Rose Loomis (Marilyn Monroe) takes a trip to Niagara Falls with her husband George Loomis (Joseph Cotton) as part of their honeymoon. Rose hatches a plan to murder her husband with her lover's help, but things don't go according to plan.
This really should have worked as it has a very simple 'Hitchcock type' plot, but sadly it always feels much less than the sum of its parts. The first problem with this film lies with the screenplay which is very basic and never offers anything in the way of surprises or suspense at any point in the film (and believe me there were lots of missed opportunities in this respect). The film also takes an awful long time to get going (why it does this when the plot is simple and straight-forward is anyone's guess).
The characterisation here is rather poor and motivation is also rather weak - this ultimately results in a story and characters that I didn't particularly care about. The narrative involves Polly & Ray Cutler as the concerned fellow holidaymakers who both come across as very twee and fake in the early stages (Polly develops and improves somewhat in the second half of the film), but Ray remains the same throughout the film and felt to me more like a caricature than a real person. One thing I will concede is that the Cutler's romance was convincing, but in a sort of nauseating way.
The performances are variable with only Joseph Cotton and Jean Peters making any real impression on the film; Marilyn Monroe looks great, but isn't particularly convincing and the less said about Max Showalter the better.
Aside from a couple of good performances the only other thing that I liked about this film was the on-set locations and cinematography, but in all honesty Niagara just isn't very good and after watching it I just kept thinking to myself 'What would this film have been like if Hitchcock was at the helm?'
This really should have worked as it has a very simple 'Hitchcock type' plot, but sadly it always feels much less than the sum of its parts. The first problem with this film lies with the screenplay which is very basic and never offers anything in the way of surprises or suspense at any point in the film (and believe me there were lots of missed opportunities in this respect). The film also takes an awful long time to get going (why it does this when the plot is simple and straight-forward is anyone's guess).
The characterisation here is rather poor and motivation is also rather weak - this ultimately results in a story and characters that I didn't particularly care about. The narrative involves Polly & Ray Cutler as the concerned fellow holidaymakers who both come across as very twee and fake in the early stages (Polly develops and improves somewhat in the second half of the film), but Ray remains the same throughout the film and felt to me more like a caricature than a real person. One thing I will concede is that the Cutler's romance was convincing, but in a sort of nauseating way.
The performances are variable with only Joseph Cotton and Jean Peters making any real impression on the film; Marilyn Monroe looks great, but isn't particularly convincing and the less said about Max Showalter the better.
Aside from a couple of good performances the only other thing that I liked about this film was the on-set locations and cinematography, but in all honesty Niagara just isn't very good and after watching it I just kept thinking to myself 'What would this film have been like if Hitchcock was at the helm?'