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ISN'T IT ABOUT TIME FOR A COMPREHENSIVE MARILYN MONROE Blu-ray set?!? (5 Viewers)

Nick*Z

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Irrefutably, Marilyn Monroe was one of the icons of the 1950's. Her legend has far outlasted most of her contemporaries. And despite detractors, imitators and the like, it's Monroe's iconography that continues to take seed in each new generation of actresses hoping to outdo Monroe's sex goddess image.

Those too quick to discount Monroe's assets as those firmly situated just beneath the neck and slightly above the knees have been remiss in discounting Monroe's infectious appeal, not as a dumb, flaxen-haired sex bomb or blonde that gentlemen preferred, but as the total package - a woman with instinct, sex appeal, undeniable physical beauty, and a mind she kept quietly concealed, to release her smarts perfectly on cue when the chips were down or to prove her critics wrong.

Monroe today remains a titanic influence on pop culture, fashion and sexiness. The tragedy of her untimely death has neither marred nor eclipsed her galvanized screen persona.

So, it's perhaps more than a tad insulting that 20th Century Fox failed to offer up any sort of comprehensive Monroe box set on Blu-ray. Disney, now the custodians of the Monroe legacy are likely to fare no better at the exultation.

What we have of Monroe on Blu-ray is, frankly, substandard, with few exceptions. 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.

The other Blu's crammed into the Monroe set of 1999 were barely adequate in their day. But in reviewing them during a weekend-long Monroe festival at my house, with friends, I was appalled by how badly these transfers have worn.

For starters, we need complete 'ground up' remasters of Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, How To Marry A Millionaire, There's No Business Like Show Business, The Seven Year Itch and River of No Return.

What's wrong with them currently? Where to begin?

Of the aforementioned, There's No Business Like Show Business fares the best, with color fidelity so vivid, despite it being a DeLuxe color release, you'd swear you were looking at vintage 3-strip Technicolor in its prime. The problem here is the transfer is soft with not a lot of fine detail coming forth except occasionally in close-ups.

How To Marry A Millionaire, Monroe's first 'scope' release, and the first comedy, in fact, to be released in Fox's patented Cinemascope process, is a disaster. The black tuxedos during the 'Street Scene' orchestral prologue register royal blue. Flesh tones are flat and pasty and fine detail is wanting.

The Seven Year Itch, one of Monroe's brightest moneymakers, despite being a rather stilted comedy, has its entire last act marred by atrocious color mis-registration issues. Check out the scenes where Monroe and co-star, Tom Ewell, as the harried hubby, are found out by the superintendent of their duplex, with annoying/distracting red halos around every detail.

River of No Return suffers from one of the muddiest color transfers on record. For a picture shot in the lush outdoors, every color here leans to a beige/blue palette, with verdant foliage now registering flat, pasty and dull. Spectral highlights are tinged in a blue caste and the image is dull, dull, dull.

Gentlemen Prefer Blondes has one of the worst instances of DNR applied, rendering the entire image waxy. Colors pop. But detail is complete lost and grain is non-existent. Ugh!

In the Monroe box set are also a copy of Wilder's Some Like It Hot, sporting a tired transfer before it was given a deluxe remaster, and, an even more careworn transfer of Monroe's final film, The Misfits. Neither impresses herein.

Twilight Time released a Blu of Don't Bother To Knock. This was adequate, but not exemplary.

Fox also gave us a brilliant transfer of All About Eve in which Monroe sparkled in a cameo. We also have Monroe in MGM's The Asphalt Jungle, via Criterion by way of Warner Home Video.

But Warner has dragged its heels on remastering The Prince and the Showgirl, a Monroe tour de force, sadly underrated, or Clash By Night, in which Monroe is memorable with Keith Andres as her brutish lover.

As for Fox - it never came around to releasing Blu's of O'Henry's Full House, Monkey Business, Let's Make Love, We're Not Married, Let's Make It Legal, Love Nest, and, As Young As You Feel.

Given that Monroe's career was relatively short, and her legacy, ingrained in the hearts and minds of filmgoers ever since, wouldn't it be nice if someone, somewhere elected to give Monroe movies the restoration/remastering they deserve?

Then again, I feel the same way about the faded and forgotten legacies of Shirley Temple and Betty Grable - the other Fox blondes who preceded Monroe and made their marks respectively.

Thoughts, ideas, ranting, lamenting. Lay it on - thick or otherwise.
 

Osato

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Irrefutably, Marilyn Monroe was one of the icons of the 1950's. Her legend has far outlasted most of her contemporaries. And despite detractors, imitators and the like, it's Monroe's iconography that continues to take seed in each new generation of actresses hoping to outdo Monroe's sex goddess image.

Those too quick to discount Monroe's assets as those firmly situated just beneath the neck and slightly above the knees have been remiss in discounting Monroe's infectious appeal, not as a dumb, flaxen-haired sex bomb or blonde that gentlemen preferred, but as the total package - a woman with instinct, sex appeal, undeniable physical beauty, and a mind she kept quietly concealed, to release her smarts perfectly on cue when the chips were down or to prove her critics wrong.

Monroe today remains a titanic influence on pop culture, fashion and sexiness. The tragedy of her untimely death has neither marred nor eclipsed her galvanized screen persona.

So, it's perhaps more than a tad insulting that 20th Century Fox failed to offer up any sort of comprehensive Monroe box set on Blu-ray. Disney, now the custodians of the Monroe legacy are likely to fare no better at the exultation.

What we have of Monroe on Blu-ray is, frankly, substandard, with few exceptions. 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.

The other Blu's crammed into the Monroe set of 1999 were barely adequate in their day. But in reviewing them during a weekend-long Monroe festival at my house, with friends, I was appalled by how badly these transfers have worn.

For starters, we need complete 'ground up' remasters of Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, How To Marry A Millionaire, There's No Business Like Show Business, The Seven Year Itch and River of No Return.

What's wrong with them currently? Where to begin?

Of the aforementioned, There's No Business Like Show Business fares the best, with color fidelity so vivid, despite it being a DeLuxe color release, you'd swear you were looking at vintage 3-strip Technicolor in its prime. The problem here is the transfer is soft with not a lot of fine detail coming forth except occasionally in close-ups.

How To Marry A Millionaire, Monroe's first 'scope' release, and the first comedy, in fact, to be released in Fox's patented Cinemascope process, is a disaster. The black tuxedos during the 'Street Scene' orchestral prologue register royal blue. Flesh tones are flat and pasty and fine detail is wanting.

The Seven Year Itch, one of Monroe's brightest moneymakers, despite being a rather stilted comedy, has its entire last act marred by atrocious color mis-registration issues. Check out the scenes where Monroe and co-star, Tom Ewell, as the harried hubby, are found out by the superintendent of their duplex, with annoying/distracting red halos around every detail.

River of No Return suffers from one of the muddiest color transfers on record. For a picture shot in the lush outdoors, every color here leans to a beige/blue palette, with verdant foliage now registering flat, pasty and dull. Spectral highlights are tinged in a blue caste and the image is dull, dull, dull.

Gentlemen Prefer Blondes has one of the worst instances of DNR applied, rendering the entire image waxy. Colors pop. But detail is complete lost and grain is non-existent. Ugh!

In the Monroe box set are also a copy of Wilder's Some Like It Hot, sporting a tired transfer before it was given a deluxe remaster, and, an even more careworn transfer of Monroe's final film, The Misfits. Neither impresses herein.

Twilight Time released a Blu of Don't Bother To Knock. This was adequate, but not exemplary.

Fox also gave us a brilliant transfer of All About Eve in which Monroe sparkled in a cameo. We also have Monroe in MGM's The Asphalt Jungle, via Criterion by way of Warner Home Video.

But Warner has dragged its heels on remastering The Prince and the Showgirl, a Monroe tour de force, sadly underrated, or Clash By Night, in which Monroe is memorable with Keith Andres as her brutish lover.

As for Fox - it never came around to releasing Blu's of O'Henry's Full House, Monkey Business, Let's Make Love, We're Not Married, Let's Make It Legal, Love Nest, and, As Young As You Feel.

Given that Monroe's career was relatively short, and her legacy, ingrained in the hearts and minds of filmgoers ever since, wouldn't it be nice if someone, somewhere elected to give Monroe movies the restoration/remastering they deserve?

Then again, I feel the same way about the faded and forgotten legacies of Shirley Temple and Betty Grable - the other Fox blondes who preceded Monroe and made their marks respectively.

Thoughts, ideas, ranting, lamenting. Lay it on - thick or otherwise.
100% agreed. At this point 4k transfers make the most sense.
I’d gladly pick them all up again.

I did pick up the 4k disc of Some Like it Hot.

There’s another Marilyn thread here too:

 

Thomas T

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Your best bet would be the non Fox MM titles like The Misfits (United Artists), Prince And The Showgirl (Warners) and even Ladies Of The Chorus (Sony I believe). With her Fox titles under control by Disney, lament and rant all you want but it ain't going to happen. At least on physical media. Disney might upgrade them for streaming but I suspect it's a low priority for them. In a world where a Jeopardy contestant is shown a photo of Mae West to identify and guesses Greta Garbo, it's clear "star power" is dwindling except for the over 60 crowd. We're the market for an MM blu ray box set, not millennials, and our numbers are dwindling with each passing year.
 

Robert Crawford

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Your best bet would be the non Fox MM titles like The Misfits (United Artists), Prince And The Showgirl (Warners) and even Ladies Of The Chorus (Sony I believe). With her Fox titles under control by Disney, lament and rant all you want but it ain't going to happen. At least on physical media. Disney might upgrade them for streaming but I suspect it's a low priority for them. In a world where a Jeopardy contestant is shown a photo of Mae West to identify and guesses Greta Garbo, it's clear "star power" is dwindling except for the over 60 crowd. We're the market for an MM blu ray box set, not millennials, and our numbers are dwindling with each passing year.
For the most part I agree with you, but that new Netflix movie about her might lift her known status to more people.
 

Robert Harris

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Irrefutably, Marilyn Monroe was one of the icons of the 1950's. Her legend has far outlasted most of her contemporaries. And despite detractors, imitators and the like, it's Monroe's iconography that continues to take seed in each new generation of actresses hoping to outdo Monroe's sex goddess image.

Those too quick to discount Monroe's assets as those firmly situated just beneath the neck and slightly above the knees have been remiss in discounting Monroe's infectious appeal, not as a dumb, flaxen-haired sex bomb or blonde that gentlemen preferred, but as the total package - a woman with instinct, sex appeal, undeniable physical beauty, and a mind she kept quietly concealed, to release her smarts perfectly on cue when the chips were down or to prove her critics wrong.

Monroe today remains a titanic influence on pop culture, fashion and sexiness. The tragedy of her untimely death has neither marred nor eclipsed her galvanized screen persona.

So, it's perhaps more than a tad insulting that 20th Century Fox failed to offer up any sort of comprehensive Monroe box set on Blu-ray. Disney, now the custodians of the Monroe legacy are likely to fare no better at the exultation.

What we have of Monroe on Blu-ray is, frankly, substandard, with few exceptions. 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.

The other Blu's crammed into the Monroe set of 1999 were barely adequate in their day. But in reviewing them during a weekend-long Monroe festival at my house, with friends, I was appalled by how badly these transfers have worn.

For starters, we need complete 'ground up' remasters of Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, How To Marry A Millionaire, There's No Business Like Show Business, The Seven Year Itch and River of No Return.

What's wrong with them currently? Where to begin?

Of the aforementioned, There's No Business Like Show Business fares the best, with color fidelity so vivid, despite it being a DeLuxe color release, you'd swear you were looking at vintage 3-strip Technicolor in its prime. The problem here is the transfer is soft with not a lot of fine detail coming forth except occasionally in close-ups.

How To Marry A Millionaire, Monroe's first 'scope' release, and the first comedy, in fact, to be released in Fox's patented Cinemascope process, is a disaster. The black tuxedos during the 'Street Scene' orchestral prologue register royal blue. Flesh tones are flat and pasty and fine detail is wanting.

The Seven Year Itch, one of Monroe's brightest moneymakers, despite being a rather stilted comedy, has its entire last act marred by atrocious color mis-registration issues. Check out the scenes where Monroe and co-star, Tom Ewell, as the harried hubby, are found out by the superintendent of their duplex, with annoying/distracting red halos around every detail.

River of No Return suffers from one of the muddiest color transfers on record. For a picture shot in the lush outdoors, every color here leans to a beige/blue palette, with verdant foliage now registering flat, pasty and dull. Spectral highlights are tinged in a blue caste and the image is dull, dull, dull.

Gentlemen Prefer Blondes has one of the worst instances of DNR applied, rendering the entire image waxy. Colors pop. But detail is complete lost and grain is non-existent. Ugh!

In the Monroe box set are also a copy of Wilder's Some Like It Hot, sporting a tired transfer before it was given a deluxe remaster, and, an even more careworn transfer of Monroe's final film, The Misfits. Neither impresses herein.

Twilight Time released a Blu of Don't Bother To Knock. This was adequate, but not exemplary.

Fox also gave us a brilliant transfer of All About Eve in which Monroe sparkled in a cameo. We also have Monroe in MGM's The Asphalt Jungle, via Criterion by way of Warner Home Video.

But Warner has dragged its heels on remastering The Prince and the Showgirl, a Monroe tour de force, sadly underrated, or Clash By Night, in which Monroe is memorable with Keith Andres as her brutish lover.

As for Fox - it never came around to releasing Blu's of O'Henry's Full House, Monkey Business, Let's Make Love, We're Not Married, Let's Make It Legal, Love Nest, and, As Young As You Feel.

Given that Monroe's career was relatively short, and her legacy, ingrained in the hearts and minds of filmgoers ever since, wouldn't it be nice if someone, somewhere elected to give Monroe movies the restoration/remastering they deserve?

Then again, I feel the same way about the faded and forgotten legacies of Shirley Temple and Betty Grable - the other Fox blondes who preceded Monroe and made their marks respectively.

Thoughts, ideas, ranting, lamenting. Lay it on - thick or otherwise.
Re-masters are not akin to truffles, which pugs can locate at the base of oak trees in the forest.

A “re-master” is a by-product of a restoration, which can cost anywhere from 200k and up, especially for ‘50s 5248 fare.
 

plektret

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Yes, a 4K Box please! (will never happen sadly)
I expected The Prince and the Showgirl to be released on BD years ago!

I'd also say Niagara also needs to be redone. There's very aggressive DNR. All grain has been erased. Looks very ugly.
Is there some degrain/regrain going on in Bus Stop during transitions?
There's No Business Like Show Business looks great to me (it looks like film) and so does Some Like It Hot on UHD (Criterion has bad encoding) and Bus Stop. Let's Make Love looks pretty good if you adjust for the fact that it was encoded in wrong colorspace. Don't Bother To Knock is acceptable. The rest looks too digital and need to be redone. They're either old scans, filtered or have wonky color grading.
 

RobertMG

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For the most part I agree with you, but that new Netflix movie about her might lift her known status to more people.
Disney so it aint happening kind of sad ---- if Disney has no plans they should just license out the films = saves them from controversy too they won't take censorship issues of what or what is unacceptable today
 

SD_Brian

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The other Blu's crammed into the Monroe set of 1999
Confused by this, as 1999 pre-dates Blu-ray by 8 or 9 years.

Are you referring to the "Forever Marilyn" box set Fox released in 2012 that included Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, How to Marry a Millionaire, River of No Return, There's No Business Like Show Business, The Seven Year Itch, Some Like It Hot, and The Misfits?
 

Jimbo.B

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One thing I would love to see is the Cinemascope version of Diamonds Are A Girl’s Best Friend that was filmed only for exhibitors. It’s only shown up once that I know of—in the Marilyn retrospective narrated by Rock Hudson that has not been released on disc to my knowledge. I think it would be fascinating.
 

Kent K H

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Not taking advantage of the controversy behind "Blonde" to start releasing beautiful remasters of her films was a huge flub that probably wouldn't have happened if Fox was still independent and not part of the Mouse House.

Do the original negatives exist for most/all of her classic films? Especially the Fox releases?
 

An Elvis Fan

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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.
 

B-ROLL

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Confused by this, as 1999 pre-dates Blu-ray by 8 or 9 years.

Are you referring to the "Forever Marilyn" box set Fox released in 2012 that included Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, How to Marry a Millionaire, River of No Return, There's No Business Like Show Business, The Seven Year Itch, Some Like It Hot, and The Misfits?

1665033473754.png


They were also released separately.
1665033502106.png
 

Nick*Z

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Confused by this, as 1999 pre-dates Blu-ray by 8 or 9 years.

Are you referring to the "Forever Marilyn" box set Fox released in 2012 that included Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, How to Marry a Millionaire, River of No Return, There's No Business Like Show Business, The Seven Year Itch, Some Like It Hot, and The Misfits?
I stand corrected. Doing my search, I noted the Fox DVD sets from 1999. Of course, I was referring to the 2012 Forever Marilyn in my comments. Thanks for the correction.
 

Thomas T

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I doubt Marilyn has sufficient resonance these days for any money to be spent on reissuing blu rays or producing 4k discs. I think her contemporaries Grace Kelly and Audrey Hepburn have far greater longevity as film actresses and fashion icons.
Really? I know she has her small coterie of fans but Grace Kelly simply doesn't have the iconic status that Monroe or Hepburn (either one) has. Honestly, if she hadn't become a Princess it's unlikely she'd have the status that remains today and even that went South when Princess Diana came on the scene. They both died tragically too young in car crashes but Diana's funeral was televised around the world. Was Kelly's?
 

An Elvis Fan

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I'd be satisfied if Warners Archive would release "Prince and the Showgirl." That's really the only full Marilyn Monroe movie not to have a Blu-ray release. In the other unreleased (on Blu-ray) films, she more or less had only small supporting roles. 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.
 

Kent K H

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Marilyn is in the rarified celebrity air that Elvis and James Dean have hit where even the people who have never seen one of her films can easily recognize her and will buy merchandise associated with her 'brand.'

I may love Audrey Hepburn, but I don't think she's even in the same stratosphere, culturally speaking.
 

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