ISN'T IT ABOUT TIME FOR A COMPREHENSIVE MARILYN MONROE Blu-ray set?!? (1 Viewer)

[Thomas T]

Grace Kelly won an AA, not just a pretty face.

Gwyneth Paltrow won an AA, not just a pretty face. Does that qualify her for icon status too?

 

[Keith Cobby]

Grace Kelly only appeared in 11 films. She was both a nominee and a winner.

 

[TravisR]

Grace Kelly only appeared in 11 films. She was both a nominee and a winner.

It seems like you're moving the goalposts to who is the better actor but your original post was about how Kelly was more iconic than Monroe.

 

[Timothy E]

I really enjoy reading everyone’s opinions of Marilyn Monroe, Audrey Hepburn, and Grace Kelly. For my part, I like all three.

Even though I do not agree with all of the opinions being expressed, I appreciate very much the tangent on which this thread has headed, as the thread will only be less interesting to me if it heads back on topic. I hope it never does.

 

[Thomas T]

Grace Kelly only appeared in 11 films. She was both a nominee and a winner.

Ah, so it's the amount of films on their resume that make them icons. The less films the better? Does that make Oscar winner Shirley Booth (5 films) an icon or is she disqualified because she doesn't have a pretty face? Just askin'

 

[timk1041]

I love for it to happen too, but I'm not holding my breath. Most of the old Marilyn Monroe Blue Rays, especially Niagara, are long out of print and are going for a king's ransom on various websites. If there are any that you want or do not already have, you'd better snatch them up while you can if you can find them at a reasonable price.

That is what I did.

 

[Osato]

Any new Marilyn Monroe film on 4k is a must buy for me. I hope more are on the way. I really enjoyed Some Like it Hot on 4K disc.

I also recently picked up the Marilyn films set on iTunes when it was on sale. I have the Marilyn Blu-ray set as well.

I would choose The Seven Year itch for her next 4k disc release.

I recently watched All About Eve, Bus Stop and Don’t Bother to Knock.

 

[KMR]

They are, for starters, the pluperfect 4K rendering of Billy Wilder's Some Like It Hot, and, Fox's restored Blu's of Niagara and Bus Stop.

I'm trying to figure out what about the 4K of Some Like It Hot makes it "pluperfect".

 

[An Elvis Fan]

Does anyone know if the "Marilyn Monroe Declassified" DVD/Blu-ray is worth getting? I'm not a conspiracy theorist by any means, but I do think something else could have happened to her. Just too many unanswered questions.

 

[Konstantinos]

I still haven't bought that Marilyn Monroe box set.
I wonder if I should, or if any 4K releases are in the horizon.

 

[An Elvis Fan]

Konstantinos,
I'm assuming you're referring to the "Forever Marilyn" set. If you can find it at a good price, you may want to go ahead and get it. At least you'll have it to watch as you are waiting for possible future 4k releases if any more do get released. Trouble is, this may be out of print because the cheapest new one on Amazon is around $70.00. The good news is there were a lot of these sets made so finding a good used one at a reasonable price shouldn't be difficult.

 

[Konstantinos]

Konstantinos,
I'm assuming you're referring to the "Forever Marilyn" set. If you can find it at a good price, you may want to go ahead and get it. At least you'll have it to watch as you are waiting for possible future 4k releases if any more do get released. Trouble is, this may be out of print because the cheapest new one on Amazon is around $70.00. The good news is there were a lot of these sets made so finding a good used one at a reasonable price shouldn't be difficult.

Thanks. Well, I don't mind that price for 7 movies.
(Though I already have Some like it hot in 4K, so it's really 6 movies for me).

 

[Worth]

I still haven't bought that Marilyn Monroe box set.
I wonder if I should, or if any 4K releases are in the horizon.

Disney doesn't seem interested in releasing older titles on 4K, so I wouldn't expect to see anything soon.

 

[Osato]

Disney doesn't seem interested in releasing older titles on 4K, so I wouldn't expect to see anything soon.

Our best hope is probably third party 4k releases.

 

[Noel Aguirre]

Which boxed set has what was filmed for Something’s Got To Give? Was that in a DVD boxed set?

 

[Matt Hough]

Which boxed set has what was filmed for Something’s Got To Give? Was that in a DVD boxed set?

Yes, Marilyn Monroe: The Diamond Collection on DVD.

 

[Noel Aguirre]

Gwyneth Paltrow won an AA, not just a pretty face. Does that qualify her for icon status too?

Paltrow’s godfather is Steven Spielberg and Harvey Weinstein her mentor. Helleaux

 

[Emcee]

I have the Forever Marilyn collection on Blu-ray. I didn't purchase it when it was new, but I waited a few years for the price to drop significantly before I bought it online. For me, the restoration of Monroe's movies in this collection is quite good, but yet I may not be quite as a picky as some when it comes to the quality of restorations. I was just happy to have the movies on Blu-ray, and even though I don't currently own a Blu-ray player, it's more than good enough for me.

 

[Emcee]

Concerning the Monroe/Hepburn/Kelly side discussion, I've been a fan of all three women for over a decade.

Monroe has always been my favorite. I fell in love with her when I swiped a small little picture of hers off my older brother's closet door. Her mix of vulnerability and sexuality made her unique and original. Not even the blondes before her, such as Jean Harlow or Lana Turner, managed to possess such a balance of sensuality and sweetness. Gentlemen Prefer Blondes remains one of my favorite old Hollywood musicals, Some Like It Hot is simply one of the finest screwball comedies ever captured on film, and Don't Bother to Knock and The Misfits show Monroe had a raw, untapped potential for dramatics. Monroe is undeniably a cultural icon, a stand-alone symbol of the 1950s and all the glitz and glamour entangled therein.

I'd argue that Hepburn is equally iconic with Monroe, if in a different way. If she hadn't done anything outside of Breakfast at Tiffany's and My Fair Lady that were noteworthy, her fashion style alone would've helped her stand the test of time. She is beautiful, but sleeker and more reserved. The interesting thing about her on-screen persona was that many people found her unattractive, which is quite baffling. You can read numerous articles from the early-to-mid 1950s were critics and fashion snobs picked a part and obsessed themselves over the trends she set with her slimmer figure and cropped hair.

Kelly is also quite interesting and iconic. Before Princess Diana, Kelly was our movie star-turned-royalty and people ate up the gossip surrounding her life. She was from a wealthy Philadelphia family and had a relatively average climb up the Hollywood ladder. She did stage and TV before making it big in movies like High Noon and Mogambo. But when she teamed up with Hitchcock, that's when her career really took off to new heights. Dial M for Murder and Rear Window solidified her as the face of 1950s high fashion. The Country Girl was, as they say, a "departure" for her, and she won an Oscar for her performance. Her life off-the-screen as Princess Grace only patterned her further for immortality.

As I've said, Monroe is my favorite of these three, hands down. I used to place Kelly second, but now I think Hepburn has slid into second, with Kelly falling to third (when just talking about these three ladies). Hepburn is so sophisticated and sweet, and I love her vague and somehow hard-to-place European accent (if you don't know where she's from). Kelly photographs beautifully on film, but her standoffishness can be occasionally off-putting, especially if I'm not in the "right" mood for it.

 

[Emcee]

I guess the one exception would be "Ladies of the Chorus" but that movie never did, to my knowledge, even get an official Region 1 DVD release so I'm guessing a Blu-ray of that would be totally out of the question.

I'd settle for a good, cleaned up Columbia Classics DVD release of Ladies of the Chorus. It's been released on Region 2, which, to me, is quite odd. For the Monroe collectors out there, the movie would certainly sell on Region 1.

Regardless, Marilyn was simply beautiful as showgirl Peggy Martin in Ladies of the Chorus (1948), her first starring role during the brief time when Columbia Pictures chief Harry Cohn had her under his wing. The entire movie (which is barely an hour long) is on YouTube to watch. I once had it on my laptop, and I think I've got an old bootleg copy lying in the stack somewhere.

Filmed in just ten days, the movie swooped in and out of theaters in 1948. It was later rereleased (with Marilyn receiving solo above-the-title billing) in 1952, at a time when she was making a splash in movies like Clash by Night and Monkey Business.