Marilyn Starts a Heat Wave

I hope that Michelle Williams’ exquisite performance in the new film, “My Week With Marilyn” inspires its viewers to go back and watch the inimitable original: Marilyn Monroe.  Williams does a snippet of this song in the film though does not try to replicate the staging of the original.  It’s one of my favorite of Monroe’s musical numbers, steamy but witty and shows what a gifted dancer and singer she was.  One amusing note: in the original film, There’s No Business Like Show Business, one of Irving Berlin’s lyrics was censored for being too racy.  Instead of saying, “She started a heat wave by letting her seat wave,” they changed it to “letting her feet wave”(!).  In the Michelle Williams version, the original lyric is used.  In both, her seat waves.

That’s Donald O’Connor, Ethel Merman, Mitzi Gaynor, and Dan Dailey watching from the wings.  The movie is just an excuse for a lot of Irving Berlin songs, but that’s enough to make it worth watching.

Here’s Williams: