Marilyn makes two appearances in Brian Viner’s list of the 100 Greatest Films Ever for the Weekend supplement in today’s UK Daily Mail. Her breakthrough movie All About Eve (1950) comes in at #41, while Some Like It Hot (1959) is ranked in fifth place.
Here’s a peek at the films that pipped Marilyn to the top spot…
However, diehard fans will know it’s not Monroe with Curtis and Lemmon in the Mail‘s colourised Some Like It Hot photo, but Sandra Warner – wearing an Orry-Kelly dress from Marilyn’s ‘I’m Through With Love’ number. Sandra, a successful model and singer who also played a member of Sweet Sue’s band in Some Like It Hot, was called in to replace a visibly pregnant Marilyn for the publicity layout.
It wasn’t an uncommon practice to use stand-ins for cast photos, with the absent stars transposed onto the image before publication. Back in 1952, Marilyn had posed in a black bathing suit with stand-ins for her Monkey Business co-stars, Ginger Rogers and Cary Grant – who were later photographed with a stand-in wearing Marilyn’s pleated Travilla dress.
Marilyn shot a separate layout for Some Like It Hot with her favourite photographer, Richard Avedon – wearing the costume from her ‘Running Wild’ number. Photos from this sitting were used to promote the film’s release in March 1959, and ever since.
Thanks to Fraser
The Marilyn Report 