Posts by Archive Authors

I remember all of the controversy and discussion that was stirred up when Judy Dench won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her portrayal of Queen Elizabeth in Shakespeare in Love. It’s not that the public felt that she didn’t do a great job, it’s just that she was only in the film for approximately six minutes. What’s more, Cate Blanchette was in a film called Elizabeth that same year, in which she played the same historical figure, and was nominated for the role of Best Actress, which sh... did not ultimately win. Ahh, the drama and controversy that is Oscar.

A similar controversy brews on this DVD, though certainly not as strongly. 20th Century Fox has released this disc billed as a Marilyn Monroe movie. True, Marilyn is in the film, but let’s be honest… she’s only in it for about eight minutes. Granted, the film is only 76 minutes long, but still. Eight measly minutes. For me, the better story here is Robert Wagner. Yep, the cast includes Mr. Hart to Hart himself, in one of his first film appearances. Not only that, but he has a major supporting role in the film. In this case, I feel that Wagner should be on the cover of this disc, instead of Monroe

It appears that Fox is having a hard time keeping a good thing going when it comes to the Marilyn Monroe Diamond Collection. The Volume One boxed set included five discs, Volume Two included four discs, and the group of films that are generally being referred to as Volume Three don’t come in a box at all, but are only available for individual sale. I understand the logic, however, as these latest films aren’t exactly Marilyn Monroe star vehicles. Yes, she appears in all of them, but she is certainly not a feat...red performer. Once I saw a few of these films, I appreciated the fact that these discs aren’t being pushed as the next volume of the Diamond Collection in the strictest sense. True, she is the only performer featured on the covers, and the artwork matches the theme of the other titles in the series, but as I said earlier, they are not available in a boxed set, and the text on the back of the box clearly states that she holds only a minor role.

So, this is not really a Marilyn Monroe film. OK, so what exactly is this film about? In a nutshell, it deals with corporate idiocy, which is a topic that I am all-too-familiar with in my real life. The basic story goes that Grandpa gets fired from his job, because there is a company policy that prohibits workers over the age of 65 from being employed by the company. The directive comes from the parent company of a partnership of a subsidiary of the company that owns the stock of this other company… well, you get the gist of it. Anyway, so Grandpa passes himself off as the president of the whole conglomerate, and essentially hires himself back. His views on business catch on, he is found out, and hilarity ensues.

I applaud any film that dares to push at the boundaries that envelop it, be those boundaries artistic, traditional or cultural. That is precisely what is so much fun about many Criterion Collection titles. They have a complete disregard for the filmmaking conventions and social morays of their time, and instead the director creates exactly what he wants, convention be damned.

Marilyn Monroe movies, however, have never really fit into that category. In fact, she was notoriously typecast as the sexy dumb blon...e throughout her career. Though the majority of her films are undeniably entertaining, they aren’t exactly cutting-edge cinema. We’re Not Married, however, comes very close.