On June 1, Norma Jeane Mortenson would have turned 100. She died at the age of 36, on August 4, 1962, but her artistic alter ego, Marilyn Monroe, became a film legend. The Bombshell Blonde façade concealed a very harsh childhood during which she lived in as many as 12 foster homes, a torturous romantic life, and a career marked by artistic self-doubt and very poor health (she never carried a pregnancy to term).
Still, among her roughly 30 films there are a handful of unforgettable titles worth revisiting on her centenary. Monroe was superbly gifted for comedy and would have made a fine dramatic actress as well, had her health allowed it and had she not sunk into a self-destructive spiral.
‘The Asphalt Jungle’ (1950)
Monroe had made a handful of films and had three years of work in Hollywood under contracts with Fox and Columbia when she appeared in this thriller — about a jewel heist that goes wrong — directed by John Huston. Her role is secondary and she didn’t even appear on the original poster. When she became famous, her name grew in reissue promotions. She herself was very proud of her work, especially in her final scene with Louis Calhern.
‘All About Eve’ (1950)
This is the second of the 1950 films in which Monroe delivered an excellent supporting performance. This drama by Joseph L. Mankiewicz explores the rivalry between a great leading lady (Bette Davis) and the actress destined to replace her (Anne Baxter). Monroe had little dialogue and still became famous for forgetting her lines. In return, appearing in a prestige drama that received 14 Academy Award nominations made more people take notice of her.
‘Monkey Business’ (1952)
This comedy elevated Monroe to another league. The package was exceptional: Howard Hawks directing, a script by Ben Hecht, Charles Lederer and I. A. L. Diamond, and a cast including Cary Grant, Ginger Rogers and Charles Coburn. The story: a chemist discovers an elixir of youth while experimenting on chimpanzees. Monroe played the archetypal dumb blonde secretary, unaware of the havoc that her sexuality causes. Perfect for a comedy like this, but a label she fought against her whole life.
‘Niagara’ (1953)
At last, Monroe reached leading roles and honed the look that would make her a star: dark arched brows, red lips and a beauty mark, all framed by a short blonde (obviously dyed) hairstyle that gave her the aura of a sex symbol. Darryl F. Zanuck, head of Fox, specifically requested her for the role of a wife, a femme fatale who plots to kill her husband (Joseph Cotten) in this Henry Hathaway drama.
‘Gentlemen Prefer Blondes’ (1953)
Monroe’s second box-office hit of 1953 (she would follow it with How to Marry a Millionaire). Hawks’s Gentlemen Prefer Blondes pairs her with Jane Russell as two showgirls who travel to Paris pursued by a parade of admirers. And yes, it’s the musical comedy with the famous number Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend and Marilyn’s pink dress.
‘The Seven Year Itch’ (1955)
Married to baseball star Joe DiMaggio and after several tensions with Fox, Monroe filmed her first picture with Billy Wilder. She plays the neighbor who becomes the object of a businessman’s sexual desire when he is left alone without his family during a New York summer. Wilder wanted an actor with promise (Walter Matthau), but Fox insisted on the man who had played the role on Broadway, Tom Ewell. DiMaggio was present on the day they shot the sequence in which Monroe, in a white dress, stands over a subway grate — one of the most iconic images in film history. That night, 5,000 people watched the filming in the street… the noise ruined the take and it had to be reshot on a soundstage. Wilder never liked this comedy, calling it, because of censorship, “a movie about nothing.”
‘The Prince and the Showgirl’ (1957)
Monroe founded her own production company, divorced DiMaggio, married the playwright Arthur Miller and took classes with Strasberg. After the success of the drama Bus Stop, she reached an agreement with Laurence Olivier (who had played the role in London) to co-produce The Prince and the Showgirl, before the two began arguing constantly. It was the only film the actress made outside the U.S. After finishing the comedy, Monroe took a year and a half off to devote herself to Miller and to her — unsuccessful — attempt to start a family.
‘Some Like It Hot’ (1959)
On her return to Hollywood, Monroe reunited with Wilder, this time with Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon as co-stars. She hesitated to accept the project because she would once again play a “dumb blonde,” but she wanted to work with Wilder again and secured a sizable share of the film’s profits. The shoot was hellish; Curtis grew tired of retakes and famously said: “Kissing Marilyn is like kissing Hitler,” and the director quipped: “I have an old aunt in Vienna who would be on the set at six every morning and would know all the lines. But who would want to see her?” Some Like It Hot is one of the greatest comedies of all time.
‘The Misfits’ (1960)
The actress again paused her career until late 1959 and accepted this project compelled by her contract with Fox. Directed by George Cukor, this film co-starring Yves Montand is notable because it was Monroe’s last musical comedy, her last film in color and her final work in CinemaScope. And because it marked the beginning of the end of her marriage to Miller.
‘The Misfits’ (1963)
The last film Monroe completed, though she was in very poor health and dependent on barbiturates. Miller had based the character on Monroe’s own life, which upset her deeply. She returned to work with Huston, as at the start of her career, and Monroe is brilliant. It was also Clark Gable’s final film; he saw a rough cut before dying 10 days after filming ended. A year and a half later, Monroe would die during the production of Something’s Got to Give.
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