Monday Matinee
'Niagara' (PG)

Come and join us for a celebration of 100 years since the birth of Marilyn Monroe, for a screening of 'Niagra', in which she takes top billing, alongside Joseph Cotten

This 1953 film noir thriller follows two couples at Niagara Falls whose vacations intersect with deadly consequences. Newlyweds Ray and Polly Cutler find their cabin occupied by the Loomises—George, an unstable veteran, and his seductive, unfaithful wife Rose. Rose is secretly plotting with her lover to murder George, but the twisted scheme misfires, sparking a dangerous game of deception and revenge that culminates in a lethal pursuit through the Falls.

With top billing and a villainous role for the first time in her career, Monroe dominates every scene, of course, each tight-fitting skirt or suit hugging her curves in all new ways, her sex appeal roaring almost as loudly as the nearby falls.

Unlike other films noir of the time, which were typically black-and-white, Niagara was shot in "three-strip" Technicolor, one of the last films to be made at 20th Century Fox in that format, as a few months later the studio began converting to CinemaScope.

If you ever thought Marilyn Monroe was not a good actress, watch this film, and you will realize that she was indeed a great actress.