|
Niagara (1953)
In director Henry Hathaway's Techni-colored melodramatic
noir - it was a thriller about the destructive nature of
a femme fatale's alluring, out of control sensuality and lust
as she plotted to kill her husband - it provided the perfect star vehicle
for curvy sexpot Marilyn Monroe (advertised as a "tantalizing temptress
whose kisses fired men's souls!"); one of the film's taglines compared
MM to the metaphoric ever-present roar of the famous Niagara Falls: "A
raging torrent of emotion that even nature can't control!":
- the film's main setting was at the Rainbow Cabins
(modern housekeeping units) within sight of the landmark, famed
Niagara Falls vacation spot, where tension quickly developed between
a married couple who were vacationing together (on the Canadian
side): Rose Loomis (26 year-old Marilyn Monroe),
a beautiful, voluptuous and young sexy blonde woman who was
a sinfully-wayward, unhappily married woman and trashy femme
fatale, with her husband George Loomis
(Joseph Cotten), a depressed and emotionally-unstable
shell-shocked Korean War veteran
The Torrential Niagara Falls - Compared to the Main Femme
Fatale
|
Rainbow Cabins
|
- in the film's opening, the sensual, adulterous
Rose was lounging naked in her bed sheets in her cabin next to
the Falls
Rose Loomis (Marilyn Monroe) in the Film's Opening
|
|
|
|
- two others (on a 'delayed' honeymoon after two years
of marriage) who arrived at the Cabins from Toledo, Ohio were pretty
Polly (Jean Peters, who later married Howard Hughes) and clean-cut
Ray Cutler (Casey Adams). They became friends with the Loomis couple,
but soon suspected something was wrong with the troubled pair
- in the midst of the plot, there were
two memorable, hip-bouncing walking scenes with Marilyn, first
briefly in a light blue dress in the film's opening, and then another
scene of Rose's backside in a tight black dress and red top, walking
away from the camera
|
|
Two Rear-Views of Rose
|
- during a trip to the scenic tourist
tunnel under Horseshoe Falls, Polly spotted Rose kissing a man not
her husband - she told Ray: "Didn't that Mrs. Loomis say she
was going shopping?...Well, she sure got herself an armful of groceries."
The trashy Rose was cheating on her husband, and engaged in an affair with Ted Patrick (Richard
Allan), her secret young lover. Together, Rose and Ted were arranging
to murder George and make his death look like a suicide, to collect
on George's life insurance policy
- Rose's most flaunting appearance was in a tight-fitting,
low-cut pinkish-red dress at an outdoor teenaged dance party at the
Cabins, where she asked that the DJ play the record, "Kiss" (the
illicit lovers' theme song) and then sat closeby and listened, telling
Ray and Polly: "There isn't any other song." She sang along:
"With all your heart's protection, This is a
moment of thrill. Thrill me, Thrill me, with your charm, Take me,
Take me in your arms, And make my life perfection, Take me, Darling,
don't forsake me, Kiss me, Hold me tight, Love me, Love me tonight."
Sexy Rose Loomis (Marilyn Monroe) Openly Flaunting
Herself
|
|
|
|
|
- Rose's angry and crazed husband interrupted the
romantic musical interlude by racing from their cabin and destroying
the LP with his bare hands (and cutting himself in the process).
- while applying mercurochrome and bandages to George's
hand would, Polly was told about George's past with Rose; he
was a failing sheep rancher who met Rose in a Duluth, MI beer hall
where she worked as a bar waitress. He described the reason for
his rage against her: "Parading
around, showing herself off in that dress, cut down so low in front
you can see her kneecaps...She'd like to wear that dress where
everybody could see her, right in the middle of Yankee Stadium.
She's a tramp! I tell you now so you won't have to ask."
- Rose had a provocative conversation with her husband
who suspected that she was scheming and plotting with another man
against him: George: "You smell
like a dimestore. I know what that means." Rose: "Sure.
I'm meeting somebody. Just anybody handy as long as he's a man...Anybody
suits me, take your pick."
- George followed
after Rose and confirmed his suspicions. Ted had written her a message
on the back of an unmailed postcard: "If
everything OK you'll hear the Bell Tower play our song - See you
in Chicago." after Ted had gone ahead and killed George,
he would request the Rainbow Tower Carillon to play Rose's special
song ("Kiss")
to signal that George was dead
- soon after, George was reported as
a "missing person" - and a pair of George's unclaimed shoes
were discovered at the exit to the scenic tourist tunnel under Horseshoe
Falls. The Bell Tower carillon played, causing Rose to believe that
Ted had murdered George
Murder Plot Described on Postcard
|
George's Pair of Unclaimed Shoes Found in Tourist
Tunnel
|
Rose's Shock Upon Seeing Ted's Body in the City
Morgue
|
- in reality, George had killed
Patrick in self-defense and thrown his body into the Falls, and then
decided to "stay dead" to start his life over (by collecting
Patrick's shoes at the exit instead of his own). At first, Rose believed
that George was dead until she visited the city morgue, where she
was called upon to identify a retrieved body from the Falls. She
was shocked that the dead man was Ted, not George - she fainted and
collapsed
- while sleeping in the Loomis'
cabin, Polly was frightened when she momentarily glimpsed a view
of the supposedly-dead George in her room (he had come to kill
Rose) - it was interpreted as a nightmare, although she reported
the incident
- shortly later at the falls,
George confronted Polly privately after saving her from slipping
into the falls; he admitted defensively killing Ted Patrick, and
then explained his predicament; he pleadingly begged: "Please,
I'd do the same for you if it meant as much. Let me stay dead."
- George conducted a revenge killing in the film's
most suspenseful sequence. Rose's jealous and incensed
husband stalked and pursued his scheming and trampish wife who was
trying to flee from Canada; he followed her up the shadowy, Carillon
clock-bell tower before murdering her by strangulation (in a striking
overhead shot). Then he told her corpse:
"I loved you, Rose. You know that."
- in the exciting and climactic finale, George hijacked the boat
that Polly was on; their boat went adrift when it ran out of gas,
and it was headed toward the waterfall precipice; a desperate George
(now after having deliberately murdered Rose) tried to submerge
and scuttle the boat, but went over the falls to his death, while
Polly was rescued by helicopter from a rock outcropping
|
George Loomis (Joseph Cotten)
Other Honeymooners at the Cabins: Polly and Ray Cutler
Polly Spotting Rose's Adulterous Rendezvous with Ted Patrick
At an Outdoor Teenaged Dance Party, the Enraged George Destroyed
a "Kiss" LP
Record
Trampish Rose Speaking to George: "Anybody suits me, take
your pick"
Polly's Fright at Seeing the "Dead" George in her Cabin
George Begging Polly: "Please... let me stay dead"
George's Revenge Murder of Rose
George: "I loved you Rose. You know that"
Kidnapped Polly on Boat with George, Heading Toward Falls
George Saving Polly by Helping Her Onto a Rock Outcropping
Polly Watching George's Death Before Being Rescued
|