Marilyn fans in the UK are being treated to a screening of two of her most beloved classics in an up and coming retrospective to the career of director Howard Hawks. The “Glasgow Film Theatre” in Scotland, United Kingdom will be screening “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes” and “Monkey Business” throughout November.
“Howard Hawks was a true master of genre. He could turn his hand to any style of cinema, and produce a classic every time. So huge is his influence across golden era Hollywood cinema that even this series of six films can’t claim to include all his best. We couldn’t fit in The Big Sleep, Bringing Up Baby, Red River, To Have and Have Not, His Girl Friday… at least not this time. Nonetheless, this season offers an indispensable set of big screen classics. Treat yourself and don’t miss them.”
“It’s open house for laughter…and the screen’s most heart-warming house-warming in years!”
“Love Nest” is a 1951 American comedy-drama film directed by Joseph Newman and starring June Haver, Frank Fay, William Lundigan and Marilyn Monroe, in one of her earlier screen credits. The film, released by Twentieth Century FOX, opened on October 10th 1951 to mild success It was meant to be nothing more than a B-picture for FOX and would widely be forgotten today if it wasn’t for Monroe’s ever expanding fanbase and their desire to see her entire body of work. It is however, a very fun and light hearted comedy, with notable preformances by June Haver an Frank Fay, in his final film appearance.
Marilyn Monroe and her co-star June Haver.
PLOT:
“After two and a half years of military service in Paris, aspiring novelist Jim Scott returns to New York and the rundown Gramery Park brownstone that his wife Connie has purchased with most of their savings. The rooming house is mortgaged to the hilt and, despite the revenue from the tenants, the couple are running at a loss, yet Connie assures Jim that it is a great investment that will soon pay for itself. Living in the basement, they suffer noises from the drainpipes and the local fire service, and Jim has little time to write while dealing with the tenants’ complaints and his wife’s jealousy over one of the new people paying them to rent, ex-WAC Roberta “Bobbie” Stevens– a buxom blonde who was stationed with Jim in Paris.
Another new tenant, meanwhile, is Charley Patterson, a dapper conman who swindles rich widows out of their money, Connie strongly suspects what Charley is up to and she is therefore concerned when he woos and marries Eadie, a kindly widow living in the same building. Still, Connie and Jim have their own problems to think of, not least of which is the news that their building must either be rewired or condemned.”
Marilyn Monroe and William Lundigan
FUN FACTS:
* Unimaginatively titled “The Reluctant Landlord” when I.A.L Diamond began work on the screenplay in December 1950, it was renamed “A WAC In His Life” when shooting began on April 18th 1951, illustrating how the studio wanted to draw attention to Marilyn’s role. The only problem was her lack of screen time; thus the change to “Love Nest.”
*As early as December 21st 1950, Darryl Zannuck suggested in a memo to producer Jules Buck, I.A.L Diamond and Zanuck’s assistant Molly Mandaville that they “work Roberta into the last part of the story more,” and innocently involve her with Jim after he has a row with Connie and uses Roberta’s empty apartment to sleep.
*Because the bathing suit that Marilyn wears in the film was so risqué (for the time) and caused such a commotion on the set, director Joseph M. Newman had to make it a closed set while she was filming.
*The Hollywood film industry’s censorship board, commonly known as the Hays Office, reviewed all screenplays to ensure strict adherence to the Production code by the studios. The censors had no objection to Roberta. The script was submitted for review at the regular intervals but it was impossible to tell how coquettish the character could be when played by Marilyn. When the censors did find crude references to a toilet in comic dialogue between Jim and Connie about the building’s plumbing problems. These lines were cut from the script.
* “Love Nest” was filmed entirely on the backlots of “Twentieth Century FOX” studios in Los Angeles, California.
* Marilyn Monroe doesn’t appear in the film until the 31st minute, so bare that in mind if you have never seen this movie.
* According to a contemporary Hollywood Reporter articles, Anne Baxter then Jeanne Crain were scheduled to star in this film.
* “Love Nest” marked the entrance of I.A.L Diamond into Marilyn’s professional life. This light post-World War II comedy, was the first of four scripts he wrote for Marilyn, the others being: “Let’s Make It Legal,” “Monkey Business” and “Some Like It Hot” (with his writing partner Billy Wilder.)
* In 2014, the “Marilyn Monroe History” channel on YouTube uploaded the movie in its entirety and as of October 2019, has amassed over 360,000 views!
* As of October 2019, “Love Nest” has a rating of 6.3/10 on imdb.com
MARILYN’S WARDROBE:
Despite Marilyn’s limited screen time in this movie, she makes the most of it with an array of stunning costume changes
The brown suit Marilyn wears briefly in the film was last put up for auction in 2011, but surprisingly went unsold.
MEMORIES OF MARILYN:
Jack Paar, who played Marilyn’s love interest in the movie remembers: “Looking back, I guess I should have been excited, but I found her pretty tiresome. She used to carry around books by Marcel Proust with their titles facing out, but I never saw her read one. She was always holding up shooting by talking on the phone. Judging from what’s happened though, I guess she had the right number.”
CRITICS’ RESPONSE:
“Frank Fay romps off with honours as the wily middle-aged Romeo, Marilyn Monre’s shapely figure and blonde beauty make her part as a temptress a standout.” (HOLLYWOOD REPORTER)
“Love Nest” is a mild variety of comedy which gets a considerable boost from the expert talents–in that line — of Frank Fay… Leatrice Joy is also present in this number. She gives mature warmth to the proceedings. Marilyn Monroe has that other quality.” (FILM DAILY.)
Remembering the incomparable Bette Davis, who passed away on this date 30 years ago.
Bette Davis had a long and illustrious career spanning 7 decades. She won the Academy Award for ‘Best Actress‘ twice, was the first person to accrue ten Academy Award nominations for acting, and was the first woman to receive a Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Film Insitute.
Some of her most well known films include “Whatever Happened To Baby Jane?” “Now Voyager,” “Dark Victory,” and “The Virgin Queen.” But it is undoubtably her role as Margo Channing in “All About Eve” that film goers and Marilyn fans remember most as Monroe had a small, but most definitely memorable role as the light headed, but charming Miss Caswell.
Davis said in her autobiography about “All About Eve,” “I can think of no project that from the outset was as rewarding from the first day to the last. It is easy to understand why. It was a great script, had a great director, and was a cast of professionals all with parts they liked. It was a charmed production from the word go.”
Regarding Miss Monroe:
“I felt a certain envy for what i assumed was Marilyn’s more than obvious popularity. Here was a girl who didn’t know what it was like to be lonely. Then i noticed how shy she was, and i think now that she was as lonely as I was. Lonelier. It was something I felt, a deep well of loneliness she was trying to fill.”
She is buried at Forest Lawn Hollywood Hills in California. Her tombstone reads “She did it the hard way.”
“Ooooooh do you feel the breeze from the subway? Isn’t it delicious?!”
MARILYN MONROE, the name conjures up images of glitz and glamour. She embodies everything that people love about Old Hollywood and more, her platinum blonde hair and sumptuous red lips are still the envy of millions of adoring fans around the world. Of course, to her loyal fan base, Marilyn was so much more than that, a talented actress and comedienne, intelligent, well read and always eager to learn more and improve her craft.
However, 65 years ago, in the early morning hours of September 15th 1954, Marilyn Monroe unknowingly transformed herself into a pop cultural icon and legend when she stood over a subway grate and saw her white halter neck dress billowing over her head.
The post-midnight hours of September 15th 1954, outside of the Trans-Lux Theatre near 52nd Street on Lexington Avenue, a luminous Marilyn wearing a white pleated halter dress, stepped over a subway grating. With a crew member operating a powerful fan positioned below the grille, the stage was set for a legendary scene. Hordes of reporters and spectators (estimates range from several hundred to five thousand) watched the crew film take after take of history-making moment.
The postscript of the film of this New York sequence was unusable. Her skirt had flown up to her waist, and the cheers of the crowd were clearly audible. The famous scene’s true setting was the controlled atmosphere of a Twentieth Century FOX soundstage. Unlike the iconic images that exsist, in the finished film Marilyn’s skirt billows up only slightly above her knees and a full body shot is never shown. Back in New York, a fifty-two foot high picture of The Girl with the upswept skirt was mounted above the marquee of Loew’s State Theatre at Times Square.
Paul Wurtzel, who was then FOX’s head of special effects once remembered:
“I think they really used the wind from the subway train. At least, we never sent anyone to New York from our department for that segment, so I don’t think anybody rigged it. The location shoot was partly unsuccessful because there was just too much noise and commotion. We did not have the techniques then that we have now to dub voices. I was standing inside a wind tunnel under the stage where the subway grating was and on cue we’d remove this sliding top to create the effect of the train going by and blowing up Marilyn’s skirt. Well that scene took all day, what with Billy Wilder filming it over and over and over again, and there I was underneath her. Marilyn had a habit of squatting down and talking to me.”
Publicist Roy Croft remembers:
“The skirt blowing episode was fantastic. The production crew had picked this Lexington Avenue newsreel theatre, which they had in those days – the crew had picked this one because at two in the morning the street is entirely deserted and we’d have no problem. So they re-dressed the theatre with this monster movie and so forth.
I helped leak the story – and Walter Winchell had it – that Marilyn was going to be on Lexington Avenue at two in the morning. So they had one of the biggest crowds ever.. There were all the working progress – the real photographers – plus the amateurs.
So when the scene starts, all these flashbulb cameras were going off… pop, pop, pop and my God, you couldn’t do anything. Finally I stepped out and said to the working press, “Fellahs, will you tell this bunch to calm down and not shoot? Let them get the scene, then Billy Wilder, the director says he’ll re-do – move the big cameras out of the way – so that everybody can get real good pictures of Marilyn and Tom.”
Well they did that, finally got the shot, then moved the cameras, then everybody starts shooting. That was the night that Joe DiMaggio and Winchell came, and he was reported as saying he disapproved of Marilyn showing her legs and that sort of thing, which I don’t think was true.
I think it was a made up quote. I never heard him say it and I don’t think he ever did say it. He was quoted as saying he was irate and what not, but when he had married her she was a major personality and a sex symbol and he knew what he was getting into.”
The location of the famous “upskirt” scene still exsists today, the theatre is gone and all the surrounding shops and buildings have changed, but you can still feel the “goosepimples” of knowing you’re standing in the same spot where history was made.
Legacy
The legend and image of Marilyn in the white dress has lived far beyond that night of September 15th 1954 as evidenced here:
There have been numerous dolls released over the years depicting Marilyn in her most iconic pose.Just a small selection of the enormous amounts of memorablilia on the market using that famous image over a subway grate.Various Ad campaigns over the years have paid tribute to this iconic moment.And who could forget Marilyn Monroe in wax form!
No image in the history of pop culture is more iconic and as instantly recognisable as Marilyn Monroe over a subway grate in “The Seven Year Itch,” no-one, not even Marilyn could predict the impact that image would have on the world and here we are, 65 years on, still captivated by that “delicious” moment in time.
Sources:
Books: “Blonde Heat: The Sizzling Screen Career Of Marilyn Monroe.” “Marilyn Monroe: Platinum Fox.” “Marilyn Monroe: On Loction.”
