Niagara (1953)
Review by Doc Ezra
Film:
DVD:

Written by Charles Brackett, Walter Reisch, and Richard Breen
Directed by Henry Hathaway
Starring Marilyn Monroe, Joseph Cotten, and Jean Peters

Features:

• stills gallery
  
• theatrical trailer
  
• restoration comparison
  
• English and French language tracks
  
• English and Spanish subtitles
  

Rating: NR

Anamorphic: N/A; appears in its original 1.33:1 format.

My Advice: Rent it.

An up and coming breakfast cereal executive and his lovely young wife, the Cutlers, are finally taking their delayed honeymoon, and as it is the 1950s, the obvious choice of destination is that hackneyed cliche (or at least it's cliche now), Niagara Falls. Of course, it doesn't hurt matters that the new shredded wheat manufacturing facility is in full operation just across the river, so that our eager young professional Ray can squeeze in a little work on his honeymoon.

Upon arriving at the quaint little cabin resort where they intend to while away their nuptial bliss, the couple discover that the cabin they had reserved is not vacant. Rose Loomis (Monroe) and her husband George (Cotten) are having some marital difficulties--most notably that Rose can't stop making out with random young men--and George happens to be stark raving mad, though perhaps this is a byproduct of an unfaithful wife and a jealous disposition.

So now the lovely young couple find themselves without a nice view, and dragged into the middle of this strange couple's marriage problems. Rose has a scheme to solve her lack of wedded bliss - have her lover kill her husband in the falls, write it off as an accident, and run off with the boy-toy. Simple enough, no? Of course, it wouldn't be a thriller if all went according to plan. So ensues a sequence of mistaken identities, mixed-up shoes (don't ask), and people in rain slickers running from each other, with the grandiose Niagara as the backdrop.

The story here wants to be Hitchcock, but really doesn't have what it takes to join that vaunted company. It's passable suspense, though most of its "twists" are easily visible some distance away, so unless you're watching the movie while attempting to read a book or memorize the Gettysburg Address, don't expect many surprises. The performances are solid, if not exemplary, but it is nice to see Marilyn taking a turn as femme fatale, instead of her usually lighter fare. Casey Adams, as our breakfast cereal guru, manages one of the most ham-fisted portrayals I've ever seen, and he gets almost no lines. It's amazing how little material a bad actor requires in order to over-act.

The restored video is beautiful, giving proper reverence to the amazing location footage. The digital transfer has rich colors, no noticeable transfer artifacts, and repairs many of the visual pops and crackles so common on films of such age. The audio is solid, though stereo is only available in English (sorry to all those that were just dying to hear it in French stereo). The disc is otherwise a bit light on features, sporting only a restoration comparison and a set of theatrical trailers.

As Marilyn Monroe flicks go, this one is at best a second-stringer, most notable for her turn as a more sinister femme fatale than is her typical fare. It might bear watching if you're just a die-hard fan of the quintessential Blonde Bombshell, but if you just want a suspense thriller from a bygone Hollywood era, look for something by our man Hitchcock before giving this one 90 minutes of your life that you can't get back.