By: Marie Manning

Marie Manning — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 19:03:20 +0000

Just a reminder of a sort: Ms Monroe still is an icon , but most (unfortunately) people are not aware that she became an icon not just by clever PR and the (today) usually produced hype, but she still had to walk some gruesome and ever-winding roads, and, sadly, she never got the appreciation she not only yearned for but deserved, i.e. for being a brilliant performing artist in her own right and class (hard to top up to today), an actress, without which Billy Wilder (whom I do appreciate a lot, I do!, but I accuse him for belittling her impact and long after her death still went on complaining about the ordeal of having had to work with M.M…. in this context he behaved like so many , too many men, who probably were, in truth, overwhelmed by her charisma, by her – and Billy Wilder must have realized her enormous acting talent and capacities – “sex-appeal” as it used to be called and relentlessly belittled her by reducing her to tits and ass and pouting lips and the rest… just in between: this is not (!) to be interpreted as some feminist sort of compassionate or , worse, pityful comment, NO… she was very tough, very strong (must have been to survive at least as long as she did under the circumstances, the spirits of the time, all and next to everyone reducing her to a “sex-symbol”, which she managed to be, too!, yes, she was one, and one of a kind! for that matter… AND YET and ALSO (not in spite of..) she was a ravaging, a stunning actress, an artist in her own right, which she sadly never got the appropriate praise for… and to get back to Billy Wilder: he tended to forget to say publicly that the classics – like “Some like It Hot” – , in which Marilyn had a /the leading role might never have become classics without her and I want to stress: her performance! Okay, just sum it up: she was actually and foremost a brilliant actress, and I would have liked to kick some – like Wilder, whom I regard as a brilliant director and very intelligent man, so, that`s why he should have stood up for her, but he never did – where men just loath to be kicked into…

Comments on: Tony Curtis Really Liked it Hot with Marilyn Monroe

By: Marie Manning