Pun Salad

This 1953 movie is kind of fun. I remember watching it back in the olden days on NBC's Saturday Night at the Movies. (And, thanks to Time, I can even nail down exactly how olden that day was: August 10, 1963.)

A married couple, Polly and Ray Cutler (Jean Peters and Max Showalter, respectively) are on a belated honeymoon trip to Niagara Falls. At their cheap motel, they encounter George and Rose Loomis (Joseph Cotten and—whoa—Marilyn Monroe). Marriage is not blissful between the Loomises; Rose is kind of slutty, and considers George to be old and boring. George, on his part, is moody and belligerent. But how much of that is due to Rose's behavior?

As it turns out, Rose is really an old-style femme fatale. Her scheme involves using her womanly talents to extricate herself from her stultifying life. Will she succeed? No spoilers here!

For a 1953 movie, it's remarkably frank about Rose's infidelity, and her (um) methods of manipulation. There's a pretty racy shot (for the 50s) of Marilyn in the shower.

Although the movie is really about George and Rose, Polly and Ray act as observers of, and occasional participants in, the whole plot. The thrilling climax involves Polly in peril. (As Chekov said: you shouldn't put a gun onstage unless someone's going to fire it. Similarly, if you place a movie at Niagara Falls, it's pretty darn likely someone's gonna go over.)

Marilyn's certainly the big draw here, and she does some serious acting. But the other actors are fine too. Jack Benny's old pal, Don Wilson, has a small role. Max Showalter was in a lot of different TV shows and movies over the years. For me, his best role was his last one: Molly Ringwald's grandpa in Sixteen Candles.