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River of No Return
Great 66 Points 1954

Marilyn Monroe didn’t want to appear in River of No Return, nor did Otto Preminger want to direct it, especially if Marilyn was to star. Studio contracts forced them into it and we’re all the better for it today. River of No Return is a fine mid-Fifties Western, with surprising Italian root…

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WikChip Video Marilyn sings: Let it wash over you.
There's No Busi...
Really Great 66 Points 1954

There’s No Business Like Show Business and there was no show business phonier than vaudeville, till movies. So an overtly phony movie about vaudeville makes for a phony convergence. It was perhaps the last of the musical extravaganzas, a calorically rich compendium of Irving Berlin’s showstoppi…

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WikChip Video Marilyn Monroe & Donald O'Connor: Sta...
The Barefoot Co...
Great 66 Points 1954

Ava Gardner plays a moviestar inspired by Rita Hayworth and Humphrey Bogart a writer-director inspired by Joseph L. Mankiewicz in The Barefoot Contessa, Mankiewicz’s takedown of movie business amorality. A glamorous movie about showbiz mendacity, it is both brilliantly self-aware and gorgeous t…

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WikChip Video Classic Golden Age Scene
The Seven Year ...
Very Good 66 Points 1955

A severely dated farce would hardly be worth watching now if it didn’t star Marilyn Monroe at her most incandescent. Even better, The Seven Year Itch features Marilyn standing atop a windy subway grate in a rather famous white halter dress – widely considered one of the iconic images of the 20…

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WikChip Image Another dress that deserves fame
Funny Face
Great 66 Points 1957

Audrey Hepburn is the spoon-full-of-sugar who makes the cultural imperialism go down in Funny Face. Stanley Donen’s musical – done Broadway style – is an intoxicating Vogue-tini, a Size 0 fashion fantasy.

Richard Avedon famously created the opening titles, which are perfectly high fashion. …

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WikChip Image Avedon's timeless portrait of Hepburn
Vertigo
Really Great 78 Points 1958

Hitchcock’s classic thriller, dizzying as ever, still packs enough punch to make girls scream. While tame by the crude standards of the past thirty years, the movie doesn’t lack for intrigue, glamour and surprise.

That said and though Vertigo is widely acclaimed as Hitchcock’s masterpiece, …

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WikChip Image Hey, is that Kim Novak out front?
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Cat on a Hot Ti...
Very Good 66 Points 1958

The eyes have it! Well, the eyes and the lies have it. The eyes belong to golden superstars Paul Newman & Elizabeth Taylor — his intense blue orbs opposite her intoxicating violet ones, no FX involved with either. The lies, well, the lies drive the story, with the fancy word “mendacity” bandied a…

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WikChip Video Liz Taylor gets sexy with Paul Newman
Some Like It Hot
Perfect 66 Points 1959

Some Like It Hot kicked off the Sixties with a bang. Released in ‘59, it was nominated for six Oscars at the 1960 Academy Awards, winning only for Orry-Kelly’s dresses for Tony Curtis, Jack Lemmon and most especially Marilyn Monroe. Speaking of Monroe, she won the 1960 Golden Globe for Best A…

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WikChip Video Curtis does Grant, Monroe does Monroe
Breakfast at Ti...
Great 68 Points 1961

Breakfast at Tiffany’s is the apotheosis of Kennedy-era Mad Men America. Was it ever on the show? Don’t recall. Coulda, shoulda.

Blake Edwards opens his movie of Truman Capote’s novella on an empty Fifth Avenue, with Audrey Hepburn in a little black dress emerging at the only Tiffany’s in…

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WikChip Image Audrey in The Little Black Dress
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Charade
Perfect 66 Points 1963

What we have here is movie magic sans modern FX. Instead Charade conjures its allure from a couple of nonpareil moviestars delivering sparkling dialog in an idealized Paris while a seductive theme song plays in the background. Such an intoxicating mix makes it easy to fall in love with Cary Gr…

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WikChip Video Moviestar Magic Incarnate
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