Niagara
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DVD Cover Information Actor: Denis O'Dea, Jean Peters, Joseph Cotten, Marilyn Monroe, Max Showalter Director: Henry Hathaway Brand: Fox Cinematographer: Joseph MacDonald Editor: Barbara McLean Producer: Charles Brackett Writer: Charles Brackett Writer: Richard L. Breen Writer: Walter Reisch DVD: Region Code 1 Audio: English (Original Language); French (Original Language) Format: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, NTSC Picture Format: 1.33:1 Running Time: 92 minutes DVD Release Date: 2006-05-30 Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated) Studio: 20th Century Fox |
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Movie Reviews of Niagara
Movie Review: 'Retains an Undiminished Popularity Throughout the Years'
Summary: 3 Stars
Henry Hathaway's 'Niagara' captures the the feel of a really bad vacation. A vacation with someone who no longer loves; or particularly likes you, and is quite possibly whiling away the hours thinking of ways to kill you.
One can almost smell the mildew on the towels and the staleness of the ashtrays in the Motor Lodge where Rose Loomis (Marilyn Monroe) lounges in bed wearing red lipstick and not much else, while her battle-fatigued husband George (Joseph Cotten), wanders around Niagara Falls, looking for sharp rocks to smash his head on. George can't stand Rose, and he can't live without her. This renders him powerless to do much more than paint model cars,chain smoke and break vinyl records he suspects are love songs about the guys Rose is really fantasizing about. Going nowhere fast, the Loomis' have 'late checkout' written all over them.
Enter Polly and Ray Cuttler of Toledo, Ohio. Polly is sharp everywhere that Rose is curvy, and Ray is a hapless dope who has cleverly combined their delayed honeymoon with a trip to the Corporate Headquarters of the Nabisco Factory, where, in his own words: "Breakfast cereal has become a National Institution." There is a wonderful seen where Ray, upon seeing for the first time- not the Natural Wonder that is Niagara Falls, but the Nabisco Company, lets out a girlish squeal. One wonders what Polly is doing with Ray, and when will she fall for, and save, the dark and brooding George who is clearly more interesting, and more a man of the world. Myself and quite possibly the other 4 members of the' Joseph Cotten-Is -One-Sexy-Powerful -Under-Rated-Actor' Club will be disappointed. Not in Cotten's performance, but in the plot of 'Niagara'.
Filmed on location with a powerful opening and moody feel of too much water, cold wind, technicolor souvenier shops, and a sun that never gets warm enough, and set to the gloamy music of composer Sol Kaplan, 'Niagara' eventually meanders through too many wardrobe changes into black and yelllow raincoats, resulting in an emotionally miserable cat and mouse chase. There is a suspense-filled broken railing scene, which should lead to a much-needed kiss, but instead becomes merely a backdrop for a weird scolding about the ethical dilemma of faking one's death.
Monroe, at her best when she plays a woman with a gently deranged personality disorder (must see 'Don't Bother To Knock'), plays Rose Loomis as a Femme Fatale who plots murder the way one might decide to sleep in late- with a sloppy, scattered-sheet air of boredom. Even when everything falls apart her fear lacks an edge, and her plans lack the cunning intelligence of most deadly women. That, and the removal of one of the big stars too early in the movie, gives the top Shredded Wheat salesman too much camera time.
As metaphor for loud, all-consuming obsession that blocks rational thought of calmer waters, Niagara Falls is the perfect third character. Does someone go over? Perhaps Hathaway is telling us that noisy, torrential, and dangerous obsession is more exciting than floating around with a guy who sells cereal.