Entertaining, watchable Technicolour noir showcasing the emergent Marilyn Monroe alongside dependable Joseph Cotton against the spectacular backdrop of Niagara Falls, an obvious metaphor for the teeming passions at play here.
As I've said before on these pages, I do prefer my noir black, as it were, but the lurid Technicolour employed by director Hathaway was probably justified to highlight the natural wonder that is Niagara Falls as well as Ms Monroe's scarlet-coloured lipstick. The noir trademarks are pretty much all in there somewhere, not only most obviously in the plotting, very sub - "The Postman Always Rings Twice" and "Double Indemnity" to name the two most obvious predecessors of a sensual, alluring bored wife using her younger lover to bump off her older, besotted husband, but we also get plenty of mirror-reflection shots and shots against the background slats of window blinds and extravagant long-perspective shots of the "little people" here playing out their rather sordid little lives in the bigger world.
The film starts with Cotton's Loomis character, a Korean vet with a can't-believe-his-luck "trophy-wife" in the form of the long-since disenchanted but still highly-charged form of Monroe, moping his ill-fortune by the falls before returning to the awakening Monroe, heavily made-up even in bed. In fact these early images of Monroe, firstly obviously naked under the sheets and a little later putting on her stockings tell us all we need to know about her character - in their few reluctant embraces you can almost imagine her looking at her watch a la Jane Fonda in the much later Klute.
The plot then sees the introduction of a bright pair of delayed but still loved-up honeymooners here for the Niagara experience but whose paths, particularly Jean Peters as the young wife cross fatefully with the warring Loomises.
Director Hathaway keeps the plot moving and the exterior work highlighting the Falls is a rare treat, especially for the likes of myself who got to visit Niagara only a few years ago. He delivers two particularly effective scenes - Monroe's sexually-charged gramophone scene in the candiest-pink of dresses and later her demise in long-shot on the stairs of the carillon tower, whose eerie bell-ringing throughout adds a further disquieting dimension to proceedings. The big climax on the Falls was coming from a mile off and isn't altogether convincing in its depiction but there's no denying Cotton & Peters earned any "dirty money" bonus for getting good and soaked on-set.
Which takes us to the acting. Monroe certainly makes a big impact with her striking beauty with clothing to match, but she does often act as if she's just finished an "Actor's Studio" class and looks at times like Betty Boop made flesh teetering around on high heels, almost bursting out of her clothes. Her lips almost never cover her teeth throughout so that she seems to be forever pouting. Better is old man Cotton, who superbly projects his hopeless dependence on his young wife even as he is blind to her extra-marital infidelities. Of the young honeymooners, Max Showalters is altogether too college-boy gauche and lightweight as the boss' pet but Jean Peters is very good indeed as his young wife embroiled against her will in the machinations of both the murderous plots of the warring Loomises.
On the whole a well-turned little thriller, perhaps lacking that tang of originality to elevate it to the upper echelons of truly memorable thrillers. That said Monroe's stunning appearance and the acting of Cotton and Peters certainly take it out of the ordinary and don't quickly leave the memory.
As I've said before on these pages, I do prefer my noir black, as it were, but the lurid Technicolour employed by director Hathaway was probably justified to highlight the natural wonder that is Niagara Falls as well as Ms Monroe's scarlet-coloured lipstick. The noir trademarks are pretty much all in there somewhere, not only most obviously in the plotting, very sub - "The Postman Always Rings Twice" and "Double Indemnity" to name the two most obvious predecessors of a sensual, alluring bored wife using her younger lover to bump off her older, besotted husband, but we also get plenty of mirror-reflection shots and shots against the background slats of window blinds and extravagant long-perspective shots of the "little people" here playing out their rather sordid little lives in the bigger world.
The film starts with Cotton's Loomis character, a Korean vet with a can't-believe-his-luck "trophy-wife" in the form of the long-since disenchanted but still highly-charged form of Monroe, moping his ill-fortune by the falls before returning to the awakening Monroe, heavily made-up even in bed. In fact these early images of Monroe, firstly obviously naked under the sheets and a little later putting on her stockings tell us all we need to know about her character - in their few reluctant embraces you can almost imagine her looking at her watch a la Jane Fonda in the much later Klute.
The plot then sees the introduction of a bright pair of delayed but still loved-up honeymooners here for the Niagara experience but whose paths, particularly Jean Peters as the young wife cross fatefully with the warring Loomises.
Director Hathaway keeps the plot moving and the exterior work highlighting the Falls is a rare treat, especially for the likes of myself who got to visit Niagara only a few years ago. He delivers two particularly effective scenes - Monroe's sexually-charged gramophone scene in the candiest-pink of dresses and later her demise in long-shot on the stairs of the carillon tower, whose eerie bell-ringing throughout adds a further disquieting dimension to proceedings. The big climax on the Falls was coming from a mile off and isn't altogether convincing in its depiction but there's no denying Cotton & Peters earned any "dirty money" bonus for getting good and soaked on-set.
Which takes us to the acting. Monroe certainly makes a big impact with her striking beauty with clothing to match, but she does often act as if she's just finished an "Actor's Studio" class and looks at times like Betty Boop made flesh teetering around on high heels, almost bursting out of her clothes. Her lips almost never cover her teeth throughout so that she seems to be forever pouting. Better is old man Cotton, who superbly projects his hopeless dependence on his young wife even as he is blind to her extra-marital infidelities. Of the young honeymooners, Max Showalters is altogether too college-boy gauche and lightweight as the boss' pet but Jean Peters is very good indeed as his young wife embroiled against her will in the machinations of both the murderous plots of the warring Loomises.
On the whole a well-turned little thriller, perhaps lacking that tang of originality to elevate it to the upper echelons of truly memorable thrillers. That said Monroe's stunning appearance and the acting of Cotton and Peters certainly take it out of the ordinary and don't quickly leave the memory.