8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Marilyn would love it herself!, June 17, 1999
By A Customer
Fantastic! As close as you can get to the immaculate blond one. Brilliantly edited and narrated and hosted by late Lee Remick with candid-moment footage of Marilyn on the set, in the streets ,leaving buildings interrupted by scenes from her films it offers a very honest and sincere portrait of one of the most remarkable women ever been alive. A must-have for the fans.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
deeply moving, April 10, 2010
This review is from: Remembering Marilyn [VHS] (VHS Tape)
I think the issue of Lee Remick's real-life connection is not so important; more to the point is that her commentary is absolute perfection: calm, compassionate, deeply moving.
We used to create documentaries like this in the UK. Perhaps someone could sit our TV producers in front of "Remembering Marilyn" and demonstrate to them that emotion is most poignant when it's understated.
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3.0 out of 5 stars
Monroe/Remick: The Better Path on the Walk of Fame?, December 20, 2007
This review is from: Remembering Marilyn [VHS] (VHS Tape)
I found it interesting that this brief film-bio on Marilyn Monroe was hosted by Lee Remick, the actress initially cast to replace Marilyn after the latter was fired from her "last" movie, the never completed SOMETHING'S GOT TO GIVE. Remick, of course, was hired as a narrator for this project and was not asked to make any personal commentary. It might have been interesting to hear what she herself thought about the prospect of stepping into a role that had been Marilyn's, particularly given that MM never acted again and died only months after the film project had been abandoned.
There were a few differing accounts of why the project was dropped, by the way, but the one most often cited is that male lead Dean Martin didn't want to continue with the project after Marilyn was dismissed. Lee Remick said that she only got as far as being fitted for a few outfits before the film folded, but she got a hefty settlement out of it, not bad for a film that she never wanted to do in the first place.
People forget that Remick, almost a full decade younger than Monroe, was being touted around that time as "America's answer to Brigitte Bardot." But actually, she never saw herself that way--despite her highly charged performances in ANATOMY OF A MURDER and (in a lesser film) SANCTUARY. She was to receive an Academy Award nomination for DAYS OF WINE AND ROSES a film released the same year that Marilyn died. She was en route to achieving a goal that Marilyn had sought throughout her career--being viewed as a serious actress.
The contrast in the careers of the actresses who are narrator and subject of this film are significant. Although both died quite young (Monroe of a drug overdose in 1962 at 36, and Remick of cancer in 1991 of cancer at 55), Remick had a relatively long and stable career and remained professionally active right up until her illness's final ravages forced her to abandon a scheduled shoot in Russia. She was never the star that Marilyn was, of course, but by all accounts, her brief life was filled with personal and professional rewards that, sadly, remained elusive for Marilyn Monroe.
The producers may not have been thinking of all these things when they hired Lee Remick for the project, but whatever their intentions, her presence in it makes for an implicit commentary on the tragedies of Marilyn Monroe's own life and on the bitter truths about Hollywood stardom. Remick sought--and found--a long-term acting career, balanced it with a busy and, by all accounts, fulfilling family life. She was married twice, which was hardly unusual by Hollywood standards, and her second marriage endured from 1970 until her death. She once described herself as a boring, housewife who happened to act.
But she survived and pretty much thrived--until cancer took her, all too prematurely. A profoundly sad ending. Still one wishes that Marilyn Monroe could have experienced similar personal and professional satisfaction in her own brief lifetime. The facts presented in this documentary are, for the most part, well known. There is little new presented here. But the contrast between these two beautiful, glowing actresses--two of my own favorites--featured here as subject and narrator is makes, perhaps inadvertently, for an intriguing commentary on the destructive nature of extreme fame.
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