Marilyn at 100 Watch/ Noir Watch: Niagara (1953)

Watched:  06/16/2026

Format:  TCM on DVR

Viewing:  Second

Director:  Henry Hathaway

I had only seen Niagara (1953) once before, back in 2012.  I recalled specific images, but was aware that I couldn't recall the actual ending.  

On a rewatch, I can see why.  The movie really cruises along to the last act, and then loses much of the appeal the film has carried up to that point.

Marilyn Monroe, in her first starring, top-billed role, stars alongside Signal Watch fave Joseph Cotten and the lovely Jean Peters.  Monroe plays the wife of Cotten, who knows she's too young for him, too vivacious and who has started running around with a younger man behind Cotten's back.  Cotten thinks something is going on but can't prove it.

They're staying in some cabins overlooking Niagara Falls on the Canadian side, and have fallen into a malaise.  Jean Peters shows up with her husband, (sigh) Max Showalter, on a delayed honeymoon.  They meet Monroe, who is made up and dressed to make Jean Peters look positively plain-jane by comparison - a tremendous feat.

While out touristing, Peters sees Monroe making time with someone not her husband, but says nothing to her or her own husband. But she does develop sympathy for Cotten.

Things go sideways when Monroe and her lover set in motion a plan to bump off Cotten.  

You will hear that this is the movie that made Monroe a star - and it is the movie where Monroe's appeal became *a thing*.  She's not playing someone unaware of her effect on men, and the results of how the camera sees her are explosive.  She's been in the frame before, but now she's all you can see.  Movies never really recovered from Monroe in 1953 - in which she'd release this, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, and How to Marry a Millionaire.  

In Niagara, she plays a straight up noir bad-girl/ femme fatale.  Rare for Monroe, who most often was, at best, cast as someone caught up in events but wasn't the instigator.  And she's good.  That she was not allowed to play this near as often as the sexed-up daffy girl is a crime.

This movie may be entirely about how hot Marilyn Monroe is, and how that's a problem, but she's also not exactly the lead.  She's *a* lead - but Jean Peters is our focal character, playing a Mid-Western housewife trying to keep/ get her husband's attention.  They're on their long-delayed vacation/ honeymoon, which will be utterly ruined by Monroe and Cotten.

You also can't say enough about the cinematography of the film.  Shot in technicolor at its peak, it still uses the carving of light and shadow we know from film noir.  Cinematographer Joe MacDonald would also photograph Peters in Pickup on South Street this same year, and that's one of the most noiry-noirs ever filmed.  

Not every shot in Niagara a masterpiece, but you can tell the places where MacDonald had a chance to work with Hathaway as a director to make *art*.  And those scenes will stick with you.  And, yes, shooting Monroe like a special effect is *actually part or the story*.  In a lot of ways, its Hitchockian in the way the movie is about what we see.

But, it's a strange movie in that it swings between this beautifully shot, thoughtfully constructed film with interesting psychological layers, and then can feel ham-handed in other parts.  I'd argue the last fifteen minutes or so feels tacked on by the studio and if you find meaning in it beyond "thrills!" I fear I may overreach in my interpretation.  

Jean Peters in a publicity shot

SPOILERS

I'd argue it's a hell of a film up until the point where Cotten murders Monroe and then is stuck in the building with her over night  So, yes, the point at which Monroe dies is where I think it falls off, because now the tension is cut by more than half.  We've taken too much off the table.

What Peters knows, what she won't say, even her own feelings about being married to Showalter's eager-beaver goof of a breakfast cereal marketing man who may be a disappointment - as she sorts through what Monroe is up to with Cotten... that's something.  

There's something interesting bubbling with Peters' character Polly  - but she never voices it. And it starts with Peters saying she's on a honeymoon and Showalter saying he's planning on doing a lot of reading.  Ie:  Peters is maybe relating to Monroe's character's sexual appetites but lacks the ability to express it.  They could have cast someone with less sex appeal that Peters herself - but... did not.

I have to believe the movie intentionally cast Peters, who did play sexy in other films.  There's no evidence without being a jerk about it - but I have to believe they cast Showalter with Peters in order to create a contrast against Monroe and Cotten's wrecked relationship.  Ie:  Showalter is a nerd.  A good husband figure, but a bit clueless and focused solely on his career, taking Peters for granted.

Peters, in turn, isn't given much to play other than "ideal 1950's woman" when it comes to her actions and dialog.  She's nurturing with everyone, agrees readily with her husband, helps care for Cotten, ignores her husband openly ogling Monroe, etc...  As the film progresses, she is the audience's eye and becomes a bit of a detective.   When she does learn what is going on - she actually wants to cover for Cotten, whom she knows killed Monroe's lover in self-defense.  And, frankly, she seems like she's ready to cover for him after he bumps off Monroe.  They have a shared understanding of *something* - connecting during that scene where she works to repair his hand, something Monroe refuses to do.

So why does the movie devolve into a goofy boat chase at the end?  Other than there were rules about needing so many chases in a movie and we need some ACTION?  And the movie itself admits that shouting "scuttle it!  scuttle it!" is maybe the worst dialog we've heard in a film.

If the falls themselves at the end are a metaphor, and I suppose we could find one, then seeing Peters and Cotten both pulled by the same current toward their doom is something.  And we've previously established Peters is a 'hang out in the still waters' kind of gal.  So, I guess Niagara is the rushing power of sexuality leading to doom?  Oh, 1950's.

I mean, earlier in the film, Showalter says he's never seen colors like those lights under the falls before.  Dude, you sad, sad man.  Scuttle it, indeed.

Anyway, I enjoyed the movie a great deal.  Which is something I'd remembered from the first viewing.  I do think those last few minutes kind of lose their way, but at a tight 90-ish minutes, and to see Monroe blossom into her full powers, it's definitely worth a viewing.  

I also want to point to that cinematography, because holy cow.