Marilyn’s Culture Clash in ‘Yours Retro’

The October issue of UK nostalgia mag Yours Retro (#67, with James Dean on the cover) takes a closer look at two of Marilyn’s best early films. All About Eve (1950), in which she played aspiring actress Claudia Caswell, is an undisputed classic – and, as Simon Button writes, ‘the bitchiest film ever made.’

Zsa Zsa Gabor, who lobbied unsuccessfully for a role, accused Marilyn of ‘batting her eyelashes’ at her husband, George Sanders (or it was the other way around?) Sanders, meanwhile, claimed that an angry outburst from Bette Davis prompted Marilyn to run off the set.

Marilyn’s next important role came in Clash By Night (1952), an adaptation of Clifford Odets’ Broadway play directed by Fritz Lang. In late 1951, she joined the high-powered cast on location in Monterey. Her character, a feisty young cannery worker, was a daring departure from the ‘eye candy’ parts she was routinely given.

But as Monroe biographer Michelle Morgan writes in her article, ‘Marilyn’s Culture Clash,’ the rising star was a fish out of water. Leading lady Barbara Stanwyck ignored her, while Paul Douglas resented the attention she attracted from the press. Lang, meanwhile, was frustrated by her growing reliance on acting coach Natasha Lytess, whom he banned from the set.

Nonetheless, local residents found Marilyn the most down-to-earth and approachable of the cast, and co-star Robert Ryan – in contrast to his vicious screen persona – was kind and supportive. Despite the odds, Marilyn and fellow newcomer Keith Andes more than held their own, and their sparky love scenes added ‘a bright note’ to this gloomy melodrama.

Elsewhere in Yours Retro, ‘The Jack Pack’ explores President John F. Kennedy’s dalliance with Frank Sinatra, Peter Lawford & Co; and Heather Garner revisits the heyday of another fifties blonde, Norma Ann Sykes – aka Sabrina.

Some Like It Hot (1959) comes third in a ranking of Tony Curtis’ Top 5 Box-Office Gold movies, right behind two other films from the same period; Operation Petticoat (1959) – alongside Cary Grant, whom Curtis had parodied in Some Like It Hot – and Spartacus (1960.) Some Like It Hot was Marilyn’s highest-grossing film, followed by another Billy Wilder picture, The Seven Year Itch (1955).

The November issue of Yours Retro will include a feature on Clark Gable’s only son, whom he would never meet. Tragically, the ‘King of Hollywood’ died shortly after wrapping The Misfits while his wife Kay was pregnant. Still mourning her favourite leading man, Marilyn would attend John Clark Gable’s christening in 1961.

And finally, Michelle Morgan speaks out on the ongoing campaign to save Marilyn’s last home at Fifth Helena Drive in Brentwood, Los Angeles.