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The Films of Marilyn Monroe
This film by film chronicle of Marilyn's career features beautiful full-colour movie stills and glamorous black-and-white publicity photos.
Each film is documented with a variety of photographs, including famous stills of Marilyn and her co-stars as well as unusual behind-the-scenes candid images and wardrobe tests.
Fans will enjoy the amusing, poignant, and insightful anecdotes about the production of each movie, while film buffs will appreciate the accurate plot synopses and the extensive cast and credits lists that are included with each film.
Each film is documented with a variety of photographs, including famous stills of Marilyn and her co-stars as well as unusual behind-the-scenes candid images and wardrobe tests.
Fans will enjoy the amusing, poignant, and insightful anecdotes about the production of each movie, while film buffs will appreciate the accurate plot synopses and the extensive cast and credits lists that are included with each film.
96 pages, Hardcover
First published December 1, 1989
21 people want to read
About the author
Richard Buskin
37 books6 followersA New York Times bestselling author, Richard Buskin is also a full-time freelance journalist, specializing in pop culture, music, film, television, and sociopolitical affairs. Since the early-Eighties, he has conducted interviews and written regular feature articles for a wide variety of publications in the US, the UK, France, Germany, Japan and Australia, dealing with all aspects of the entertainment business: the artistic, the technical and the entrepreneurial.
A native of London, England, who relocated to America in 1995, Richard has had his work published in newspapers ranging from the New York Post and the Sydney Morning Herald to Britain's Observer, Independent and Daily Mail, as well as magazines such as Playboy (US, Brazilian, Czech, French, Japanese and Polish editions), Stern (Germany) and Paris Match (France). He has also written for numerous music publications around the world, including Billboard, Spin, Musician, Mix, Musik Express, Melody Maker, Sound On Sound and Performance (for which he was a senior editor and UK bureau chief), and movie journals such as Film Review and Films & Filming, in addition to authoring/co-authoring more than 20 non-fiction books.
Among these are Inside Tracks: A First-Hand History of Popular Music from the World's Greatest Record Producers and Engineers (Avon Books, 1999); Blonde Heat: The Sizzling Screen Career of Marilyn Monroe (Billboard Books, 2001); Sheryl Crow: No Fool to This Game (Billboard Books, 2002); Phyllis Diller´s autobiography, Like a Lampshade in a Whorehouse: My Life in Comedy (Penguin/Tarcher, 2005); Effortless Style with celebrity fashion stylist June Ambrose (Simon & Schuster, 2006); Dream in Color: How the Sánchez Sisters are Making History in Congress with Congresswomen Linda and Loretta Sánchez (Grand Central, 2008); Die Trying: One Man's Quest to Conquer the Seven Summits with mountaineer Bo Parfet (Amacom, 2009); One from the Hart with actress Stefanie Powers (uncredited, Simon & Schuster, 2010); It's Not Really About the Hair with Tabatha Coffey, star of Bravo's hit TV reality show Tabatha's Salon Takeover (HarperCollins, 2011); Whitney Houston: The Voice, The Music, The Inspiration with musician/producer Narada Michael Walden (Insight Editions, 2012); and Classic Tracks: The Real Stories Behind 68 Seminal Recordings (Sample Magic, 2012). A co-author and consulting editor on the Billboard Illustrated Encyclopedia of Music (2003) and the Definitive Illustrated Encyclopedia of Rock (Flame Tree, 2006), Richard is presently involved in the planning and writing of several new books.
Richard Buskin has provided sleeve notes for records and videos; penned narrative material for DVD; written press releases and publicity bios for the likes of Aerosmith and Michael Jackson; served as a researcher and on-screen entertainment expert for television networks in the US and the UK; lectured journalism students at Chicago’s Northwestern University, as well as PACE program students at National-Louis University; and been interviewed on numerous TV and radio shows, including CBS's Entertainment Tonight, A&E's Biography, E! Entertainment's True Hollywood Story, AMC's Backstory and the BBC Television News. He lives in Chicago.
A native of London, England, who relocated to America in 1995, Richard has had his work published in newspapers ranging from the New York Post and the Sydney Morning Herald to Britain's Observer, Independent and Daily Mail, as well as magazines such as Playboy (US, Brazilian, Czech, French, Japanese and Polish editions), Stern (Germany) and Paris Match (France). He has also written for numerous music publications around the world, including Billboard, Spin, Musician, Mix, Musik Express, Melody Maker, Sound On Sound and Performance (for which he was a senior editor and UK bureau chief), and movie journals such as Film Review and Films & Filming, in addition to authoring/co-authoring more than 20 non-fiction books.
Among these are Inside Tracks: A First-Hand History of Popular Music from the World's Greatest Record Producers and Engineers (Avon Books, 1999); Blonde Heat: The Sizzling Screen Career of Marilyn Monroe (Billboard Books, 2001); Sheryl Crow: No Fool to This Game (Billboard Books, 2002); Phyllis Diller´s autobiography, Like a Lampshade in a Whorehouse: My Life in Comedy (Penguin/Tarcher, 2005); Effortless Style with celebrity fashion stylist June Ambrose (Simon & Schuster, 2006); Dream in Color: How the Sánchez Sisters are Making History in Congress with Congresswomen Linda and Loretta Sánchez (Grand Central, 2008); Die Trying: One Man's Quest to Conquer the Seven Summits with mountaineer Bo Parfet (Amacom, 2009); One from the Hart with actress Stefanie Powers (uncredited, Simon & Schuster, 2010); It's Not Really About the Hair with Tabatha Coffey, star of Bravo's hit TV reality show Tabatha's Salon Takeover (HarperCollins, 2011); Whitney Houston: The Voice, The Music, The Inspiration with musician/producer Narada Michael Walden (Insight Editions, 2012); and Classic Tracks: The Real Stories Behind 68 Seminal Recordings (Sample Magic, 2012). A co-author and consulting editor on the Billboard Illustrated Encyclopedia of Music (2003) and the Definitive Illustrated Encyclopedia of Rock (Flame Tree, 2006), Richard is presently involved in the planning and writing of several new books.
Richard Buskin has provided sleeve notes for records and videos; penned narrative material for DVD; written press releases and publicity bios for the likes of Aerosmith and Michael Jackson; served as a researcher and on-screen entertainment expert for television networks in the US and the UK; lectured journalism students at Chicago’s Northwestern University, as well as PACE program students at National-Louis University; and been interviewed on numerous TV and radio shows, including CBS's Entertainment Tonight, A&E's Biography, E! Entertainment's True Hollywood Story, AMC's Backstory and the BBC Television News. He lives in Chicago.
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
July 31, 2023
Opinions on Marilyn Monroe as an actress vary widely and this is borne out by some of the comments in this excellent book, which includes comments from co-stars, directors, coaches and producers relevant to each of the 29 films in which she appeared. In fairness, the majority praise her acting ability, particularly her comedic appearances, even though they may have been frustrated with her repeated late arrivals that caused all sorts of problems and eventually led to her being fired from what would have been her final film 'Something's Got To Give'.
The book is superbly set out with each film analysed with a synopsis of the film being followed by a 'Behind the Scenes' section that includes comments from others associated with the film and mainly focuses on Marilyn's performance and behaviour as the film is being made. And each film is illustrated with a selection from film posters, stills from the film and shots of Marilyn preparing to film either trying on outfits or liaising with her coaches.
Between 1948 and 1961 Marilyn appeared in 29 films beginning with a very minor part in 'Scudda Hoo! Scudda Hay!' and she had acted alongside such as the Marx Brothers, 'Love Happy', Dan Dailey, 'A Ticket to Mohawk', Mickey Rooney, 'The Fireball', Sterling Hayden, 'The Asphalt Jungle', Bette DAvis, 'All About Eve', Dick Powell, 'Right Cross', Claudette Colbert, 'Let's Make It Legal', Ginger Rogers, 'We're Not Married' and Richard Widmark, 'Don't Bother to Knock', before getting a starring role in 'Niagara' with Joseph Cotton.
Then came such films as 'Gentlemen Prefer Blondes', 'How To Marry a Millionaire', 'The Seven Year Itch' with the wind machine blowing up her dress, 'Bus Stop' and finally 'The Misfits' with Clark Gable. By the time of the last named film, she ws 'startting to show the effects of her ongoing problem with insomnia, compounded by a daily diet of Nembutal sleeping pills washed down with either champagne or vodka'. As a consequence there were problems on the set but eventually the film was completed.
And then came the ill-fated 'Something's Got To Give' and it did ... Marilyn was fired in mid-production. And after working with a variety of studios, that was the end of her film career. But Richard Busking shows in an engrossing read with plenty of looks behind the scenes that at times it was stellar.
The book is superbly set out with each film analysed with a synopsis of the film being followed by a 'Behind the Scenes' section that includes comments from others associated with the film and mainly focuses on Marilyn's performance and behaviour as the film is being made. And each film is illustrated with a selection from film posters, stills from the film and shots of Marilyn preparing to film either trying on outfits or liaising with her coaches.
Between 1948 and 1961 Marilyn appeared in 29 films beginning with a very minor part in 'Scudda Hoo! Scudda Hay!' and she had acted alongside such as the Marx Brothers, 'Love Happy', Dan Dailey, 'A Ticket to Mohawk', Mickey Rooney, 'The Fireball', Sterling Hayden, 'The Asphalt Jungle', Bette DAvis, 'All About Eve', Dick Powell, 'Right Cross', Claudette Colbert, 'Let's Make It Legal', Ginger Rogers, 'We're Not Married' and Richard Widmark, 'Don't Bother to Knock', before getting a starring role in 'Niagara' with Joseph Cotton.
Then came such films as 'Gentlemen Prefer Blondes', 'How To Marry a Millionaire', 'The Seven Year Itch' with the wind machine blowing up her dress, 'Bus Stop' and finally 'The Misfits' with Clark Gable. By the time of the last named film, she ws 'startting to show the effects of her ongoing problem with insomnia, compounded by a daily diet of Nembutal sleeping pills washed down with either champagne or vodka'. As a consequence there were problems on the set but eventually the film was completed.
And then came the ill-fated 'Something's Got To Give' and it did ... Marilyn was fired in mid-production. And after working with a variety of studios, that was the end of her film career. But Richard Busking shows in an engrossing read with plenty of looks behind the scenes that at times it was stellar.
Displaying 1 of 1 review