; but fans of the film will probably notice (mainly the inflections in an actor's voice, or a different camera angle, which are noticeably different from the version of the same scene that is placed in the final cut of the film).

Another note regarding the trailer -- For some reason, the "Niagara" movie trailer is shown in black-and-white on this DVD. Most odd, since it is presented in its proper color form on an earlier-issued VHS tape version of the film.

It would have been nice if Fox had included the 1962 "Movietone News" segments on this DVD that appear on the 1992 VHS version of "Niagara". But, alas, those clips (all about MM, made just after her death) are absent from the DVD variant. Which is a pretty good reason to hang on to that VHS copy of the film, which, btw, also contains other extras too -- e.g.: the (color) trailer for "Niagara", plus other "mini" trailers for additional MM movies that were being distributed at that time (1992) on VHS by Fox Home Video.

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"NIAGARA" is an hour-and-a-half of vintage Hollywood movie entertainment, with one of the biggest stars of the era in her prime (Miss Monroe of course). And when Marilyn is combined with those stunning Falls of Niagara, this film becomes all the more inviting and impressive.

An enthusiastically-recommended DVD.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Marilyn and the Falls, October 19, 2002

By 

Kona (Emerald City) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Niagara (DVD)

This is one of my favorite movies. It's got Marilyn Monroe at her sexiest and the incredible Niagara Falls for a backdrop. What more could you ask for? Marilyn plays the trashy, bored wife of dull, older Joseph Cotten. He thinks they came to Niagara for a vacation, but Marilyn's lover is planning on tossing Cotten over the falls and running off with her. It doesn't quite work out the way she had hoped, however, and someone else is murdered. There is a big subplot involving a fresh-faced young couple who have won a prize trip to Niagra, but get dangerously involved with Marilyn and Cotten.

Marilyn is perfect as the cheap floosie who likes to toy with men. She burns up the screen when she sings a torchy song. This is almost cinema ancient history, because her performance is sooooo 1950's, but it's a fun ride, full of suspense and those beautiful Falls. Joseph Cotten is truly pitiable as a rancher with battle fatigue who wants to be loved.

If you've ever been to Niagara Falls, this film will bring back some great memories; you can almost feel the mist! Those who haven't been there will want to go after seeing Niagara. It's a dandy of a thriller, well-written and acted.