Well it's the movie about "My week with Marilyn" that is also a book. Takes place while making the movie "The Prince and the Showgirl" in London, England in 1956.
But there is a behind the scene to all of this. So if you go to see the movie as I will when it comes out, pretty soon now; remember what you'll read here in this and the next segment ..... yes Marilyn had a fling for a week .... yes she was far from perfect, did not know the Lord as her personal Savior and help and strength, and so with what she had gone through in her lifetime .... yes she was weak and imperfect. Here's the first of two parts on "behind the scenes."
FROM THE BOOK "THE SECRET LIFE OF MARILYN MONROE" BY RANDY TARABORRELLI
THE PRINCE AND THE SHOWGIRL
Most of the summer of 1956 would be devoted to filming Marilyn's
next movie, "The Prince and the Showgirl" which would star her
with Lauraence Oliver and be set in London. Matilyn and her new
husband, Arthur, would be ensconced in Parkside House, a large
manse in Englefield Green. Rehearsals for the movie began on July
18 and continued until August 3. Filming would commence on August
7 and continue through November.
Laurence Olivier's original connection to the movie was when he
appeared on the London stage in the Terence Rattigan play The
Sleeping Prince, on which the film was based. Sir Larry starred
with his wife, Vivien Leigh, forever remembered as Margaret
Mitchell's beautiful, resourceful heroine Scarlett O'Hara in Gone
with the Wind.
Set in London in 1911 during the coronation of King George V the
plot has us spend an evening with Grandduke Charles (Olivier),
the prince regent of Carpathia, who's come to town for the royal
proceedings to take place the following day. Taking advantage of
his one evening off, the grandduke, a notorious womanizer
infamous as a seducer of chorus girls for one-night stands,
attends a musical at the Coconut Girl theatre and is immediately
charmed by a beautiful American understudy, Elsie Mariner
(Monroe). He orders his British attache to invite her to the
embassy for a private supper. It plays like a French farce
disguised as a Victor Herbert operetta, with neither the sex of
the former nor the music of the latter. Elsie is led to believe
she's being invited to a party, not a one-on-one, intimate
late-night repast. Foreplay consists of the grandduke's attempts
to get Elsie sloshed and then in bed. He succeeds in the first
and fails in the last. The sub rosa political shenanigans going
on behind closed doors, involving the competition between the
grandduke's seventeen-year-old son, Nicolas, the king-in-waiting,
and the grandduke, are too complicated to go into. What is
important to know is that despite all odds, Elsie and Charles
manage to fall in love, but their future plans must be put on
hold while Carpathia fights for its survival in the Balkan Wars.
Marilyn's longtime friend Milton Greene executive produced the
film, along with Marilyn. It would be the second project for
Marilyn Monroe Productions, following "Bus Stop," and would be
filmed at Britain's Pinewood Studios. There was widespread
speculation as to how Marilyn's well-known neurotic
behavior-tardiness, absenteeism, ill-preparedness, insecurities -
would play against the professionalism and discipline of the
classically trained Olivier. Those who predicted the worst got it
right. Olivier, as director and leading man, bore the brunt. He
reveals in his 1983 autobiography, "Confessions of an Actor,"
that preparatory to beginning production on the movie, he was
convinced he was going to fall in love with Marilyn. During the
shooting of the picture, he must have wondered where he ever got
such a notion. However, he was very enthusiastic about her,
admitting she was "wonderful in the film, the best thing in it,"
her performance overshadowing his own and the final result worth
the aggravation. (This is essentially what Billy Wilder said
after his experience with Marilyn in "Some Like It Hot.") Olivier
goes on to say, "There are two entirely different sides [to
Marilyn]. You would not be far out if you described her as a
schizoid, the two people that she was could hardly have been more
different. She was so adorable, so witty, such incredible fun and
more physically attractive than anyone I could have imagined,
apart from herself on the screen." Of her acting, Olivier called
her "a professional amateur."
(Typical English snob nose, he'd said she was the best thing in
the movie, hence she played her part perfectly, then he comes out
with a statement like that - got to be an English snob - Keith
Hunt)
Also interestingly, regarding this film, James Haspiel observes,
"[In this film] Marilyn is as close to being her off-screen self
as she ever was. That is her real voice. It's the way she spoke
in person. Her hair is the real color of her hair. I think that's
what's most fascinating about this one movie."
(AND INDEED IT IS REFRESHING TO SEE HER AND HEAR HER IN THE
"NORMAL" SHALL WE SAY .... AND INDEED INTERESTING TO SEE HER REAL
HAIR COLOR .... NOPE AS WE KNOW SHE WAS NOT A BORN BLOND AT ALL -
Keith Hunt)
Mable Whittington, who worked at Parkside House as a maid under
the direction of the main housekeeper, Dolly Stiles, recalled of
this time, "There was a great excitement about the arrival of the
Millers. I remember that someone [Milton Greene] had the walls of
the master bedroom painted white in Marilyn's honor. There was an
increase in all security measures. We were all on alert, so to
speak. What did I think of them? I thought Mrs. Miller was a bit
pampered. She was used to a certain way, let's just say.
Everything had to be just so. I remember she complained about the
pillowcases being too starched, but what she required was minor.
Too many pills, though. I remember being surprised by the number
of bottles on her nightstand. I didn't know what they were for,
exactly - but there were a lot of them. There were always empty
bottles of champagne in her room, too. Also, I have to say that
she was a bit untidy. She would step out of her clothes and there
they would lay on the floor until I or someone else picked up
after her. The bathroom was always a sight - makeup everywhere,
personal belongings everywhere. I recall that she had a way of
transforming herself that was almost magical. She was lovely but
not necessarily glamorous in her day-to-day. But at night, if
they were to go to a show - which they did often - or if she
needed to be dressed for a dinner, she would become an entirely
different person. It wasn't just the makeup and beautiful gowns
and gloves and furs, though they were a big part of it. It was
the attitude. When she dressed like Marilyn Monroe she acted like
Marilyn Monroe. The star quality was there, I guess - in the
Marilyn persona. Her personality as Marilyn Monroe was entirely
different than as ... I don't know ... the real her, maybe.
Arthur Miller? I found him to be insufferable. He didn't want to
speak to the help and, in fact, would get angry if we even looked
at him. He would say, 'Must you look at me?' I recall that two
household employees were approached to give secrets about the
Millers to the press. When he found out about it, he became
raving mad. 'I demand that they be fired,' he kept saying. Of
course that was to be the case, anyway - though I don't recall
that they actually sold their stories. Marilyn wasn't very upset
about that turn of events. I recall that she said, 'What else is
new?'
As a couple, they seemed happy at the start but as the months
wore on, less so. He was constantly nagging her about one thing
or another, usually how he felt she should prepare for the day's
work. I remember that there were a lot of press conferences
during their stay and that, afterward, he would tell her that she
had answered this or that question in the wrong way. He picked on
her a lot. She seemed to really want to know his opinion, though.
However, I think that there was a point when she'd had enough of
it, especially when he began to criticize her acting when she was
practicing from her script. I recall her having trouble
memorizing her script. I remember thinking, goodness, for an
actress who has made so many movies, I can't understand how she
can't remember her lines. She would walk around the house trying
to remember a simple line, repeating it to herself over and over.
I remember that he was annoyed by the way she was trying to
memorize something and he kept correcting her. She snapped at him
and said, 'When you begin making pictures, we can discuss this.
Until then, let me act, and you just do what you do.'"
Possible evidence of marital discord at this time comes from a
letter Marilyn sent to Berniece from England. In it, she never
once even mentions Arthur Miller, and refers to herself only in
the singular, from "I am having a wonderful time," to "I have
been sightseeing," to "I am staying very busy."
..............
Well we'll see next time why Marilyn was "I am...." She discovers
something from Miller, well not "discovered" per se, as it was
deliberately left open and out for her to find .... it was a
brutal shock to her.
When you read the book "The Secret Life of Marilyn Monroe" by
Taraborrelli, you'll understand why Marilyn was "into" various
"drugs" - her life from a child had been horrificly bad for
anyone emotionally and mentally. For someone like myself who had
a terrific childhood, I cannot really comprehend having a
childhood like Marilyn had to contend with, and a mother she
loved but a mother who was often in the mental sanitarium.
......
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