As an esoteric, I will be the first one to admit that often my tastes are not the norm, indeed far from it. Thus, I believe the very esoteric nature of every fiber of my being dictates this type of mindset.
My blog, The Esoteric Curiosa tends to showcase the randomness of my interests, and the depths at which they dwell. Personally, I love the variety and it panders to the avid churning of my mind.
Highly critical by nature, I tend to keep this more exacting side of my personality at bay, since it can quickly get out of hand and I then find myself passing judgment on things best left alone. Where it does become more pronounced however, is when I use it as a measuring stick with my own creativity. I tend not to settle for second best, and only do so after all avenues at my disposal are explored. However, it is not a lost issue, I tend to bide my time, for it will come round in the end, and I can complete it as I feel it needs to be. Again, The Esoteric Curiosa is a perfect example of this type of ‘mental weeding’ with the focus on producing the highest form of the most sought after hybrid research.
Where this esoteric is concerned; books and movies often fall within this category. In my estimation I feel most at odds with those self labeled critics who quite often miss the point with regard to whatever they happen to be criticizing. Unless the so-called art form they happen to be verbally castigating; is pure ‘dreck’ my initial thought to the critic is; ‘show what you have created lately!’ I am a firm believer of the old adage; ‘those who do, do and those who don’t and wish they could, bitch about those that can!’
Recently I had the chance to see one of my favorite movies, and I say favorite because I find it so highly entertaining, and a wonderful comedic ‘play’ on what use to be the fine art of manners! Is it at the top of my list, definitely not, but I love it for what it is….!
Granted, this film is not Oscar material, nor was it ever intended to be. Shaw, Ibsen, and perhaps even Porter, would have found it best to avoid. Today it is still thought of as a film that would never make anyone’s top 100 lists! Yet, I am always drawn to it, and if I find that it is going to be shown, I make sure to take it in for a laugh.
The film that has required such a lengthy set-up of a lead-in is none other than The Prince And The Showgirl.
When talking about this film, there are typically two schools of thought with regard to who ‘stole the show!’ Most tend to believe that the film was all Marilyn Monroe’s, and that she was the one who stole the picture from right under her costar, Laurence Olivier. However, there are others who fiercely disagree with this approach. To many, it is Laurence Olivier who was the actual winner, with his intentionally being funny in this movie; a big departure for such a serious actor; while they found Marilyn just plain annoying.
Essentially, this cinematic Opéra bouffe of a film takes place in London, in June 1911, during the Coronation festivities of King George V. Grand Duke Charles, ‘The Regent’ (Olivier); from the mythical Balkan Kingdom of Carpathia and his son, the King Nicholas VIII of Carpathia, are in town to attend their fellow sovereigns big day! Beyond the usual father & son dynamic, there is tension throughout their relationship, based primarily on the fact that if Carpathia switches alliances, they could start a war, in this case, World War I.
During his stay in London, the Regent, or Grand Duke Charles, goes to see a musical performance, and there he meets showgirl Elsie Marina (Monroe). It is evident from the first, that he’s extremely interested in her, to the point that he invites her to the ubiquitous after hours midnight supper. From there, Elsie is catapulted into the lives of the Regent and the King. Somehow, she ends up fixing things between the Regent and the King, and everything is happily ever after…! So to speak that is, for in the film Laurence and Marilyn don’t get together in the end, but the audience is left with a tentative eighteenth month reuniting between the characters.
As I said above, many thought that Marilyn was really annoying in this film. To some, she was a giggly airhead who wore the same tight ugly white dress throughout the entire film. No such worry from me on this point, as I think Marilyn Monroe’s magnificent ball gown becomes a character in itself!
Monroe becomes their target and they complain about everything from her vapid-ness, to her inability to sing. But more about her later and most of it will be of a more positive cast. To this esoteric it is ultimately Marilyn; and for her alone, I give this film the attention that I do. For it is here that the audience can see Marilyn Monroe as the gorgeous American Icon everyone as a whole all loved and cherished!
With regard to those that subscribe to the low minded opinion of Marilyn, they tend to blindly follow Laurence Olivier in this film. Olivier, however, to his credit was drop dead hilarious! As most know, he’s usually the really serious, and usually unintentionally funny, because he’s so damn serious, actor who does Shakespeare and historical dramas; uttering at the very least 250,000,000 multi-syllable words a minute. However, his usual rapid verbal utterances are kept somewhat at bay here, because he has a rather disgustingly distasteful; rather nasty, laced with a full serving of sleazy accent, which slowed down his speaking rate. As the Regent, he swears in German on the top of his lungs, and is just plain funny in mannerisms and actions.
However, for those diehard Olivier fans of Laurence’s speed-speaking, there’s a point in which he completely ‘ruins’ a love scene by experiencing diarrhea of the mouth and speaking ad nauseam at least 750,000,000,000,000,000,000 words per minute. So never fear! Laurence is still there!
In this film; Marilyn’s every line seemed to flow from her with an assurance and never felt acted. Yet Marilyn Monroe's scenes, strike one as far less interesting than Rattigan's neatly built comedy, whose scenes without Marilyn retain strong interest both because of the script and of Olivier's hand for detail and grip on staging.
Also, Jack Cardiff fills the screen with glowing color to match the decor and costumes and much of the views delight lies in having the full screen aglow, wall to wall and top to bottom with luscious light--light focused often on what is considered Marilyn Monroe's sheer glory. Granted, Olivier's line readings are great fun, a grotesque joy, but Marilyn reads like an angel and steals the show with her heartfelt method realism.
Rather interestingly the film was apparently a struggle to produce. For those so inclined into digging further into the horrors behind the filming, you might turn to Colin Clark's "The Prince, the Showgirl, and Me: Six Months on the Set with Marilyn and Olivier" where this angel's neuroses are revealed in full. In true Monroe fashion, she makes it difficult to have a clear cut opinion. Dame Sybil Thorndike, her costar in the film as the Queen Mother of Carpathia, said of Marilyn Monroe during the shooting that Marilyn was the only one on the set who knew how to act on film and be natural. Apparently few noticed the difference, since the crew often thought she wasn't acting, that is until the rushes started showing up.
Colin Clark, the author of this interesting read, himself (he's the son of art historian Kenneth Clark, was Olivier's gofer on the set, said that when the film was done, despite the endless agony everyone had working with her, Marilyn Monroe was ‘a force of nature’ onscreen, although the whole crew threw her wrap party's gifts into the garbage. Yes, one must admit that MM had more serious flaws than we the still living. But do we take issue with the model for Velazquez's gorgeous Venus in ‘The Toilet of Venus’ (who may have been a waitress he hired) whose long bare body and glorious behind have the same pale rosiness as Marilyn Monroe's skin under Cardiff's lighting, while Cardiff treats her hair and eyes and mouth, her bottom and her bitty little belly, with all the care of Velazquez. We no longer remember Velazquez's model but that painting of her captures the eternal feminine. And someday Monroe's Elsie Marina in this film will rise in the heavens of art and be remembered while Marilyn becomes a receding historical figure, and remain a serene image of artistic divinity.
Time has taught us that this particular bijou of a film was destined to remain a curio in the careers of Marilyn Monroe and Laurence Olivier. In my opinion, although enjoyable ‘The Prince and the Showgirl’ is a good movie that might have been great.
This is where my critical side comes into play. While Monroe is wonderful as a saucy showgirl with a knack for foreign relations, Monroe's off-screen notoriety in 1957 made this a directorial nightmare for Olivier! However, on the other hand he never bursts out of his stiff-collared finery as the Carpathian Prince Regent, who's smitten by Marilyn's innocent, unpolished candor. Of course, it goes without saying that she's actually smarter than the monocled monarch, at least in her sensible handling of his stuffed-shirt diplomacy, so it's easy to forgive Terence Rattigan's script for favoring pomp over circumstance.
The comedic bits within the film percolate without bubbling over in this tale of opposites attracting, but I still feel it's a top-drawer production anyway, blessed primarily by Jack Cardiff's gorgeous Technicolor cinematography and by the charm of costars, which is so often the case, who successfully concealed their off-screen anxieties and produced first rate performances.
For me, The Prince and the Showgirl is a good, if slightly flawed film, with many great moments of sublime comedy and should be enjoyed as such!
However, there is more than just the superficial aspects of this movie. Oh no! It seems that Olivier had a barely contained sense of disdain if not hatred for Monroe, both in general and specifically in relation to this time. So much so, that he carried these feelings to his grave. I say, where there’s smoke, there’s fire!
The Prince and the Showgirl
The Prince and the Showgirl is a 1957 American film produced at Pinewood Studios starring Marilyn Monroe and co-starring Laurence Olivier who also served as director and producer.
The film was released on Thursday, June 13, 1957. It was written by Terence Rattigan who based the script on his play The Sleeping Prince. The story of the making of the film is the basis for the 2011 film My Week with Marilyn.
The film is set in London in June 1911. George V will be crowned king on Thursday, June 22 and in the preceding days many of the most important dignitaries arrive. Among those arriving are King Nicholas VIII of Carpathia and the Regent, Grand Duke Charles.
The British government realizes Carpathia is critical to the tension in Europe and to gain favor with them would be wise. They find it necessary to pamper the royals during their stay in London, and thus civil servant Northbrook is detached to their service. Northbrook decides to take the Prince Regent out to the musical performance The Coconut Girl. During the interval the Prince Regent is taken backstage to meet the cast. He is particularly interested in Elsie Marina, one of the performers, and invites her to the embassy for supper.
Elsie arrives at the embassy and is soon joined by the Prince Regent. She expects a party but quickly realizes the Prince's true intentions; she is persuaded not to leave by Northbrook, who promises to provide an excuse for her later. While the Prince and Elsie are trying to have a quiet supper there are many interruptions. Later on, the Prince makes a pass at Elsie which she, giggling with the effect of spirits they have been drinking, refuses. She explains how disappointed she was that he isn't more romantic and the Prince latches onto this, changing his tactics. The two eventually kiss and Elsie admits she may be falling in love, but she passes out from the drink. The Prince places her in an adjoining bedroom to stay the night.
The following day, Elsie overhears a conversation concerning the young Nicholas plotting to overthrow his father. Promising not to tell, Elsie then meets the Queen Mother, who decides she should join them for the coronation in place of her oversized lady in waiting. The ceremony passes and afterwards Elsie refuses to tell the Prince Regent details of the treasonous plot, but during the coronation ball (to which she was invited by Nicholas) she manages to persuade Nicholas to draw up a contract in which he confesses his and the Germans' intent, but only if the Prince agrees to a general election. The Prince Regent is impressed and realizes that he has fallen in love with Elsie. The morning after the Coronation Ball, Elsie manages to iron out the differences between father and son.
The next day the Carpathians must leave to return home. Elsie is invited by the Prince Regent to come with them, but she stays to fulfill her stage obligations and to allow him to fulfill his political obligations. The Prince Regent suggests that she join them in Carpathia after the end of her contract. The film ends with a possible meeting in 18 months time,when the Prince Regent is free of his obligations and she is free of hers.
The Cast
Marilyn Monroe as Elsie Marina: Elsie is a young showgirl who is noticed by the Prince Regent, and asked around to the Carpathian embassy for supper. This was one of the few films that Monroe did outside 20th Century Fox.
Laurence Olivier as Grand Duke Charles, the Prince Regent: Charles is the Prince Regent of Carpathia who insists on formality. Despite his wealth he is very lonely and invites Elsie Marina to the embassy for supper.
Sybil Thorndike as The Queen Dowager: The Queen is quite deaf and not always understanding some of the events around her. She has some very witty conversations with Elsie. Thorndike was a veteran British actress of the stage.
Richard Wattis as Northbrook: Northbrook is the unflappable British civil servant, assigned to the Prince Regent of Carpathia as an aide. Wattis was a British character actor often cast in the part of meek, long-suffering civil servants and officials.
Jeremy Spenser as King Nicholas: Nicholas is the King of Carpathia, though it is ruled by his father, Charles.
Paul Hardwick: as Major Domo
Esmond Knight: as Colonel Hoffman
Rosamond Greenwood: as Maud
Aubrey Dexter: as The Ambassador
Maxine Audley: as Lady Sunningdale
Harold Goodwin: as Call Boy
Jean Kent: as Maisie Springfield
Daphne Anderson: as Fanny
Gillian Owen: as Maggie
Vera Day: as Betty
Margot Lister: as Lottie
Charles Victor: as Theatre Manager
David Horne: as The Foreign Officer
Gladys Henson: as Dresser
The film proved less than impressive critically and financially. It profited but many critics panned it for being slow moving.
Awards
The movie was nominated for five BAFTA Awards:
Best British Actor - Laurence Olivier
Best British Film:
Best British Screenplay - Terence Rattigan
Best Film from any Source
Best Foreign Actress - Marilyn Monroe
Crystal Star Award
(French Film Academy)
Best Foreign Actress - Marilyn Monroe
David Di Donatello
(Italian Film Academy)
Best Foreign Actress - Marilyn Monroe
National Board of Review Awards:
Best Supporting Actress - Sybil Thorndike
Olivier was reputedly so annoyed by Monroe's behavior that he practically abandoned directing for the screen, only returning in 1970 to make Three Sisters (1970).
‘PRINCE AND SHOWGIRL’
Marilyn’s Type Comedy
By Marilyn Monroe
(The article below, written by Miss Monroe for Warner Brothers, Pictures, tells of her new movie ‘The Prince and the Showgirl’, coming soon to the Centre Theater.)
The Deseret News
June 20, 1957
‘The Prince and the Showgirl,’ my newest movie which you’ll be seeing soon, is a romantic comedy. It gives me no opportunity to do any dramatic acting.
It tells about Elsie Marina, an American showgirl appearing in London in 1911 and how she catches the eye of the Grand Duke Charles, regent of Carpathia. Well, this Grand Duke summons her (that’s me) one night after the show and, as she curtseys on being introduced to him, her (my) shoulder strap breaks. This drives him mad and the rest has never found its way into Carpathian history books.
I enjoy doing comedy. It isn’t true that I am pining to do the tragic Grushenka in ‘The Brothers Karamazov.’ I never said I wanted to play that role above all others. I merely said I might like to do dramatic roles for a change and I mentioned that as an example.
I’ve done drama before, though. There was ‘Asphalt Jungle,’ ‘Don’t Bother to Knock’ and ‘Bus Stop.’ Yes ‘Bus Stop’ was drama as well as comedy.
But I like me in ‘Prince and the Showgirl,’ and Arthur (Miller, her husband) likes me. And I have a great co-star in Olivier (Sir Laurence).
There’s a lot of nonsense about the American showgirl I portray being like me. I don’t think there’s any similarity. Least not that I could see.
I was happy at the reception the picture received at the recent New York premiere. Even though I was pushed around quite a bit out in front of the theater, it was wonderful. When the fans quit acting like that, I’ll start worrying.
Screen: Prince and Girl; The Cast
(1957)
By BOSLEY CROWTHER
The New York Times
Published: June 14, 1957
WHAT is perhaps the most diverting piece of casting in many a year—Britain's Sir Laurence Olivier with Hollywood's Marilyn Monroe—turns out to be the most diverting and original thing about their film, ‘The Prince and the Showgirl,’ presented at the Music Hall yesterday.
The mere thought of Britain's great Shakespearean playing a romantic lead opposite Hollywood's most famous and least pedantic blonde is sufficient to start the mind imagining some highly potential comic scenes. And the mere sight of them together is equally rewarding for a while.
Lodged in spacious, ornate chambers which are aptly designed to simulate a royal suite in the Carpathian Embassy in London at the time of the coronation of King George V; these two get going quite nicely as an overly stuffy Balkan prince and an American showgirl whom he is wooing with the old after-theatre-supper routine. Sir Laurence, in exquisite haberdashery, makes an amusingly clumsy would-be rake, and Miss Monroe in a skin-tight white creation makes a suitably gauche and cautious dame.
The elements, lifted in person by Terence Rattigan from his play, ‘The Sleeping Prince,’ give promise of developing amusement, despite the vague familiarity of the scene.
However, we're bound to tell you Miss Monroe never gets out of that dress and Mr. Rattigan never swings out of the circle in which he has permitted his thin plot to get stuck. Although he has made some feeble nudges with a hint of a dark conspiracy on the part of the prince's unloved gosling to overthrow his dad, and although he has tossed in a dowager queen to make a few haughty, humorous cracks, he has not let his story do much more than go around and around and then come to a sad end. The prince goes back to his country and the showgirl goes back to the Gaiety.
Furthermore—and this is disappointing—his characters do not have enough to do to allow a diverting demonstration of their elaborate acting skills. Sir Laurence is kept pretty much a stuffed-shirt, wearing a monõcle and speaking in Teutonic accents that are unpleasant and hard to understand. And Miss Monroe mainly has to giggle, wiggle, breathe deeply and flirt. She does not make the showgirl a person, simply another of her pretty oddities.
However, under Sir Laurence's direction, Sybil Thorndike plays the dowager queen with delightful fuzziness and hauteur, Richard Wattis makes a starchy minister and Jeremy Spenser is insufferably snippy as the prince's son. The settings are elegant in color and some bits of footage of the last Coronation are inter-cut.
The main trouble with ‘The Prince and the Showgirl,’ when you come right down to it, is that both characters are essentially dull. And incidentally, the scene shown in advertisements of Sir Laurence kissing Miss Monroe's shoulder does not appear in the film.
On the stage at the Music Hall is a ‘summer festival’ revue featuring Melissa Hayden, ballerina; Ronnie Ronalde, musical novelties; the Kurt Frindt trio and the Glee Club, Corps de Ballet and Rockettes.
The Cast
THE PRINCE AND THE SHOWGIRL,
Screen play by Terence Rattigan; based on his play, ‘The Sleeping Prince’; produced and directed in England by Sir Laurence Olivier; presented by Warner Brothers. At the Music Hall.
Elsie . . . . . Marilyn Monroe
The Regent . . . . . Laurence Olivier
The Queen Dowager . . . . . Sybil Thorndike
Northbrook . . . . . Richard Wattis
King Nicholas . . . . . Jeremy Spenser
Colonel Hoffman . . . . . Esmond Knight
Major Domo . . . . . Paul Hardwick
Maud . . . . . Rosamund Greenwood
The Ambassador . . . . . Aubrey Dexter
Lady Sunningdale . . . . . Maxine Audley
Call Boy . . . . . Harold Goodwin
Valet with Violin . . . . . Andrea Malandrinos
Maisie Springfield . . . . . Jean Kent
Fanny . . . . . Daphne Anderson
Maggie . . . . . Gillian Owen
Betty . . . . . Vera Day
Lottie . . . . . Margot Lister
Theatre Manager . . . . . Charles Victor
The Foreign Office . . . . . David Horne
Head Valet . . . . . Dennis Edward
Dresser . . . . . Gladys Henson
Glittering Success Of Unlikely Team
Prince And Chorus Girl
By Our Film Critic, Molly Plowright
The Glasgow Herald
September 23, 1957
When it was first announced that Sir Laurence Olivier and Marilyn Monroe were to appear together in ‘The Prince and the Showgirl’, it sounded an unlikely team; in fact, as a visit to the Regal or Coliseum this week will show, it has paid off remarkably well.
The project has been discussed so widely already it can hardly be necessary to explain that the prince is the regent of an obscure Balkan country, whose royal responsibilities have allowed him to philander but have precluded the chance of any normal home life of his own.
When he visits England in 1911 for the Coronation of George V he meets a pretty American chorus girl, who gives him –if only for an interlude – his first taste of genuine affection, with all the delights and exasperations that go with it.
The third aspect of the piece – overshadowed, rather unfairly, by the interest aroused in the principals – is Terence Rattigan’s script. Tenuous, repetitive, too long – it is all these things, but under Sir Laurence’s direction it is also stylish, nostalgic pastiche; the last reflection of the heyday of courts, diplomacy, and elegant behavior, before the rumblings of 1914 destroyed a leisured civilization forever.
Witty Direction
Of course much is owed to Sir Laurence’s delicate and witty direction (if only he had tightened the whole thing up a bit). He has also obtained a more versatile and positive performance from Miss Monroe than I have ever seen her give before. (Make no mistake – no amount of brilliant direction can draw out talent that is not there.)
Pretty as a picture, lively as a kitten but mercifully never kittenish, vulnerable as a child to sorrow, she gives a most engaging performance.
Sir Laurence himself is beautifully comic as the stiff, middle aged, humorless prince, driven to the last stages of annoyance by the spontaneous young woman he has become encumbered with, but at the same time both unwilling and unable to free himself.
There is also Dame Sybil Thorndike as the dowager Queen, not eccentric but certainly individual, and Richard Wattis in a glorious study of the prince’s English equerry whose correctness never falters no matter how Balkan the situation becomes.
This is hardly a distinguished film, but how much there is in it to enjoy.
'Try To Be Sexy':
How Larry Olivier Set Out To Humiliate Monroe!
By Chris Hastings
The Telegraph
August 31, 2003
The full extent of Laurence Olivier's hatred for Marilyn Monroe is revealed in a new biography of one of Britain's most renowned film-makers.
Britain's leading actor regarded Hollywood's greatest star as an utter "bitch" who lacked talent and sex appeal. Lord Olivier's damning verdict of his co-star is demonstrated in a memoir of Jack Cardiff, the double Oscar-winning cinematographer, who worked with the stars on their 1957 film, The Prince and the Showgirl.
Cardiff reveals that Olivier developed a hatred of the American actress which he carried to his death. Twenty-five years after they made the film together, and despite her own tragic death, the actor would still privately refer to her as a "bitch".
Cardiff, 88, is not the first person to comment on the fraught relationship between the stars during the making of The Prince and the Showgirl, their only collaboration. His detail about the extent of their mutual hatred, however, make his disclosures significant. His senior position on the set ensured that he developed close friendships with both of them.
At the time the film was shot in London, Oliver, 50, was at the top of his profession, having been knighted and having starred in and directed acclaimed adaptions of Hamlet and Richard III.
He regarded Monroe, then 31, the star of films such as Gentlemen Prefer Blondes and The Seven Year Itch, as his inferior. Cardiff says that Olivier went out of his way to be a "pain in the arse" to the American, deliberately seeking to antagonise her by "unwisely" allowing his wife Vivien Leigh, the star of Gone With The Wind who had played the part of the showgirl on stage, to attend the shoot.
Leigh's presence visibly "terrified" an already nervous Monroe and almost certainly affected her state of mind.
Olivier's hatred of his co-star seems largely to have been based on her refusal to socialise with the cast and crew, and her obsession with method acting, which led her to question every decision he made as the film's director.
Monroe resented his treatment of her and was particularly hurt by his refusal to acknowledge even her status as a sex symbol.
Cardiff, whose Oscar-winning films include Black Narcissus and The African Queen, says: "From the first, it was evident that Marilyn was going to be a problem for Larry on the film. Most actors will come on the set and chat, but she would never come on the set. She went through so many agonized times with Larry because he was, to her, a pain in the arse. She never forgave him for saying to her once, 'Try and be sexy'.
"Marilyn had this ghastly obsession with method acting and was always searching for some inner meaning with everything, but Larry would only explain the simple facts of the scene. I think she resented him. She used to call him 'Mr Sir', because he had been knighted."
Cardiff adds: "I saw Larry years later on The Last Days of Pompeii, which was made for television in 1984. We talked a lot on set and I asked him one day what he had thought about Marilyn and he just said, 'She was a bitch.'
While Cardiff is sympathetic to Olivier, who died, aged 82, in 1989, he remains loyal to Monroe. He paints a picture of a sex symbol who had an almost child-like quality off screen. He insists that her legendary inability to turn up anywhere on time was not arrogance, but shyness.
He recalls how a trip to the theatre could be enough to push her over the edge: "When we got inside, we were sitting in the stalls about 10 rows back and everyone sitting in front was just turned around looking at Marilyn. During the interval, to stop us being mobbed they had fixed up a private little room for us. The first bell to signal the end of the interval went, and we got ready to go, but Marilyn asked for another drink. Then the second bell went and she still wouldn't go. I looked at her and she was obviously terrified of going back."
Cardiff's last meeting with Monroe, in a Hollywood hotel just months before her death, gave him a revealing insight into her private turmoil. He recalls: "I went over and it was a big room with just one dim light and she was wearing dark glasses. We sat together on the settee and had a drink and she told me what a terrible time she had been having.”
"She told me that she went to a health farm and it turned out to be a loony bin. She noticed that the door handles were missing on the inside and she couldn't get out. She had been told that she could only leave if a relative came and took her, but she had no relatives by this time. Joe DiMaggio, her second husband, who was a wonderful guy and who always stood by her, came and got her out."
Cardiff believes that the actress, who apparently committed suicide in 1962, was murdered because of her brief affair with President Kennedy. He is convinced that a reported sighting of Robert Kennedy at the star's Hollywood bungalow is crucial to the mystery.
He writes: "Marilyn, who was always very silly, had kept a diary while she was with Jack Kennedy, before Bobby got involved, and in the diary Jack had told her a lot of stories about the Bay of Pigs episode [the 1961 CIA-backed invasion of Cuba], which was hot stuff. But she put it in her diary, and Jack had wanted that back. It [the murder theory] makes sense to me because she had the diary."
Cardiff, who was presented with an honorary Oscar for his outstanding contribution to cinema two years ago, is still working and is regarded by many as the greatest cinematographer in the history of film. His biography spans his 80-year involvement with the big screen beginning as a child actor in silent films.
ELSA MAXWELL WEIGHS IN ON MARILYN
AT THE TIME SHE MADE THE PRINCE AND THE SHOWGIRL
THE DILEMMA OF MARILYN MONROE
By Elsa Maxwell
The Milwaukee Sentinel
May 12, 1957
I know of no one in this world who has greater need of the security a woman finds in a sound, happy marriage than Marilyn Monroe. With Arthur Miller, sensitive and intelligent, wise about the humanities and several years her senior, I think she has every chance of finding security. However, his indictment on two counts by a grand jury for contempt of Congress – the maximum penalty on each count being a $1,000 fine and one year in prison – inevitably has complicated their first year together.
Last February, you will remember, Arthur Miller was indicted for refusing to tell the House Un-American Activities Committee the names of his associates when, although never a member of the party, he supported Communistic fronts. ‘I will tell you anything about myself,’ he once said to the committee, ‘but I cannot take responsibility for another human being.’
There are those who think his attitude commendable. Others – myself included, as much as I admire him and his work – believe a far greater issue than loyalty to old associates is at stake.
Through it all Marilyn has kept her silence. The only inkling of her feelings came when a reporter asked Arthur if she was upset by the action and he said: ‘Nobody is very overjoyed.’
I do not believe Arthur Miller is Communistic in his thinking. I believe him completely when he says, ’. . . In those times I supported causes that I would not support now. . . I would not now support a cause which was dominated by Communists. . .’
All of which, to my way of thinking, makes the present state of affairs a great pity – with the marital happiness of a young wife, who richly deserves happiness, hanging in the balance.
Marilyn does not talk about the possibility that her famous husband may be in for more adverse publicity, followed by a stretch behind bars. But she certainly is aware that such a development could affect his career and hers – not to mention their personal relationship. How to prepare for this possibility, and what to do if it happens, is Marilyn Monroe’s dilemma.
Marilyn is trying – as she did in her two previous marriages, perhaps erroneously – to be the woman she believes her husband’s wife should be. It is reliably reported she has embraced his Jewish faith.
It is good to see Marilyn and Arthur Miller together. Their love for each other is unmistakable. I found myself moved by the quiet fondness with which he rested his hand on her shoulder and by the devotion in her eyes when he was talking.
‘The most wonderful thing is happening,’ she told me when Arthur left the room for a minute. ‘Next month my husband’s plays are being brought out in book form. Yesterday he presented me with the fly-leaf. It says ‘For Marilyn.’
Over her black dress she wore what obviously was her husband’s big black sweater. I asked no questions, but I decided she wore that sweater for one of two reasons – that she is pregnant or, that like any girl in love, she enjoys wearing her husband’s things.
‘I’m so glad you could stop in this afternoon,’ she told me. ‘I was so disappointed when I couldn’t lunch with you. But I had such nausea this morning . . . ‘
That inclined me to think my first guess about the sweater was correct. But I was wrong for she told me; definitely, she is not having a baby.
We talked of her recent stay in London and of the crowds that trailed her wherever she went and, once, almost overturned her car. But I heard no complaints. ‘Sometimes when the crowds were especially great it was a little frightening,’ she said ‘but they were so nice to me over there. And, speaking of crowds, any time I don’t want to be mobbed I wear a bandana around my head and put on red bangs. This way I don’t look in the least like me.’
I told her how much I liked her husband. ‘He is the nicest man I ever met,’ she said softly. ‘He is sensitive and intelligent – with a sense of humor.’
The Miller apartment in midtown Manhattan overflows with books and records. There’s a chess table in the library with ivory kings and queens, bishops, knights and pawns waiting to be moved to the game’s completion. Interesting, rather than valuable pictures hang on the walls, including Marilyn’s favorite lithograph of Abraham Lincoln. It is not a showplace for a big movie star. The house is run to suit the master’s convenience, with every consideration given him and the study where he is at work on his new play.
‘We’re looking for a house at the ocean for the summer,’ she told me, ‘and for the larger apartment we want in the fall. My husband’s children, who is 12, and Bobby who is nine, spend their weekends with us . . . ‘
‘How wonderful for Jane and Bobby such a beautiful young stepmother!’
She laughed. ‘As to being young I’m 3o years old. That is not so young for a movie star. But I wouldn’t want to be any younger – to know all the young pain again. Besides Arthur says if I was any younger he couldn’t stand me.’
‘I hear from Larry Olivier,’ I told her, ‘that you do a very fine job indeed in The Prince And The Showgirl.’
‘I think it is the best thing I’ve ever done,’ she said.
You cannot bait her into movie star histrionics. Largely, I think, because she is concerned, above all, these days, with her marriage. ‘Farmed out’ all through her childhood and married at 16 just so she would have a home, she knows how deeply she needs love.
Married to Jim Dougherty she worked like the little slavey she always had been to keep the house in order. Married to Joe DiMaggio she cooked Italian dinners when she got home from the studios, exerted herself to play a worthwhile game of billiards, and of golf, and to evince enthusiasm for baseball.
Neither of her first two husbands seemed able to give her the tender companionship she needed to erase the fears and shams acquired in her lonely childhood. I believe she can count on these things from Arthur Miller.
I am a rooter for Marilyn. And when I am charmed by and affectionately disposed towards someone who arrives two and one half hours late for luncheon – as she once did – it’s a great tribute. I do not believe she is late – as she almost always is – because she is thoughtless or rude or because she has any nonsensical notion that any such a dido makes her important.
I believe that, suffering from social stage fright, she find it necessary to redo her face or her hair or to change her costume over and over in a subconscious wish to postpone the moment of joining a party.
By the same token I am sure her little upsets are also defensive mechanisms at work. You’ll remember the flurries of illness when she was in London working on The Prince And The Showgirl – especially when Arthur Miller had to fly back to America for a few days and she felt more insecure than usual.
Just the other day when I told her I would put her next to a certain distinguished gentleman at my ‘April In Paris Ball’ and place Arthur next to Clare Boothe Luc she asked, ‘Could I please sit next to my husband too? I think that should be permissible. We have been married such a little time.’
And what could be more natural than that she should know deep insecurity? Never in her life – until recently – has she really seemed to belong anywhere or to anyone.
She’s elusive, too, having developed a defensive retreat from those with whom she was ‘farmed out’ as an orphan. It is often safer not to have too much known about you.
I do not believe that Marilyn ever has completely trusted anyone however much she might have wished to do so.
Always she has stood alone, a position that denies any woman her greatest happiness, especially a woman as warm and outgoing as she is. Had she lacked warmth and a natural love for people she would not be the great star she is today. And instead of the fame she has today she would have as limited a career as some of the hippy and bosomy girls who were supposed to take her place – but never did.
Which brings me back to her marriage and my hopes for it. Arthur Miller is a man capable of understanding her frightened psyche. With time and love I am sure he can help her let down her guard.
Soon now his counsel will move that the indictment against him be dismissed. If this happens it will not be because of his prominence as a Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright for Death Of A Salesman or because of his wife’s fame. Actually it will be in spite of these things which may induce another general furor.
On the other hand, should the indictment stand and should he be required to pay the maximum penalty of $1,000 and one year in prison on both counts, the dilemma of my little friend Marilyn Monroe will indeed be great.
NR
© 2011 The Esoteric Curiosa. All Rights Reserved
