MovieChat Forums > There's No Business Like Show Business (1955) Discussion > HEAT WAVE!

HEAT WAVE!

posted 16 years ago by denis-38
3 replies | jump to latest

Come on, how do you discuss this film (which I love, and not just for MM) and not mention "Heat Wave?" I can't imagine what 1954 audiences were thinking--surely no woman could have identified with MM, her bumping and grinding and thrusting her flamenco skirts between her legs, while moaning about "the Deep South!" It's a spectacularly over-the-top performance--eyebrown raising even today. Indeed all her numbers in the movie are unsually suggestive. She didn't want to make "There's No Business..." and only agreed when FOX promised her "The Seven Year Itch" but clearly the script said, "sexy blonde" and she did her damndest.

This is the only movie where MM seems vulgar, albeit entertainingly vulgar. The script is terribly insulting to her character, Vicki, and it seems based on FOX's low opinion of her.

This was the movie that caused Marilyn to flee Hollywood and start her own company.

[–] cnicknz 15 years ago

I agree completely. This is the only vulgar Monroe performance, and her character is unlikable. Having said that she looks lovely through most of it and at least she isn't a dumb blonde--she's ambitious and talented, though mismatched with the boyish Donald O'Connor.

[–] denis-38 13 years ago

"TNBLSB" is having its TCM debut tonight. Oy. But the print is pristine and tho on the over-the-top side, MM is fun. Thank God she finally ditched Natasha Lytess and the much-mocked over-enunciating. (They actually made fun of her in the film itself! But the script was very degrading to her.)

However,here--and in "River of No Retutn" as well--she's no dumb blonde. Tough and agressive, and, when she drops the enunciating,convincing.

[–] DorianGray502 10 years ago

Script aside, it is beautifully filmed and in Cinemascope! Too many annoying musical numbers, but that was the point. It could have been a great film. Like The Misfits, it misses the mark despite being loaded with talent.