Marilyn Starts a Heat Wave

Posted on November 20, 2011 at 1:14 pm

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.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qe-45dj-aGo

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:

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Happy Birthday, Marilyn Monroe!

Posted on June 4, 2011 at 5:09 pm

Happy birthday to Marilyn Monroe, that star of stars. She continues to bewitch us nearly a half century after her death. Yet another movie about her is currently in the works, with Michelle Williams as the former Norma Jean Baker.

I hope you have all seen “Some Like It Hot, ” the American Film Institute’s number one funniest American movie of all time. And everyone should watch “The Seven Year Itch” and “Bus Stop,” both classics. I’d also suggest:

Let’s Make Love Marilyn does a sizzling performance of “My Heart Belongs to Daddy” in this charming story of a zillionaire who tries to stop a satiric off-Broadway revue because it makes fun of him and then ends up trying out to play himself because he wants to get to know the beautiful star of the show.

There’s No Business Like Show Business This often-forgotten film is a sudsy excuse for using a lot of Irving Berlin songs, but it has a knock-out cast, including Ethel Merman and Donald O’Connor, and Monroe is sensational in “We’re Having a Heat Wave.”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Krl_pXXfKEI&feature=related

How to Marry a Millionaire Lauren Bacall, Betty Grable, and Monroe are three models with a plan to marry rich. As the nearsighted girl with a warm heart, and in one of two performances opposite David Wayne (the other is “We’re Not Married”), she is pure delight.

Gentlemen Prefer Blondes Madonna based her “Material Girl” video on “Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend” from this movie about two free-wheeling showgirls. I also love her song, “Bye Bye Baby.”