Thursday 29 June 2017

Peppermint Friday Review #42: The Prince and the Showgirl

From watching Some Like It Hot I kinda went abit crazy over Marilyn Monroe and plus I just realised I haven't done a Friday review with Marilyn yet, I did All About Eve but that was before she became the big star, with this one its so amazing and a film is based on her experiences of this film, My Week With Marilyn which I may do a review on. 
Its about a Carpathian Prince (played by Laurence Olivier) who attends a performance of The Coconut Girl and meets the cast afterwards he takes a particular liking to Elsie Marina (played by Marilyn Monroe) she is invited back to his house to her thinking it was for a party or a big dinner but it was for the Prince to seduce her, the two end up falling in love and its just about her being an American Showgirl and a Prince who's used to doing things in quite a restricted way. As his upbringing is very much don't do this, say this and constantly being told what to do, whereas with Elsie she is very bubbly and is much more outspoken than the Prince, even though if he doesn't like something he'll say it.
I love the couple individually and together, but if you knew what happened behind the scenes where Laurence Olivier was horrible to Marilyn. Olivier also directed this film and acted in the play version of the film by Terrence Rattigan, Olivier's wife Viven Leigh played Elsie in the play version, which is really funny as we all know what kinda characters Marilyn plays and the characters Viven plays, you wouldn't think they could ever play the same character. But Marilyn really bought something different and special to the role, its a flirty character, but also very emotional and empathetic.
The costumes of the film were just beautiful, and wonderfully made as all the characters had a particular style, I love Elsie's dress the colour, the length, the style of it all, I just love it and need it plus she makes it look gorgeous. The party scene was amazing everything was in such synchronicity with the dancing, not one person was off. I also loved Sybil Thorndike as Queen Dowager she was just wonderful, one thing I loved about the script and the writing of it all was whenever Elsie spoke to her, the Queen had to be reminded of what she said it made me laugh for some reason I don't know why. 
I love how the scenes were shot and made its as if they were created just there on the spot so effortlessly done. A few characters who made it on the favorite list were, King Nicolas who was played by Jeremy Spenser I loved his voice whenever he shouted or lost his temper, it was always really high and it made me laugh. Northbrook played by Richard Wattis was brilliant loved how he used his voice. All of Elsie's friends were just brilliant, so funny and amazing totally unaware of what pressure she may be under. 
                                                                   
The ending was amazingly done, I like that its kinda up to us, as to what happened between them, did they ever meet again or was there classes far too different from each other. I might actually do a review of My Week With Marilyn as I always find it interesting the behind the scenes of films. This is a wonderful film to watch with a great story to tell, whether you are a long time fan of Marilyn or just heard about her, regardless you should definitely watch her as she is a real star. 

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Maira Gall