a truly mediocre movie, but with some interest (spoiler)
Where do we begin to show how mediocre this movie is? The dialogue is plodding and dull. No, wait, I can recall the wittiest line - "Her dress is cut so low it goes down to her knees." Not exactly a zinger. There is some terrible acting - the husband with his plastic smile ("Gosh, there it is! The Shredded Wheat factory!"), Don Wilson overacting as the company boss (stick to your day job, Don, as announcer for the Jack Benny Show), moments where Marilyn does her trademark mugging, Marilyn's much too long bit of singing, moments when even Joseph Cotton, with all his acting skills, can't make the lifeless dialogue convincing. The plot, for at least an hour, drags, and when it picks up it is mostly predictable - fleeing from her murderous husband, she climbs higher, higher, higher, my god, will she escape? - will anybody be rescued from the boat as it heads toward the falls? will the innocent lady perish? what will happen to the murderer? Come on, folks - Marilyn Monroe is caught making out right at a spot where tourists crowd around every minute, only barely hidden from plain view. Her boyfriend's whistling is badly overdubbed. Lots of the movie feels like a poor imitation of Hitchcock, from the use of the falls as a dramatic backdrop to the murder scene among the bells.
But it's an amusing bit of schlock from the early 50s. We see what was considered a hot piece of woman in those days. (Try not to giggle.) The virtuous wife definitely set my heart beating more than Marilyn with all her wiggly walking. And it's a great documentary showing what Niagara Falls looked like over 50 years ago. The best part of the movie might have been the police car.