Niagara
by Henry Hathaway
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DVD details
Actor: Denis O'Dea, Jean Peters, Joseph Cotten, Marilyn Monroe, Max ShowalterDirector: 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
DVD Reviews of Niagara
DVD Review: Not bad, and with a strange, artificial creation of breasts, lipstick and sleepy eyelids to look at
Summary: 4 Stars
Niagara, in my view, is a second-rate A movie struggling with only partial success to be a first-rate B movie. What it needs is Audrey Totter as Rose Loomis instead of Marilyn Monroe and Charles McGraw as George Loomis instead of Joseph Cotton. We'll keep Jean Peters but let's ditch her husband, especially when played by an actor named Casey Adams as an irritating clone of Robert Cummings. Rose Loomis is a tramp, and a dangerous one, but Monroe for my money is just giving us a caricature of a tramp, all self-conscious sex-pottedness with way too much lip action when she sings.
Just to recap: George Loomis (Cotton) is a loser, without the kind of lusty stamina that could keep happy his younger, lush and scheming wife, Rose (Monroe). They're staying at the Rainbow Cabins, right on the Canadian side of Niagara Falls. Then Polly and Ray Cutler (Peters and Adams) check in for a second honeymoon. It's not long before Polly and we realize Rose has a young, handsome lover. If Rose has her way, George Loomis might not be with us for much longer. And all the while a lot of water keeps crashing over the Falls. We're in for double crosses, murderous twists, desperate escapes and lots of what must be glue-on lipstick for Monroe's kisser. (It's bright red, thick and glossy, and she never gets a speck on her teeth or a smear on her pillow.) Of course, there's a reason the movie was named after Niagara Falls and it just might be that George Loomis has better survival instincts that we were led to believe. There are bits and pieces of interesting scenes, but bits and pieces of old Hitchcock do not a Hitchcock movie make.
For me, Monroe has almost always been little more than a collection of curves and breathy sighs, a style-less singer and an extremely limited actress. Her great talent was in having that rare ability to reach an audience through the camera and make us forget there's a camera at all. She was one of Hollywood's great artificial creations, who was blessed mysteriously with genuine star dazzle. In Niagara, however, she's scarcely more than an Eagle Scout's naughty dream. She's not a good enough actress (or even a bad enough one) to be a first-rate femme fatale.
It's Jean Peters who lends Niagara what quality and fascination it carries. After the set-up of the scheme, in fact, the less we see of Monroe the better the story becomes. For the last third of the movie, we don't see her at all, and that's when the movie starts developing some real B-movie quality. Niagara was made as a vehicle for Monroe, but, for me, she hasn't the skills to bring it off. The oddness of Monroe dominating her scenes and Peters dominating hers makes for a discombobulating story balance.
Let's not forget Denis O'Dea as Inspector Starkey. He was an Irish actor with a fine stage reputation who made a number of British and Hollywood films, usually as smart, reserved police detectives. One of his best roles was in Carol Reed's Odd Man Out. O'Dea played a police inspector who was relentless in his pursuit of the wounded Johnny McQueen (James Mason), but sympathetic toward Kathleen Sullivan (Kathleen Ryan), the woman who loves McQueen and is determined to help him escape. It's a fine movie with one of Mason's great performances.
Niagara is sort of fun to watch. The twists of fate, jealousy and retribution are almost always satisfying. Jean Peters gives a smart, sympathetic performance, and there's this strange, artificial creation of breasts, lipstick and sleepy eyelids to look at. Niagara's DVD color transfer looks good. There are two or three inconsequential extras.
Description of Niagara
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