Popular reviews

• 

  Review by Josh Lewis ★★★★ 1

  A goofy but stunning Technicolor Niagara Falls travelogue romcom that is destabilized by the sheer visual awe of Marilyn Monroe and the Hitchcockian murder plot noir she and Cotton sneakily bring with them without the other characters’ knowledge. The actual plot/characterizations are a bit thin but there’s so much incredible geometric use of windows, staircases, shadows, bells and of course, the falls (as well as constant foreground/background information to generate suspense) that I found it pretty effective anyway. Quite a few images in this (when Marilyn closes those blinds!! That silent overhead shot of the murder!!) had me audibly muttering “Wow.”

  [35mm]

• 

  Review by fran hoepfner ★★★½

  lack of score during the climax is so sick — a brash confidence, like wearing a hot pink dress

• 

  Review by phoebe 💫 ★★★ 2

  because I have the attention span of a magpie I couldn't tell you a single plot point from this but I COULD tell you about the exact shade of Marilyn's bright shiny lipstick

• 

  Review by Liz ★★★½ 1

  Was too busy still thinking about that shot of Marilyn coming out of the shower with an immaculately painted face that I missed the twist 🤷🏻‍♀️

• 

  Review by Jack ★★★½

  A cautionary tale about the dangers of befriending others while on vacation.

• 

  Review by theriverjordan ★★★ 5

  Henry Hathaway’s “Niagara” loses its sense of noir narrative under a torrent of beauty. 

  Perhaps the director was at his best when working with grizzled faces in beat up places. The scraggly visages of Victor Mature in “Kiss of Death,” and John Wayne in “True Grit” seemed to permit Hathaway a better fluency and focus than Marilyn Monroe at the peak of her talents in “Niagara.” 

  It’s not as if Hathaway - mostly remembered for his Westerns - was unfamiliar or untalented in the noir genre, even having helped to give it one of its greatest of villains some years before. Monroe, here playing against type, but perhaps into her scandalous public image, might very well have been the same.…

• 

  Review by sakana1 ★★★½ 13

  Marilyn Monroe's first appearance as Rose Loomis in Niagara is among the most jaw-dropping in film. She lounges in bed under a thin sheet, bright red lipstick highlighting a mouth that projects nothing but disdain. Her right arm is out, holding a half-smoked cigarette; everything about her being screams boredom, impatience, and a sense of being trapped in a world that doesn't merit her attention. Her left leg is bent, with her knee tenting the sheet above her body, while her right one, also bent, is sprawled out to the side. The looseness and casual carnality of her posture literally make you gasp: she's proud and unashamed, in touch with her body and her sexuality in a way that was…

• 

  Review by nora ★★★½ 4

  max showalter is so goofy in this movie with his dopey high-waisted pants and jolly face and weird giggle like what is this man doing it’s like he’s in a completely different movie than everyone else (except his boss and his boss’s wife who are also chaos) i cannot stop laughing

  also as someone who grew up in buffalo and has been to all of these locations innumerable times, it was very fun to be like “wow where jean peters is standing is where that kid from high school orchestra didn’t wear the rain poncho and a bird shit on him!”

• 

  Review by Seemoya 🦕🌷 ★★★★

  Marilyn Monroe is really impressive in this movie. I’m not all that surprised because she was a great actress, but the fact that she could play a sexy femme fatale who is nevertheless hunted and plunged into fear and delirium, and play both sides so well, is not something I’ve seen often.

• 

  Review by DNA cinephile🏳️‍🌈 ★★★½

  Niagara. 1953. Directed by Henry Hathaway. 

  Niagara (1953) is a film-noir that had great talent and great potential. The beauty and danger of Niagara Falls was used to amplify violence that took place mostly indoors. The cinematography by Joseph MacDonald was sufficient. Marilyn Monroe (Rose Loomis) is eye candy and her accessories were delightful. Her plan for murder had a great deal of holes and left the story feeling incomplete. Unfortunately, their neighbors Jean Peters (Polly Cutler) and her husband get tangled in Rose’s web of lies and deceit. Niagara needed less chase scenes and more work on the script and post production editing. In the end, this wasn’t Key Largo (1948) or Chinatown (1974). The plot was simple and the screenplay and directing could not support the gravitas of its acting talent.

• 

  Review by Sally Jane Black 2

  The clocktower scene uses a splash of yellow like a siren, drawing you in, letting the horror and tragedy sweep through you as the shadows tear the scene apart in the most striking way.

  The final scene brought out my fear of heights in a way I haven't felt since The Descent, which means it had a form of tension I rarely feel in films.

  The rest of the film is good! But those two scenes make it stand out beautifully.

• 

  Review by Chance ★★★★½ 4

  Filmed in stark three-strip Technicolor, Niagara is a film noir that dazzles and basks in the beauty of its natural surroundings. Now, I'm not talking Niagara Falls. I'm talking Marilyn Monroe. She possesses an appeal that no other actress has ever come close to matching, and Niagara taps into that appeal possibly more than any other Monroe film. In a star-making role, Monroe plays against type as Rose Loomis, a deliciously deceptive femme fatale set out on having her madly jealous husband (Joseph Cotten) axed by her tall, dark and handsome boyfriend (Richard Allan). As you can tell by that statement, her husband has every right to be jealous, but not just because Rose's boyfriend is making love to her.…