Robert J. Maxwell "Marilyn Monroe: The Final Days." Sounds like something that should be on some tabloid TV show, one of those morbid sumps that blame everything on child abuse and are pregnant with lines like, "Little did she know, tragedy lay just around the corner." It's actually better than that. It's not just a roll in the hay with Schadenfreude. Instead it's an interesting, sometimes funny, and reasonably objective look at Marilyn Monroe's personality and illness, the character of those who surrounded her, and the dynamics of the movie business at Twentieth-Century Fox.Monroe's childhood was exceptional in several ways -- bad ways -- a father who deserted the family and a mother who wound up in a psychiatric facility. Monroe herself had several miscarriages but always wanted to have children herself. It's probably by the seasonable interposition of a gracious Providence that she was unable to do so. There's a high genetic loading on schizophrenia.What's surprising in looking at the photos from her youth is that she was not particularly attractive. She was rather plump, puffy, and ordinary in appearance. Even at the age of twenty, she was perfectly normal except for a mane of frizzly hair. Her later glamorized beauty is a monument to studio craftsmanship.Much of the film deals with the problems she had making her last attempt at a movie, "Something's Got To Give," with Dean Martin and Cyd Charisse. Of course her unreliability was already legendary but the director, George Cukor, became worried as the shoot fell farther and farther behind, costing the studio a fortune with every day missed, money they couldn't afford to lose after the four-hour and three minute egg, "Cleopatra." She complained of cold, fevers, sinusitis, and was pounding barbiturates. Cukor shot around her, filmed all the scenes that didn't require her presence, but when Monroe took off -- still claiming illness -- to attend President John F. Kennedy's gala birthday party and performed before the crowd, the consensus was that she was plagues less by illness and more by self indulgence.It didn't help that on the few days she was available, she constantly looked to her acting coach, Paula Strassberg, for approval, without which she would demand a retake. Cukor was edged out. And Strassberg was on a five-thousand-dollar a week salary from Monroe. Nobody liked Strassberg who, regardless of the source, comes across as an expensive parasite. Her psychiatrist also claimed he could get Monroe to do whatever he wanted. We aren't informed what he was paid.After a month of shooting, the film was one million dollars over budget. Monroe had worked only thirteen out of thirty production days, and she was officially fired, her career finished at the age of thirty-six.There were photoshoots and an attempt to kick start "Something's Got To Give" but it didn't help her. She died of an overdose of seconal and other substances.Most of the talking heads are reasonable in their comments. Of course, nobody says, "I wish I'd done something differently." Her personal doc, with fashionably swept back gray hair, disclaims all responsibility. And we don't have to listen to much pop psychology, although there are the usual references to "the lost little girl inside her." The last twenty minutes or so present the updated and refurbished existing footage of the original shoot. The clips are ordered along the lines of the plot and suggest that if the movie had been finished it wouldn't have been bad, although it lacks the élan of the original, "My Favorite Wife."

bobvend The events surrounding the sad, trouble-plagued 1962 production of Marilyn Monroe's last (and unfinished) film "Something's Got To Give" are covered in this thoughtful and reasonably balanced documentary. Regardless of whether or not the viewer is a Monroe fan- or is particularly interested in Hollywood lore- there's an undeniable pull to this offering, not unlike the interest one would experience upon learning of unearthed, previously unknown recordings by a favorite long-deceased singer. This is a rare all-too-brief glimpse of what might have been.No one denies Monroe was a troubled individual and a difficult actress, and the frustrations of working with her were academic long before she signed to do this film. 20th Century Fox, her home studio for which she was making the film, and the film's reluctant director George Cukor, knew all too well what to expect (and what not to expect) from her. The documentary does a good job of detailing the dire financial situation Fox was in at the time, and how this served to put undue pressure on the production. Almost bankrupt due to the huge cost overruns and delays on their colossal epic "Cleopatra" (in it's third year of production by '62), the studio desperately needed a hit, and they needed it fast. But "Something's Got To Give" wouldn't be it.The basis for this documentary stems from the painstaking restoration of the long-forgotten reels from the film that narrator James Coburn states totaled nine hours of footage. An edited "reconstruction" of "Something's Got To Give" comprises the final part of this feature, which is also its most sadly poignant. We settle into watch what amounts to a typical piece of early-1960's harmless fluff, at times clever and witty with some good comic chops. Aside from a scene where Dean Martin's character seems surprisingly unsurprised to see his "dead" wife (indicating the absence of an earlier scene), the film moves along fairly smoothly. Lulled (as I was) into thinking that nine hours of footage is certainly enough from which to extract a coherent complete film, everything suddenly comes to an unexpected end as an off-camera Cukor says "cut!", and all too soon, there's nothing more to see. The film's reconstruction runs for only about 37 minutes, despite the fact that practically all scenes where Monroe's presence wasn't required made it onto film, as the studio worked around her frequent absences. But having continued the reconstructed film without crucial missing scenes involving Monroe would have been somewhat pointless. Fox would remake the movie with a different cast in 1963, entitled "Move Over, Darling" which would give the viewer a reasonable idea of what "Something..." might have looked like had it ever reached the screen. What precious little usable footage we saw of Monroe in the first segments of this feature is apparently all there was. This is part of what makes "Marilyn- The Final Days" so oddly compelling.

karmacoupe wow! this is a mind-blowing documentary! up with the best ever IMHO -- particularly Let It Be in its portrait of a great artist's demise; Lost In La Mancha in the disaster caught on film; Swear To Tell The Truth (about Lenny Bruce) in its common era and tragic hero; and Festival Express in its unreal footage that you never thought existed of masters in their prime. and make no mistake, this girl was still in her prime! she could be in a parka reading the newspaper with a three-ring circus beside her and Nobody would notice the circus! how it portrayed the final hours without a conspiracy theory undertone. and Sinatra singing the theme song to her lost last movie?! huh!? and that Wally Cox shot two of the final scenes ever with Marilyn Monroe!? and that Steve Allen was also in the last movie? was there anything he didn't do!? I remember hearing about this when it came out, and I just went, "Oh, some other stupid documentary on Marilyn," like there's been A Million of these already. but this is so serious, and real, and complete, and not just whoring her name and figure. it made me choked up in both her final performance in "Something's Got To Give" (another freakily ominous title, like that Beatles farewell), and in the recreation of her last night.she is So transcendent! there aren't many humans captured on film as captivating as her. and What a portrait this is of her final reel!

Emchick A magnificent documentary that shows the last days of Hollywood's greatest actress. That also shows rare footage of 9 hours of Marilyn's last movie, Something's Got To Give, that AMC had restored and edited to 37 minutes showing what could have been.Most scenes didn't have her in them, because of her absent days during filming, that lead Fox to have her fired from the film. But because of Dean Martin's contract, (saying that he wouldn't be in it if Marilyn wasn't) Fox signed her back on. Sadly, the movie was never finished, due to Marilyn's tragic death. (Suicide, I think NOT!)Still, Marilyn Monroe: The Final Days is a beautifully pieced program that tells the ending of Marilyn Monroe's life, but there is no ending to Marilyn's legacy and the memory of her. Marilyn Monroe 1926-1962