Niagara is currently streaming on the US-based Criterion Channel as part of a ‘Murderous Melodramas‘ programme – which also includes a film Marilyn rejected: Richard Fleischer’s The Girl in the Red Velvet Swing (1955), based on the true story of Evelyn Nesbit, a society beauty at the centre of a deadly love triangle (she was ultimately played by Joan Collins.)
Marilyn also has a tangential connection to Bigger Than Life (1956), shot on the Fox lot while Bus Stop was in production, as director Nicholas Ray – whom she had briefly dated a few years before – wanted her for a walk-on role. This never materialised, but she was photographed at the time with leading man James Mason and his young son, Morgan.
And finally, Marilyn was reportedly considered for Vincente Minelli’s Some Came Running (1958) before Shirley MacLaine was cast opposite Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, and an Oscar-nominated Martha Hyer.
The Marilyn Report 