Marilyn (1953 film)

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Marilyn
Marilyn 1953 film poster.jpg
Theatrical release poster
Directed by Wolf Rilla
Written byWolf Rilla
Story byPeter Jones (play Marion)
Produced by Ernest G. Roy
Starring Sandra Dorne
Maxwell Reed
Cinematography Geoffrey Faithfull
Edited by Peter Seabourne
Music by Wilfred Burns
Production
company
Distributed by Butcher's Film Service (UK)
Astor Pictures (US)
Release dates
  • 1953 (1953)(UK)
  • August 1955 (1955-08)(US)
Running time
70 minutes
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish

Marilyn (U.S. title: Roadhouse Girl) is a 1953 British second feature ('B') [1] film noir directed by Wolf Rilla starring Sandra Dorne and Maxwell Reed. [2] [3]

Contents

The film is based on James M. Cain's 1934 novel The Postman Always Rings Twice . [4]

Plot

Drifter mechanic Tom Price lusts after seductive Marilyn, the young wife of ill-tempered garage owner George Saunders. Assuming (correctly) that Marilyn is fooling around with his employee, Saunders angrily confronts him. Defending himself, Tom accidentally kills his boss. Marilyn helps him to cover up the crime – the inquest verdict is "accidental death" – and Marilyn begins a new life, while also keeping Tom at a distance.

Several months later she is running a just-getting-by "American bar". Wealthy businessman Nicky Everton agrees to lend her some money, believing that Marilyn will offer her affections as repayment. Everton later changes his mind as he feels they won't be happy in the longer term; and Price also walks out, frustrated by her erratic behaviour and in particular her lack of lasting commitment to him.

Throughout all this, Rosie, Marilyn's maid, has kept the dark secret of Saunders' death to herself, until she is taken for granted once too often by her self-centred boss. Marilyn is left alone with her hopes and fears. Marylin approaches Tom, who pushes her aside just as two policemen approach the house.

Cast

Critical reception

The Monthly Film Bulletin wrote: "This well-worn story does not seem to have worn very well. The direction and playing here are unusually heavy-handed and the film – which comes to a remarkably abrupt end – adds up to very little." [5]

In British Sound Films: The Studio Years 1928–1959 David Quinlan rated the film as "mediocre", writing: "Briefly released as Marilyn, this cut-price The Postman Always Rings Twice is not very good under either title." [6]

The Radio Times Guide to Films gave the film 2/5 stars, writing: "Having already been unofficially adapted by Luchino Visconti as Ossessione (1942), James M. Cain's hard-boiled novel The Postman Always Rings Twice was apparently plundered again for this bleak British B-movie. It's a solid enough study in lust, despair and avarice, with Sandra Dorne oozing cynical sensuality as the unhappy wite whose liaison with mechanic Maxwell Reed leads to the death of her grouchy, garage-owning husband Leslie Dwyer." [7]

Marilyn was selected by film historians Steve Chibnall and Brian McFarlane as one of the 15 most meritorious British B films made between World War II and 1970. The authors note that it is "symptomatic of a transatlantic turn in the British 'B'" and praise its depiction of a "pervasive sense of dissatisfaction with things as they are". [8]

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References

  1. ↑ Chibnall, Steve; McFarlane, Brian (2009). The British 'B' Film. London: BFI/Bloomsbury. p. 268. ISBN   978-1-8445-7319-6.
  2. ↑ "Marilyn". British Film Institute Collections Search. Retrieved 27 May 2024.
  3. ↑ Roadhouse Girl at the BFI Database
  4. ↑ "Marilyn Movie Reviews". Cinema Montreal. Retrieved 10 January 2023.
  5. ↑ "Marilyn". The Monthly Film Bulletin . 20 (228): 164. 1 January 1953. ProQuest   1305822402 – via ProQuest.
  6. ↑ Quinlan, David (1984). British Sound Films: The Studio Years 1928–1959. London: B.T. Batsford Ltd. p. 365. ISBN   0-7134-1874-5.
  7. ↑ Radio Times Guide to Films (18th ed.). London: Immediate Media Company. 2017. p. 592. ISBN   9780992936440.
  8. ↑ Steve Chibnall & Brian McFarlane, The British 'B' Film, Palgrave Macmillan, London, 2009, pp. 268–70.


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