Niagara (1953) - film review

Ray and Polly Cutler arrive at Niagara Falls, where they hope to spend their belated honeymoon in peace.  The holiday gets off to a bad start when they learn that their cottage is occupied by another couple, George and Rose Loomis.  While Rose flaunts her obvious feminine charms to anyone who cares to look, George skulks in the background, tormented by depression, paranoia and bouts of anger.  Unbeknown to her husband, Rose is having an affair with another man and the two have concocted a seemingly foolproof plan to put George out of the way.  Sure enough, when George mysteriously disappears, Rose plays the shocked and anxious wife admirably, until the moment when she is called upon to identify the body of a recently drowned man.  To her horror, the dead man is not George but her lover...

It is hard to know which is the greater attraction in this compelling noir-style thriller, Marilyn Monroe or Niagara Falls.  Both are potent forces of nature, tempestuous and alluring, and both are stunningly photographed (in glorious Technicolor) in a way that captures their mystique, beauty and raw sensuality.  A major box office hit, this film pretty well secured Monroe’s place as a Hollywood A-lister, although it would take a few more films before her acting skills matched her photogenic appeal and charisma.  

Whilst Monroe steals just about every scene she appears in (and who wouldn’t in that spectacular magenta dress?), the film’s focus and dramatic intensity are provided by more experienced, albeit less glamorous, players, Joseph Cotten and Jean Peters.  With its predictable storyline and slightly clichéd characterisation, Niagara was never going to be a masterpiece, but director Henry Hathaway makes the absolute best of the material he has to work with.  The film is stylishly shot, exciting where it needs to be, and makes good use of its exotic location. The Niagara Falls setting is not only essential to the plot but it also provides an apt metaphor for the uncontrollable deadly passions to which the protagonists fall prey.

© filmsdefrance.com 2009

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