Customer Reviews

Say Goodbye to the President

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

At the time this was produced in Great Britain, this material was considered very controversial. Some American TV stations refused to run this special because it confirmed that MM had affairs with both President Kennedy and Bobby Kennedy. Now this news is old hat so it doesn't have the same power it once did. After this special, 20/20 did another report that added to the story. The 20/20 report was canned and Geraldo Rivera was fired for protesting the censorship of the 20/20 report. Today viewing this DVD reveals many flaws, such as the dark lighting of the interviews and the confusing way the material is presented. Still, if you want to purchase this DVD before it goes out of print and becomes a collector's item, this would be the time.

Though I believe Marilyn Monroe committed suicide, I found this video (which captures Marilyn's last days) very informative: it stands as a testament to how powerful men can take advantage of women (as JFK and RFK seem to have done with Marilyn). Sometimes angering, sometimes depressing, this video is essential to understanding the downfall of an American icon. Those critical to the premise that Marilyn had affairs with both Robert and John Kennedy will find it hard to deny the affairs in the face of the plentiful interviews and evidence in this movie.

SAY GOODBYE TO THE PRESIDENT is a 1988 British documentary that was, at the time of its release, quite controversial. Although potentially dismissible as mere "conspiracy theory," the cumulative effect of its many modern interviews with dozens of people directly and peripherially involved in events leading up to Marilyn Monroe's death create an air of believeability.

The most serious claim is that on the night in question, Monroe's housekeeper found the star ALIVE some time around midnight. The 82-year-old lady herself here changes long-held testimony that she found MM quite dead, and is backed up by owner of the responding ambulance. The revised story: a comatose Marilyn is removed to Santa Monica Hospital, and either dies there or during the ambulance ride.

Next, Bobby Kennedy is given time to leave town, Peter Lawford (the last person to speak to MM on the phone) goes to her home and destroys a suicide note, then Monroe's body is returned to her bed. LAPD receives a call some four hours after all this began to unfold.

The documentary is fleshed out with details of mob connections, MM's affairs with both Kennedy brothers, and lots of archive footage. Each puzzle piece is substantiated by modern interviews conducted with:

Eunice Murray - MM's housekeeper
Walter Schaefer - ambulance owner
Sgt. Jack Clemons - first LAPD respondent
Arthur James / Bob Slatzer - MM's friends
Jeanne Carmen - MM's neighbor
Joan Greenson - daughter of MM's psychiatrist
Tom Richter - LA Police Chief
Sam Yorty - LA mayor
Bill Romer - FBI agent
Chuck O'Brien - aide to Jimmy Hoffa
Fred Otash / John Danoff - PI wiretappers hired by Hoffa
Peter Summers - JFK aide
George Smathers - Senator
Frank Saunders - Joe Kennedy's chauffeur

Other interviewees include house guests of Peter Lawford, also his ex-wife Deborah Gould, and an LA DJ who met with a despondent MM shortly before she died. Only Sgt. Clemons flatly declares that Monroe was murdered, but his "irrefutable proof" is shown to be erroneous-- a strong case for non-bias on the part of the show's creators.

What's undeniable here is that in the final summer of her life, Marilyn Monroe was unemployed, hooked on barbiturates and talking to several people about an imminent death. Her fears (or predictions) became reality in the early hours of August 5th, 1962.

This documentary covers Marilyn Monroe's last days and focuses on her links to John and Bobby Kennedy. Unfortunately, with just one exception, the players in this story (particularly the narration) appear to be bored with the whole affair. The lighting is too dark and the music sounds like it came from a 1960's stag film. For the MM cognoscenti, very little new information is presented. The highlight of the film is the riveting testimony of Deborah Gould, who was the ex-wife of Peter Lawford. Even though she was probably just 10 years old in the early 1960's when all of this took place, she is as stunning as she is believable.

Conspiracy zealots are just shameless when it comes to making a buck off the death of Marilyn Monroe. I used to own this DVD, before i came to my senses about the truth of marilyn's Death and i no longer felt the need to sensationalize it.
The people involved in this production are as shady as they come in the Marilyn world - for example, Jeanne Carmen. Who is this woman??? She claims to have been a close friend of Marilyn's FOR YEARS, so close that they often "shared sleeping pills"....yet, nobody had ever heard of her, untill she came out of nowhere with her wild claims. (of course, conveniently after Marilyn's death).
Throw her unto the same heap with Robert slatzer, marilyn's "other best friend"....a guy with an overactive imagination who had made it his life's work to right the wrong of Marilyn's "murder", who claimes he knows all about the Kennedy secrets, etc....blah blah blah....the train stops with his claim that he was once married to Marilyn, in the middle of her courtship with Joe DiMaggio.
YIKES !!!
Then we have police guy Jack Clemmons, who arrived first on the scene of Marilyn's death, who later claimed the "scene looked staged" ,(staged "how"?) and that he had the distinct feeling "others where in the house" and all sorts of other "gut feelings"...yet he never bothered to share this with his fellow detectives at the time or investigate.
Pictures of the "crime scene" show nothing unusual at all. Unless you want to call marilyn's bare and messy room "unusual".
Jack Clemmons is the guy that has claimed that Marilyn's housekeeper was "doing the laundry" the night of marilyn's death....as if she was "destroying evidence"....
The facts are that Mrs. Murray was packing her own belongings and not "washing sheets", and Marilyn's body was never moved after her death.
Those are the facts.
The DVD further claims some phantom ambulance came and picked up marilyn from her house, just to turn around and bring her dead body back to her bedroom.....my question is: WHAT ambulance does that?
Secondly, there is no record of such an Ambulance nor did any of the neighbors report seeing an ambulance in the quiet cul-de-sac marilyn lived in.
And of cpurse, this DVD beats the Kennedy angle to death....the facts are that Marilyn had a very brief affair with JFK and a casual friendship with bobby Kennedy (that his wife knew about) and that's IT.
Bobby kennedy's wife even invited Marilyn to a party (Marilyn declined)...would a woman do that who suspected Marilyn of cheating with her husband?
Another witness on this DVD is Peter Lawford's ex-wife (one of them)....a person that I can not take seriously in any capacity. She wasn't a witness to anything that was going on in marilyn's Life at the time and she is simply repeating second hand information that may or may not have been told to her by an alcoholic elderly Peter Lawford.

Now, let's talk for a second about this DVD's crappy production. The producers were doing more slicing and dicing to create substance where there is none, it is truly laughable.
In an interview with marilyn's elderly housekeeper, mrs. Murray, the video is spliced tpgether as to make it appear that Mr.s Murray is speaking about the kennedy's, yet she never mentions an actual name (she only refers to the person she is speaking about as "he") and she could be speaking about Santa Claus, for all we know.
This is just downright rediculous.
So, last but not least - learn about Marilyn's life from people such as Arthur Miller, Milton greene, Pat Newcomb, Susan Strasberg, Norman Rosten, etc - reliable People that actually knew Marilyn and that didn't sell her down the River for a buck.
Authors such as Randy Taraborrelli, Barbara Leaming, John Gilmore and Maurice Zolotow also come highly recommended.

This tape has actually very little footage of Marilyn, the rest is just more of the same old, tired murder conspiracy. I think this tape confuses things more than it clears up. People have to realize that a lot of money is being made writing books and stuff about all these different theories, very little can actually be backed up with facts. It is truly a shame. Don't bother with this one