It is not the best film noir movie, but NIAGARA is one of the most interesting ones, because of a casting decision. Aside from her performance in DON'T BOTHER TO KNOCK, Marilyn Monroe never played negative types. Even Loralie Lee in GENTLEMEN PREFER BLONDS is really in love with her fiancé - she just is aware that in a world run by men a woman has to be ready to take advantages of whatever she has to protect herself or prepare for her old age. In DON'T BOTHER TO KNOCK the fear and chaos she creates is due to mental problems - she is not responsible. But that's not the case in NIAGARA. In no other film did Marilyn show a vicious streak.
Here she is the typical bombshell, tied in a loveless marriage to ailing, cranky Joseph Cotton. Marilyn seems to go in two directions with Cotton - either she ignores him, or she humiliates him. Witness the scene where she plays the suggestive music, and does a sexy, provocative dance for the other denizens of the motel that she and Cotton are staying in. It turns out that she and her lover plan to lure Cotton into an isolated spot, and stage an accident leading to his drowning in the great Falls. The plan, however, goes totally awry, and Marilyn is not certain who is dead, and what the police may or may not know.
She has some excellent moments in the film - when she has to identify the corpse and collapses. When she starts getting "hang-up" calls at the Hospital. There is also great juxtaposition of the tension in Marilyn's performance, and the seeming gaiety felt by most of the tourists around her.
Cotton is moody and suspicious as the film continues, but also helpless and somewhat sympathetic. He has been compared by another writer for his role here and for that of "Uncle Charlie" in SHADOW OF A DOUBT", but "Charlie" was far more vicious and greedy, killing women for their money. Here it is Cotton's George Loomis who is the marked target - not Monroe's Rose Loomis.
Instead of concentrating on the actor playing the lover of Marilyn, the third figure is Jean Peters as Polly Cutler, who is determined to try to make her honeymoon a success, but is drawn into the tragedy of the Loomis marriage. She does well in a thankless part, for wicked women (like wicked men) are more fascinating than their nicer counterparts. But she does get her share of terror too - up to the conclusion when lives and problems are effortlessly swept away by powers beyond mortal men's abilities to control. For all it's flaws as a small production, it is a good film, and helps prove that Marilyn Monroe was a potentially great actress.
Here she is the typical bombshell, tied in a loveless marriage to ailing, cranky Joseph Cotton. Marilyn seems to go in two directions with Cotton - either she ignores him, or she humiliates him. Witness the scene where she plays the suggestive music, and does a sexy, provocative dance for the other denizens of the motel that she and Cotton are staying in. It turns out that she and her lover plan to lure Cotton into an isolated spot, and stage an accident leading to his drowning in the great Falls. The plan, however, goes totally awry, and Marilyn is not certain who is dead, and what the police may or may not know.
She has some excellent moments in the film - when she has to identify the corpse and collapses. When she starts getting "hang-up" calls at the Hospital. There is also great juxtaposition of the tension in Marilyn's performance, and the seeming gaiety felt by most of the tourists around her.
Cotton is moody and suspicious as the film continues, but also helpless and somewhat sympathetic. He has been compared by another writer for his role here and for that of "Uncle Charlie" in SHADOW OF A DOUBT", but "Charlie" was far more vicious and greedy, killing women for their money. Here it is Cotton's George Loomis who is the marked target - not Monroe's Rose Loomis.
Instead of concentrating on the actor playing the lover of Marilyn, the third figure is Jean Peters as Polly Cutler, who is determined to try to make her honeymoon a success, but is drawn into the tragedy of the Loomis marriage. She does well in a thankless part, for wicked women (like wicked men) are more fascinating than their nicer counterparts. But she does get her share of terror too - up to the conclusion when lives and problems are effortlessly swept away by powers beyond mortal men's abilities to control. For all it's flaws as a small production, it is a good film, and helps prove that Marilyn Monroe was a potentially great actress.