Review of Marilyn Monroe: Vol. 1 (Seven Discs)

Introduction

Let`s start with a gripe. Here`s volume 1 of a two volume set that seems to cover some of the same ground as `The Diamond Collection`, but with a couple of peripheral movies thrown in to bulk them out.

This particular set Includes Monroe classics like `Gentlemen Prefer Blondes` (1953), `Bus Stop` (1956), and the depressingly wonderful `Niagara` (1953). Impressive stuff! So why would a PR company mail in, as a representation of the set, a couple of discs with Monroe content so slight as to raise the issue of the trade descriptions act? It`s a curious conundrum. Our on-line magazine reaches more readers than many print based magazines and you`d figure that they`d liek an accurate appraisal of the offer. (Just the facts here folks…). Here we have another attempt to give you an appraisal of a new box-set without the box, and without most of the content; `Love Nest` and ``We`re Not Married`.

But I`m happy to view and review what was sent so here goes.

LOVE NEST

First a warning. This movie contains between 6-8 minutes (at a guess) of Monroe screen-time. True, she looks great. The whole picture becomes electrified with her presence, and for Monroe completists, here`s all the evidence you need to see what convinced casting Directors to push her up the billing in later outings.

Despite the disappointment about Monroe`s role, this is a perfectly diverting 85-minute period comedy. War veteran Jim Scott (William Lundigan, Pinky) returns home to New York in 1946 to find that his wife (June Haver, The Dolly Sisters) has bought a giant but crumbling building and that he is now officially a landlord. Set against the tremendous housing shortage of the day in NYC, it would appear that she felt this would be the easiest way to get and secure a pad of their own. Of course, he`s a `writer`, and has no practical abilities and so when the plot descends into a kind of `Money-Pit` narrative, there are plenty of opportunities for light comedy as he attempts to fix the plumbing. (I might have laughed more loudly has this not struck such a personal chord!).

Soon they have a house full of tenants, including a suave confidence artist, Mr. Patterson (Frank Fay, Spotlight Scandals), who`s a little chilling in a Peter Lorre kind of a way and who swindles rich widows out of their money.

Jim has "an old army buddy," Bobby, who`s looking for a place to lay the metaphorical hat, so he persuades his wife to make a room available. What he hadn`t said was that `Bobby` is a dame, and a great looker too. (Monroe). So there`s an opportunity for some more japes and misunderstandings here too.

The movie rolls along at a comfortable `wet-Sunday afternoon` kind of pace, and is all rather pleasant - a US equivalent to an Ealing movie.


WE`RE NOT MARRIED

This is another movie of the same period and of the same ilk, though this has a witty, sardonic wit that raises it above the average. It was actually penned by Nunnally Johnson (Who had written the screen-play for `The Grapes Of Wrath` amongst others before this outing) so was notoriously inflexible when it came to script-editing so it probably retains much of his original vision and it`s a perfectly fine and amusing film.
The film is essentially about five separate couples that discover, three years into their wedded lives, that the local town justice of the peace (played for laughs by Victor Moore) has bungled the ceremony, rendering their marriages null and void.

Marilyn Monroe plays one half of one of the five couples, and has about as much `air time` as you would statistically expect from the role. She`s just won the Mrs Mississippi beauty contest when her husband (David Wayne) gets the news that they are no legally married. He is delighted because it means he can stop playing nanny to their child while she travels the state on promotional tours.
Ginger Rogers and Fred Allen turn in an amusing performance as hackneyed radio stars who front a popular daily Breakfast show. They only wed to get the contract renewed though they share a mutual dislike.

Then there`s Zsa Zsa Gabor, perfectly cast as a gold-digging wife who is taking Millionaire Louis Calhern for every last cent. When he discovers that they were never legally wed, he mischievously plans his revenge.

Mitzi Gaynor, Eddie Bracken, Paul Douglas and Eve Arden make up the remaining couples and only Mitzi and Eddie want to tie the knot again for real, or, in their case, for their unborn baby.

Eve Arden and Paul Douglas are bored ex-New Yorkers who find the news initially revitalising (well, he does with visions of nights on the town with other ladies…), and Eddie Bracken plays a soldier who goes AWOL to officially remarry Mitzi Gaynor - who is expecting their first baby.
It`s all amusing stuff, and without spoiling the ending, alls well that ends well - and what could have been a pointed attack on the institution of marriage ends as anything but.

Maybe someone out there would be interested to note that the film was remade as IN NAME ONLY in 1969.

Video

Both the movies I received are black and white, and the transfers show their age. I haven`t seen `The Diamond Collection` editions, though according to fellow-reviewers, these were nicely re-mastered. This is certainly not the case here. They`re presented here in 4:3 though, to be fair, with reasonable panning to ensure the central action is left more or less intact. The prints show much wear, with specks and scratches throughout. The picture could do with a little added contrast as the greyscale looks a little washed out, though this might have been the original look. Of course, this is easily fixed with the remote.

Audio

Offered up in original mono which is in keeping with the period and is perfectly acceptable, if unremarkable.

Features

None other than some subtitle options.

Conclusion

This collection (along with Volume 2) may well be worth the price of admission. I wouldn`t know, having just the two most peripheral films in the set to base my judgement on. Both films have period-charm and are entertaining in their own way, though Monroe fans will be disappointed in the lack of airtime she gets here.

`Love Nest` combines romance, comedy and mystery in just the right measure and is a perfectly diverting movie for a wet-afternoon.
`We`re not Married` is essentially five mini-films within a larger film, so the pace is fairly frenetic. There is much to be enjoyed here in terms of the witty dialogue (particularly that of Ginger Rogers and Fred Allen) and it has the kind of feel-good quality to it that has informed recent, and in many ways superior movies like `Love Actually`.

Monroe shines extremely brightly in the few minutes of screen-time she gets in both movies, though perhaps they should remain reserved for the Marilyn completists only.