STAR IMAGES: Marilyn Monroe and Cary Grant

Star Images

Marilyn Monroe and Cary Grant

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TO PREPARE FOR the scheduled screening of Some Like It Hot on 8 January 2010, students may wish to listen to the song, "Candle in the Wind" (music by Elton John, lyrics by Bernie Taupin) written about Marilyn Monroe ("Norma Jean," before she assumed her Hollywood name).
    The song explores the nature of stardom in terms of fame and the personal loneliness of the star. In this live performance in Australia, the audience cheers the line, "Loneliness was tough," as if they knew Marilyn herself or (more likely) they "knew" her loneliness and identified with it. This is the nature of the public's relation to the star, both imaginary and real (the star is real, but her image is constructed).

    Director Billy Wilder tapped into Monroe's star image well in the two films in which she starred for him, including Some Like It Hot and The Seven Year Itch, with its now iconic image of Monroe standing over a subway vent. Both films show how the star is an image recycled in new stories that in turn embellish the star's image.
    Since our focus is on mise-en-scene and production design we cannot go further into this issue. But students may wish to view another Monroe film to see how a star's image is recycled, the same but a little different.
    Tony Curtis, who plays Joe/Josephine (and later, Junior) in Some Like It Hot also evokes a star's image in his imitation (as Junior) of famous romantic leading man, Cary Grant. To prepare for the film students might wish to study the embedded scene of Cary Grant in North by Northwest.
    Besides studying Grant's Cockney accent, which Curtis, as "Junior," imitates in Some Like It Hot, students might wish to compare the forest scene in this sequence with a similar one in Man's Favorite Sport?

    Whereas the forest location in Man's Favorite Sport? is used in a fairly shallow way, without narrative significance, the similar forest scene in North by Northwest is used to great effect, showing how Grant's relationship to Eve has become more serious. The now solid relationship is reflected in the sturdy trees behind the couple. Even Grant's voice has a new hesitancy, as if Roger (Grant's character) were choosing his words carefully, no longer reciting witty replies as a defense against intimacy. The long shot that opens the sequence is especially beautiful, before the couple draw closer together.

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