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Niagara | 
 enlarge | Director: Henry Hathaway
Actors: Marilyn Monroe, Joseph Cotten, Jean Peters, Max Showalter, Denis O'dea
Studio: 20th Century Fox
Category: DVD
List Price: $14.98
Buy New: $7.05
You Save: $7.93 (53%)
New (32) Used (12) Collectible (1) from $6.75
Rating:  76 reviews
Sales Rank: 15035
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Dvd-video, Ntsc
Languages: English (Original Language), French (Original Language)
Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Region: 1
Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
Number Of Discs: 1
Running Time: 89 Minutes
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 7.1 x 5.4 x 0.6
MPN: D2236105D
UPC: 024543261056
EAN: 0024543261056
ASIN: B000JF5T5W
Theatrical Release Date: January 21, 1953
Release Date: May 14, 2002
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: BRAND NEW, Factory Sealed items direct from the Studios. 30 Day Satisfaction Guarantee. Quick International Airmail!
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Amazon.com essential video
A neatly enjoyable thriller in the pseudo-Hitchcock mode, Niagara offers great fun on a variety of levels. It has film noir themes (albeit in Technicolor), oodles of location shooting, and Freudian symbolism run amok. And, of course, it has Marilyn Monroe as an unbelievably ripe femme fatale: married to unstable hubby Joseph Cotten and stuck in a cabin at Niagara Falls, she plots a watery escape. Jean Peters (a future Mrs. Howard Hughes) and froggy husband Casey Adams are dragged into the intrigue during their delayed honeymoon. Veteran open-air director Henry Hathaway squeezes the most out of the spectacular scenery and the nail-biting climax, slowing down only for traveloguey interludes; the dialogue, pretty racy for 1953, comes from the civilized pen of producer-writer Charles Brackett (Billy Wilder's longtime partner). The baby-doll murmuring and lazy lounging in motel bed sheets is, well, all Marilyn. --Robert Horton
Description
Set against the dramatic backdrop of Niagara Falls, Marilyn Monroe portrays Rose, a femme fatale possessing two of the most powerful weapons: an erotic body and an evil mind. Planning to murder her troubled husband (Joseph Cotton), rose first uses her double edged sword to drive him t the brink of total insanity. Then she seductively torments a series of stranger while her mysterious lover waits in the shadows. Vastily different from her often comedic roles. Marilyn's classic dramatic performance as this diabolical and scheming woman is at once fascination and frightening, painting a powerful portrait of human sexuality and passion.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 71 more reviews...
 'Retains an Undiminished Popularity Throughout the Years' November 18, 2008
Samantha M. Summers (Buffalo, New York)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Henry Hathaway's 'Niagara' captures the the feel of a really bad vacation. A vacation with someone who no longer loves; or particularly likes you, and is quite possibly whiling away the hours thinking of ways to kill you.
One can almost smell the mildew on the towels and the staleness of the ashtrays in the Motor Lodge where Rose Loomis (Marilyn Monroe) lounges in bed wearing red lipstick and not much else, while her battle-fatigued husband George (Joseph Cotten), wanders around Niagara Falls, looking for sharp rocks to smash his head on. George can't stand Rose, and he can't live without her. This renders him powerless to do much more than paint model cars,chain smoke and break vinyl records he suspects are love songs about the guys Rose is really fantasizing about. Going nowhere fast, the Loomis' have 'late checkout' written all over them.
Enter Polly and Ray Cuttler of Toledo, Ohio. Polly is sharp everywhere that Rose is curvy, and Ray is a hapless dope who has cleverly combined their delayed honeymoon with a trip to the Corporate Headquarters of the Nabisco Factory, where, in his own words: "Breakfast cereal has become a National Institution." There is a wonderful seen where Ray, upon seeing for the first time- not the Natural Wonder that is Niagara Falls, but the Nabisco Company, lets out a girlish squeal. One wonders what Polly is doing with Ray, and when will she fall for, and save, the dark and brooding George who is clearly more interesting, and more a man of the world. Myself and quite possibly the other 4 members of the' Joseph Cotten-Is -One-Sexy-Powerful -Under-Rated-Actor' Club will be disappointed. Not in Cotten's performance, but in the plot of 'Niagara'.
Filmed on location with a powerful opening and moody feel of too much water, cold wind, technicolor souvenier shops, and a sun that never gets warm enough, and set to the gloamy music of composer Sol Kaplan, 'Niagara' eventually meanders through too many wardrobe changes into black and yelllow raincoats, resulting in an emotionally miserable cat and mouse chase. There is a suspense-filled broken railing scene, which should lead to a much-needed kiss, but instead becomes merely a backdrop for a weird scolding about the ethical dilemma of faking one's death.
Monroe, at her best when she plays a woman with a gently deranged personality disorder (must see 'Don't Bother To Knock'), plays Rose Loomis as a Femme Fatale who plots murder the way one might decide to sleep in late- with a sloppy, scattered-sheet air of boredom. Even when everything falls apart her fear lacks an edge, and her plans lack the cunning intelligence of most deadly women. That, and the removal of one of the big stars too early in the movie, gives the top Shredded Wheat salesman too much camera time.
As metaphor for loud, all-consuming obsession that blocks rational thought of calmer waters, Niagara Falls is the perfect third character. Does someone go over? Perhaps Hathaway is telling us that noisy, torrential, and dangerous obsession is more exciting than floating around with a guy who sells cereal.
 "Barrel (over the Falls) O' Fun" October 8, 2008
Phoebe Stogstill (Forsyth, Mo USA)
This is a wonderfully suspenseful movie, shot with the grandeur of Niagra Falls as a backdrop--along with the accompanying noise and mist. Great acting by all parties: Monroe, Cotten, Peters et. al. It is very Hitchcocky in nature. We all know that Joseph Cotten can play evil and diabolical. In later years it was his hallmark. How about Marilyn? If you view this beautiful movie, you won't be wondering for long.
 Not bad, and with a strange, artificial creation of breasts, lipstick and sleepy eyelids to look at October 4, 2008
C. O. DeRiemer (San Antonio, Texas, USA)
Niagara, in my view, is a second-rate A movie struggling with only partial success to be a first-rate B movie. What it needs is Audrey Totter as Rose Loomis instead of Marilyn Monroe and Charles McGraw as George Loomis instead of Joseph Cotton. We'll keep Jean Peters but let's ditch her husband, especially when played by an actor named Casey Adams as an irritating clone of Robert Cummings. Rose Loomis is a tramp, and a dangerous one, but Monroe for my money is just giving us a caricature of a tramp, all self-conscious sex-pottedness with way too much lip action when she sings.
Just to recap: George Loomis (Cotton) is a loser, without the kind of lusty stamina that could keep happy his younger, lush and scheming wife, Rose (Monroe). They're staying at the Rainbow Cabins, right on the Canadian side of Niagara Falls. Then Polly and Ray Cutler (Peters and Adams) check in for a second honeymoon. It's not long before Polly and we realize Rose has a young, handsome lover. If Rose has her way, George Loomis might not be with us for much longer. And all the while a lot of water keeps crashing over the Falls. We're in for double crosses, murderous twists, desperate escapes and lots of what must be glue-on lipstick for Monroe's kisser. (It's bright red, thick and glossy, and she never gets a speck on her teeth or a smear on her pillow.) Of course, there's a reason the movie was named after Niagara Falls and it just might be that George Loomis has better survival instincts that we were led to believe. There are bits and pieces of interesting scenes, but bits and pieces of old Hitchcock do not a Hitchcock movie make.
For me, Monroe has almost always been little more than a collection of curves and breathy sighs, a style-less singer and an extremely limited actress. Her great talent was in having that rare ability to reach an audience through the camera and make us forget there's a camera at all. She was one of Hollywood's great artificial creations, who was blessed mysteriously with genuine star dazzle. In Niagara, however, she's scarcely more than an Eagle Scout's naughty dream. She's not a good enough actress (or even a bad enough one) to be a first-rate femme fatale.
It's Jean Peters who lends Niagara what quality and fascination it carries. After the set-up of the scheme, in fact, the less we see of Monroe the better the story becomes. For the last third of the movie, we don't see her at all, and that's when the movie starts developing some real B-movie quality. Niagara was made as a vehicle for Monroe, but, for me, she hasn't the skills to bring it off. The oddness of Monroe dominating her scenes and Peters dominating hers makes for a discombobulating story balance.
Let's not forget Denis O'Dea as Inspector Starkey. He was an Irish actor with a fine stage reputation who made a number of British and Hollywood films, usually as smart, reserved police detectives. One of his best roles was in Carol Reed's Odd Man Out. O'Dea played a police inspector who was relentless in his pursuit of the wounded Johnny McQueen (James Mason), but sympathetic toward Kathleen Sullivan (Kathleen Ryan), the woman who loves McQueen and is determined to help him escape. It's a fine movie with one of Mason's great performances.
Niagara is sort of fun to watch. The twists of fate, jealousy and retribution are almost always satisfying. Jean Peters gives a smart, sympathetic performance, and there's this strange, artificial creation of breasts, lipstick and sleepy eyelids to look at. Niagara's DVD color transfer looks good. There are two or three inconsequential extras.
Worth Watching Again and Again! September 25, 2008
Betty Burks (Nashville, TN)
1 out of 3 found this review helpful
Filmed in beautiful technicolor, this thriller is like a Hickcock movie without his profile to find. Marilyn Monroe played an unfaithful wife who met her just end; like Virginia Barnes, she lathered on the bright red lipstick. She wore that stuff to bed even her makup was impecable. Even in the hospital, she was fully made up, shades of Doris Day. She sure could walk funny in her skin-tight clothes. The falls themselves was the star of the movie.
In the years since this was filmed, the water flow over the falls is manipulated and pollutted. In Newsweek, an article about the dangerous surrounds and the water is barely there in the winter but full flow during the tourist trade -- with no one suspecting the falls are poisonous. A company dumped hazard wastes which was never cleaned up.
Marilyn was Marilyn as in all her other movies, only the names were changed and she stayed the same flamboyant, sexy scene stealer. Much of the action took place at the bell tower (also a particular song LaVie EnRose) interwoven throughout the suspense making for a scary ending. Jean Peters looked like a young Jane Russell, as the newly-married honeymooning couple and caught in the middle. Mark was not there. The yellow helicopter was really something. And so were the Fifties cars.
Above average thriller September 19, 2008
Roger Long (Port Clinton, OH USA)
This is a fairly good thriller, despite the flaws in the plot and despite some atrocious acting, for which the director is to blame. The final scene is as thrilling as any "chase" ever filmed.
The plot flaws are by way of coincidences. Joseph Cotton just happens to show up in the oddest places where Jean Peters can see him. And he apparently managed to move around over a large area on foot but fast. In fact, the plot revolves around the encounters between Cotton and Peters. There is also an unbelievable scene in which Peters goes into Cotton's motel room alone to bandage his hand, after she knows he's off his rocker and has seen palpable evidence of it.
Cotton and Peters were competent actors, and it shows in this movie, especially in the last 15 minutes or so. Marilyn Monroe was--well--Marilyn Monroe, with too much lipstick and a little girl whispery voice. But the real clinkers are Don Wilson and Peters' husband. I kept expecting Wilson to launch into his LS/MFT routine from the Jack Benny show. Peters' husband was the 1950s movie version of an unctuous traveling salesman.
But the best parts of the movie are the marvelous views of the falls and the haunting carillon bells. Apparently all of this was shot from the Canadian side, because the New York town of Niagara Falls was very unattractive when I was last there, just after this movie was shot. I watched this again just for the falls and the bells.
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