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Marilyn Monroe - The Diamond Collection (Bus Stop / How to Marry a Millionaire / There's No Business Like Show Business / Gentlemen Prefer Blondes / The Seven Year Itch / The Final Days)Rating:
Release Date: 29 May, 2001 Retail Price: $49.98 OUR Price: $39.98 You SAVE: $10.00! Cast: |
Marilyn Monroe - The Diamond Collection (Bus Stop / How to Marry a Millionaire / There's No Business Like Show Business / Gentlemen Prefer Blondes / The Seven Year Itch / The Final Days) Reviews
Goodbye Norma Jean
Are you in for a treat! The Diamond Collection features 5 Marilyn movies, and the first-time ever release of her final, unfinished film. First up is "Bus Stop", directed by Joshua Logan in 1956. Don Murray(in his first film) co-stars as a riotious young country cowboy. This bumpy romance is stage-bound and corny. However, it's final scenes reveal an emotionally scarred young woman's character that is hauntingly reminiscent of the "Marilyn Mystique". The second film is "There's No Business Like Show Business", from 1954. It's a back-stage show business melodrama; dated and slow. However, this new DVD offering is dripping with luxurious, mind-bogeling color. Dan Dailey co-stars, along with a very young Hugh O'Brian. The third film is 1955's "Seven Year Itch". Director Billy Wilder had filmed the classic "Sunset Boulevard" just 5 years before. "The Seven Year Itch" was a smash Broadway comedy hit for 3 years. Tom Ewell signed on to repeat his starring role. Ewell plays a hen-pecked husband, alone for the summer in his sweltering Manhattan flat. Then he meets "the girl". It's a fast moving satirical romp. The timing and acting are superb. It's near perfect. The fourth film is "How to Marry a Millionaire", from 1953.This vibrant, classy comedy stars Marilyn along with Betty Grable, Lauren Bacall, and Hollywood icon William Powell, who once romanced Jean Harlow. Marilyn easily steals the show. Her ditzy, near-sighted blond model named Pola is a scream from begining to end. Next is "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes(1953)". A famous action director, this was Howard Hawk's only musical. Jane Russell co-stars. The shipboard scene with Marilyn, Charles Coburn, and George Winslow ranks among the funniest ever shot! Finally comes a special treasure trove of Hollywood legend. "Something's Got to Give" has been locked away in a 20th Century film vault for 40 years. Carefully edited from 9 hours of film never seen before, it is perhaps the first half of her final intended film. Shot in 1962, it features her only nude scene. George Cukor directed parts of "Gone With the Wind" in 1939. Here he leads Marilyn and barks orders at child actors on the set. An exceptional cast includes Dean Martin, Cyd Charisse,Phil Silvers, Steve Allen, and the mysterious Wally Cox. 19 days behind schedule, filming was suspended due to Marilyn's poor health. Marilyn enticed the studio to begin re-filming, armed with a new million-dollar contract and a 2 picture deal. Ravaged by 10 years of Hollywood stardom, Marilyn suffered bouts of depression. She died in August, 1962, of a pill overdose. For the first time ever, the camera opens the door on this fragile, frightened, and damaged little girl living in a still beautiful 35 year-old woman's body. "Diamonds are a Girl's Best Friend". But having just one friend might have helped save this little girl.
A Very Entertaining Collection of Upbeat Monroe
If you've been dying to get your hands on your own Marilyn Monroe collection of movies, this will satisfy most of your desire. The only weak film is "There's No Business Like Show Business," which is of course about the show biz family. However, its musical numbers are terrific and make up for the rest of it. All of the remaining films you can't go wrong with though. "Seven Year Itch" is a delight with Tom Ewell fantasizing over Monroe big time when she becomes his neighbor as he goes through a marital crisis period. Billy Wilder directed it and she was at her best when he was at the helm. (They also did "Some Like It Hot" together which should be in this collection too (and would be my substitute for "Show Business".) The famous Monroe dress blowing up because of the air blast from the subway through the street grating occurs here. "Millionaire" is a favorite as well showcasing three women, Monroe, Lauren Bacall and Betty Grable, in 1950s New York trying to land millionaires as husbands. More than money though, Monroe's weakness is finding a man who likes the way she looks while she is wearing glasses as she is blind as a bat and contacts didn't exist. The romance that sizzles the most is Bacall's but Monroe is a standout comically whenever she is onscreen. In "Gentlemen," Monroe is wonderful as gold digger Lorelei Lee and this is also where one of her most memorable musical numbers occurs, "Diamonds Are A Girl's Best Friend." There is one serious film too, based on a William Inge play, "Bus Stop." Many thought Monroe could not act in the work of a serious playwright but this movie proved them wrong. She is a saloon singer romanced by a cowboy played by Don Murray, who did some very good films in the 1950s but is largely forgotten nowadays. What's missing? You really must see "The Misfits" and "Let's Make Love" too. "The Misfits" is probably my personal favorite of Monroe's but it is her most serious film and probably would not fit in with this mostly frothy collection. "Bus Stop" is actually very upbeat by its conclusion whereas playwright Arthur Miller went for broke with his searing "The Misfits," written while his marriage with Monroe failed. "Let's Make Love" would have fit in perfectly with this collection, however, as charming romance fare with Yves Montand as her French tycoon love interest. The forty minutes or so of "Something's Got To Give" are very sad. Had the movie been finished, I think it would have been a slight work, especially following on the heels of "Misfits."
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