The Prince And The Showgirl

Not what I expected. I was quite disappointed in the film, plot was thin and the acting wasn't marilyn at her best.

How can any film which has Monroe (who shows glimpses of her best form) and Olivier disappoint? Well...

Monroe and Olivier have no rapport and are transparently more interested in themselves and the camera than each other. At least Marilyn flirting with the camera can be fascinating in itself; Olivier just comes across as a pompous buffoon. As he both directed and produced the film he has only himself to blame for that. (I should add that he was nominated for a BAFTA for this performance -surely on the strength of his name alone). He must also carry the can for the excruciating coronation scene, in which there is neither action nor dialogue - it runs to an astonishing six full minutes. Times may have changed, but I cannot believe that in the past audiences were content to be served up fare of that nature.

As a lesser gripe the off set scenes are a joke by modern standards - with their montage of hopelessly painted backgrounds and superimposed stock crowd footage (in which the weather is often totally different to the main set's) behind a few unconvincing extras they sit uncomfortably with the rest of the film. While allowances must be made for the different standards of the day, to me this smacked of laziness and a lack of love for the final product.

The transition from stage to film can be an awkward step even in the best of circumstances (thanks to 'My week with Marilyn' we all now know the shooting was especially fraught . Here enough survives - especially in the scenes with the Queen Mother (Sybil Thorndike) to help explain the success of the play the film is based upon. But insufficient charm and humour made it to the screen.

Like others I chose to rent this one because I had recently seen ‘My Week with Marilyn’; a re-creation of the fraught filming where Marilyn was adrift with a British cast and crew and her co-star and director Larry Olivier failed to find a way to manage his difficult star. This vehicle was meant to vitalise Larry’s film career and give Marilyn some gravitas working with the great Sir Larry. A misconceived project from the start this stagey film probably looks better now than it did in the 1950’s when the camera was most often outdoors for westerns, war films and musicals. Here we have a filmed Terence Rattigan play that was only moderately successful on the West End stage in 1952 starring Larry and his then wife Vivien Leigh (considered too old for the film). What has to be said is that despite the trauma Marilyn looks and sounds ravishing (an air-head part, no gravitas) while Larry looks tense and wooden (partly his character, of course). The film may have flopped, but Larry went on to one of his greatest stage roles in John Osborne’s ‘The Entertainer’ (also filmed) and Marilyn to perhaps her best film role in ‘Some Like it Hot’. Funny stuff acting.

You have to have a little bit of respect for the TV schedulers in the way that they place movies. Some famous actor just died; lo and behold a film from their archive appears on the Beeb. Oscar nominated film based on a Marylyn Monroe film coming out – super fast turnaround onto TV? Nope, but you do get the film that ‘A Week with Marylyn’ is based around, ‘The Prince and the Showgirl’. I’m not someone who is particularly impressed with the seemingly vacant styling’s of Miss Monroe (or Mrs as she was during the filming), but would ‘Showgirl’ be the film to change my mind? TBH, it did a bit.

Monroe plays a showgirl, Elsie, who catches the eye of Laurence Olivier’s fictional leader. She knows what’s what when he invites her over to his stunning abode, but she won’t give in easily. Over the next couple of days a series of misadventures will lead Elsie to a very royal occasion and perhaps a way of thawing The Regent’s cold heart. ‘Showgirl’ is a very stagy film, mostly set in one or two rooms. Although little is done to belie its theatre origins the negatives of tight locations are made up for by the similar tightness of the script. There are plenty of zingers in this film for fans of fast and pithy dialogue.

Monroe impresses as the empty headed Elsie who is actually a little deeper than she seems, whilst Olivier is also good as the uptight Prince. There is little real chemistry between them, but Monroe oozes enough of the stuff on her own, that the film still works. It is not the actors or the dialogue that fail the film, but the very theatrical origins of the film. Once the film leaves the confines of the theatre or Embassy it is a sea of cheap effects, blue screen and stock footage. All of a sudden you are dragged from a tight world of few characters into a world full of fakery. The final third is magical in a way, but executed so poorly that it undermines the film.

After seeing 'My Week with Marilyn' I decided to give this a go. It's a bit over long and stagey (understandably, as it was adapted from a play) but found it rather amusing and enjoyable. Monroe is an absolute delight and possibly, at her best. She acts Olivier off the screen who, in contrast, appears somewhat uncomfortable in what is a rather unsympathetic part.

Monroe might have been 'unprofessional' off screen but on screen she sizzles. Definitely worth a viewing!