For today’s post I would like to do a countdown of my favorite Marilyn Monroe movies. This film icon is best remembered for her light hearted comedies, and her role as a sex symbol. Her tragic death on August 5, 1962 further solidified her as an icon of Hollywood’s Golden Age!
Number 5: Let’s Make Love (1960)
~This film is a musical romantic comedy which also starred the French film star Yves Montand! Famously Marilyn and Montand are said to have had an affair while the film was being made. It is an adorable movie about a noble falling in love with a showgirl.
Number 4: Some Like it Hot (1959)
~One of the great comedies of the late 1950s also starred Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon. Watching the two men dress in drag to avert the attention of the mob in the 1920s set comedy is uproariously funny. Marilyn lit up the screen in this film, and this film is well worth a watch!
Number 3: How to Marry a Millionaire (1953)
~A trio of Hollywood legends star in this film about three girlfriends sharing a swanky apartment to snare rich husbands in this film. Alongside Marilyn, Lauren Bacall and Betty Grable make this a truly sweet film! It gets bonus points for me for having and aging William Powell as a love interest, and for the reference to “the old guy from African Queen” and how Bacall loves him (he was her real life husband, of course)!
Number 2: The Seven Year Itch (1955)
~This is likely the best known Marilyn film, given it features the iconic “skirt scene.” In this film Marilyn played a character known only as “the girl” whose place is to be an object of attraction to the long married protagonist. In the film they had to show the affair as only taking place in fantasies, however in the original stage play the husband actually cheated!
Number 1: Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953)
~My number one Marilyn film is the one that made her a star! In this hilarious romantic comedy musical Marilyn and Jane Russell played showgirls traveling to Paris on an ocean liner. The story gets more and more funny as the two navigate Marilyn’s love for diamonds and her future father-in-law’s mistrust of the girls! It also contains one of the great 1950s musical moments with the song Diamonds are a Girl’s Best Friend!
~I hope you have enjoyed my countdown of Marilyn movies. Let me know you thoughts, and opinions, in the comments below!
Note on Image: The image at the top of the post is Marilyn in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (the “Diamonds are a Girl’s Best Friend” scene). I found the image on screenchic.com.
White Rose of Avalon 