Whenever Oscar season comes around, there’s always talk of how Marilyn was never nominated – usually pointing to her role as Sugar Kane in Some Like It Hot. But before Sugar, there was Cherie…
Bus Stop (1956) was a box-office success, and Marilyn’s performance was widely acclaimed – but she was ‘snubbed’ by the Academy Awards. The Best Actress nominees included Carroll Baker (for Baby Doll); Katharine Hepburn (The Rainmaker); Nancy Kelly (The Bad Seed); and Deborah Kerr (The King and I.)
Carroll Baker’s Baby Doll character was the closest parallel to Cherie, but in a film much bolder than Bus Stop. In any case, the Oscar went to Ingrid Bergman for Anastasia – marking the Swedish star’s return to Hollywood after being publicly vilified for an adulterous affair.
At the time, Marilyn blamed director Joshua Logan for cutting down her key speech in Bus Stop, but that was the studio’s decision. It has also been suggested that her long-standing contractual battle with Twentieth Century-Fox had soured her with the Academy. However, she was nominated for a Golden Globe, losing out to Deborah Kerr.
And finally, Bus Stop is getting its due at New York’s Museum of the Moving Image (MoMI), with afternoon screenings next weekend (on Friday, February 9 and Saturday, February 10), as part of an ongoing series, Snubbed 2: The Performances.
“Giving Monroe her most respectable serious dramatic role to date, this hit adaptation of a William Inge play is a nimble blend of poignant character study and situational humour, in which the 1950s superstar unforgettably showcases her remarkable talent for embodying fragility, resilience, and self-deprecating humour. Monroe plays Cherie, a chanteuse performing at a diner in Phoenix who is swept off her feet—quite reluctantly—by an uncouth cowboy (Don Murray) who’s dropped into town from Montana to take part in a rodeo. He wants to marry her instantly, but unwilling to be owned by this rude, relative stranger, she tries to assert her independence and force him to earn her respect. Murray’s showier performance earned an Oscar nod, but Monroe—as would always be the case—was unnominated for this, her first film following her stint at the Actors’ Studio in New York.”
The Marilyn Report 