Niagara is showing at Place Guillaume II on Saturday, July 25, at 9:30 pm, as part of a free City Open Air Cinema series hosted by Luxembourg Cinémathèque – following a full retrospective, A Century of Miss Monroe, in May.
“During a seemingly peaceful stay near Niagara Falls, hidden desires and tensions begin to surface between two couples. Henry Hathaway’s sensual noir is elevated by Marilyn Monroe’s magnetic presence in one of her most striking and enigmatic performances.
‘Dressed in a purple dress, her hips constantly swaying, she goes into a trance as soon as she hears a record titled “Kiss”. Her spasms and arches continue even in her hospital bed, in a kind of semi-sleep. She is the living embodiment of André Breton’s motto: “Beauty will be convulsive or it will not be.”‘ – Etienne Chaumeton, Cinema 56
“Henry Hathaway’s hypnotic contemplation of two American monuments, Niagara Falls and Marilyn Monroe” – Dave Kehr
And for viewers in the US, Niagara is currently streaming on the 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 