Marilyn Monroe

2022 - 4 - 28

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Image courtesy of "CNN"

'The Mystery of Marilyn Monroe: The Unheard Tapes' review: Netflix ... (CNN)

Hello again, Norma Jean, as the 60th anniversary of Marilyn Monroe's death brings renewed opportunities to revisit her life and legacy, without really ...

Given that there's plenty of video and film footage of Monroe to weave in, it's an indulgence that's far too cute for its own good, adding a sense of showbiz pizzazz that does nothing to buttress the project's credibility. For her part, Monroe in taped interviews talks about her twin desires to be happy and be a good actress, saying somewhat sadly with the benefit of hindsight, "You have to work at both of them." The documentary undermines that, alas, with the unnecessary wrinkle of having actors "play" those people by lip-synching the audio, a pointless attempt to create the impression that the viewer is seeing the other side of those conversations.

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Image courtesy of "Vanity Fair"

What Separates Netflix's New Marilyn Monroe Documentary From ... (Vanity Fair)

The Mystery of Marilyn Monroe: The Unheard Tapes, which relies on tapes from Anthony Summers's investigation into the late icon, premieres on Netflix ...

“Tony discovered that she was vulnerable to falling prey to men who did not have her best interests at heart—men who saw something in Marilyn and her strength that they wanted to diminish,” says Cooper. “I see that all around me in many relationships with women of all ages. To make the audio more visually compelling for her documentary, Cooper filmed recreations of the conversations—with actors in period costume reenacting the calls with Summers. The documentary offers an unparalleled glimpse at an investigation of this scale, as well as fragmented recollections about Monroe directly from the people who knew her. The Mystery of Marilyn Monroe: The Unheard Tapes, premiering Wednesday on Netflix, uses them to construct another portrait of Monroe. While The Mystery of Marilyn Monroe: The Unheard Tapes won’t turn up any new reporting, it is a fascinating listen for true-crime fans or anyone interested in celebrity investigations. And I really found that to be true here.”

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Image courtesy of "Decider"

Netflix Documentary Alleges Bobby Kennedy and Marilyn Monroe ... (Decider)

How did Marilyn Monroe die and where was Bobby Kennedy when Marilyn Monroe died? The Mystery of Marilyn Monroe on Netflix investigates.

Fred Otash, a private detective who claimed he had bugged Peter Lawford’s house and phones in order to dig up dirt on the Kennedys, said that Robert Kennedy called Monroe that night and that the two had a vicious argument. Bobby Kennedy called her the night of her death from Lawford’s house. … But she had come to a point where she felt like she was being used. Nothing in The Mystery of Marilyn Monroe questions how Monroe died, but Summer does spend copious time questioning when she died. Marilyn Monroe died of a drug overdose of barbiturates at her Los Angeles home on August 4, 1962. Despite the somewhat misleading trailer and opening sequence, the film does not give any credence to conspiracy theories that Monroe was murdered, rather than overdosed on barbiturates in what was ruled a probable suicide.

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Image courtesy of "Esquire.com"

The True Story of the Night Marilyn Monroe Died (Esquire.com)

Netflix documentary 'The Mystery of Marilyn Monroe: The Unheard Tapes' uncovers new details about Monroe's death, as well as her relationships with JFK and ...

Instead, Summers corroborates with several members of the ambulance team that Marilyn had in reality been taken to the hospital by ambulance late that evening still alive, and died en route to the hospital. In a new Netflix documentary, The Mystery of Marilyn Monroe: The Unheard Tapes, Monroe's biographer, Anthony Summers, presents a new timeline of events of the night Monroe died, deduced from hundreds of interviews conducted for an updated version of his 1985 biography, Goddess. Featuring new audio interviews with members of Dr. Greenson’s family, the new documentary addresses rumors and inconsistencies surrounding Monroe's death. Monroe's housekeeper, Eunice Murray, had awakened in the middle of the night to find a light on in Marilyn’s room and the door locked.

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Image courtesy of "IndieWire"

Why Netflix Chose a Marilyn Monroe Documentary Director Who ... (IndieWire)

Emma Cooper had never seen a Marilyn Monroe film when she was approached to make a documentary about her.

“As a modern, middle-aged woman, I was surprised at how I could relate to her story,” she said. So I think she would have fared better today than she did then, and she probably would have fared better than a lot of other people today.” One of the film’s major themes is the inherent tension between who Marilyn Monroe was and who the world wanted her to be. “My obsession was to try and show her in a more multifaceted, more multidimensional way than I had ever known her,” Cooper said. “And so I felt like I could really connect with the arc of her life. Cooper’s film exists somewhere on the spectrum between reverent documentary and pulpy true-crime flick, luring viewers in with a promise to reopen the case of Monroe’s death, but ultimately spending more time examining who she was as a person than debating who (if anyone) killed her.

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Image courtesy of "Women's Health"

How Did Marilyn Monroe Die? A Netflix Documentary Uncovers New ... (Women's Health)

For the past 60 years, there's been one story about Marilyn Monroe's death. Here's what to know about the new Netflix documentary that explores her death.

Cyril Wecht, a prominent forensic pathologist, told People that this suggests that “she might have been injected” with the drugs. The official word is that Marilyn died of an overdose. Writer John Sherlock also says in the doc that Greenson told him Marilyn was alive at home and died on the way to the hospital. The changing story, he says, “suggests that the circumstances of her dying were covered up.” "Bobby Kennedy called her the night of her death from [his sister's] house. [Greenson] told me he was in the ambulance.” Summers says in the documentary that it’s possible that “the Kennedys said, ‘Sh*t, she can make public that we’ve been discussing nuclear matters’….[and] thought, ‘We’ve got to stop all this. “No, she wasn’t [dead at home],” ambulance company owner Walter Schaefer says in the documentary. Murray had seen a light go on in Marilyn's room around 3:25 a.m., but found the door locked. Marilyn was pronounced dead, but police weren’t called until 4:20 a.m., about an hour after Murray had initially called Greenson. (Doctors said they needed permission from Marilyn’s movie studio before alerting the authorities.) Warning: The following contains references to suicide. The woman seemed to have it all: fame, beauty, money, power.

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Image courtesy of "TIME"

The Sneering Documentary <i>The Mystery of Marilyn Monroe</i ... (TIME)

All of the Marilyns we know are represented here, in film clips, news footage, and whispery voice-over recordings, in which the actress candidly shares her own ...

The Mystery of Marilyn includes so many interviews—many with people who were deeply pained by what had happened to her—that it may seem unfair to single out a few of the movie’s more crass figures. What’s more, hearing this now 40-year-old testimony from a relic of old Hollywood serves as a reminder of how the business used to work—and in that context, that it took until 2017 for Harvey Weinstein to fall seems all the more remarkable. And yet hearing an old coot salivating about how Marilyn used to “put out” comes off as yet another instance of how, even in 2022, we just can’t let Marilyn alone. This three-way friendship points directly to the shady circumstances surrounding Marilyn’s death—there’s no real news there, but even today, the degree of the brothers’ involvement with the star, and how it may have influenced or even caused her death, is still a subject of speculation. Those taped interviews, never available to the public, have been dramatized and shaped into the documentary The Mystery of Marilyn Monroe: The Unheard Tapes, directed by Emma Cooper and featuring Summers as a guide. As the case was being reopened, a British newspaper suggested that Irish-born journalist Anthony Summers might want to launch his own investigation, which resulted in 650 tape-recorded interviews and eventually led to a 1985 book, Goddess: The Secret Lives of Marilyn Monroe, which presented new and credible evidence about the events surrounding Marilyn’s death.

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Image courtesy of "The New York Times"

'The Mystery of Marilyn Monroe: The Unheard Tapes' Review ... (The New York Times)

This documentary teases a vague conspiracy surrounding Monroe's death — but mostly rehashes well-circulated facts and rumors.

Finally, Summers, who appears continually, presents his ideas surrounding Monroe’s final hours and potential inconsistencies in the timeline. Summers apparently got more tantalizing intel from the family of Ralph Greenson, who was Monroe’s psychiatrist, and from Fred Otash, a private eye who in the tapes says that Jimmy Hoffa wanted him to dig up dirt on John F. Kennedy and Robert F. Kennedy. Throughout the film, Monroe is said to have been involved with both Kennedy brothers. But mostly the film presents a banal rehash of established facts and well-circulated rumors about Monroe’s life.

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Image courtesy of "The Indian Express"

The Mystery of Marilyn Monroe The Unheard Tapes movie review ... (The Indian Express)

Let the dead lie, they say. And this is a great rule to live by. Unless you're Netflix, looking to make another true crime documentary to satiate the ...

With the already mythic Blonde on the way later this year—its director, the elusive Andrew Dominik, has pre-emptively declared it a ‘masterpiece’ and a ‘knockout’—don’t be surprised if you find The Unheard Tapes rattling about in your suggestions after you’re done with it. In the weeks and months following Rajput’s death, our nation’s youth united not against growing intolerance and the emerging pandemic, but in support of a conspiracy theory that suggested, based on nothing, that he was murdered. In the case of The Unheard Tapes, it’s this: What if everything that you knew about Marilyn’s death was untrue, and that her passing was, in fact, a murder. The subjects of those films were sometimes unsavoury—child abuse, religious fanaticism—but the films themselves were always empathetic and endlessly curious. In June 2020, the actor Sushant Singh Rajput was found dead in the bedroom of his Mumbai house, having hanged himself in an apparent suicide. And this is a great rule to live by.

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Image courtesy of "The Independent"

The Mystery of Marilyn Monroe: The Unheard Tapes on Netflix ... (The Independent)

For decades, it has been reported that Monroe was found dead in her bed by her psychiatrist, Ralph Greenson, who broke in through her bedroom window after ...

Her most successful films include The Seven Year Itch (1955) Bus Stop (1956) and Some Like It Hot (1959). [Greenson] told me he was in the ambulance.” “She died in the ambulance,” he said.

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Image courtesy of "Netflix Life"

How did Marilyn Monroe get famous? (Netflix Life)

Netflix's highly anticipated documentary The Mystery of Marilyn Monroe: The Unheard Tapes is now streaming. Even 60 years after her death, ...

Once Monroe was in the spotlight, she was never out of it again. She was briefly suspended in 1954 for refusing to work a film project, but came back to star in The Seven Year Itch, which became one of the biggest box office successes of her career. Later on, the studio did give her a new contract which gave her more control and money. That was thanks to her role leading the film noir Niagara, which heavily relied on her sex appeal. He thought she had the right look for a model, leading her to the Blue Book Model Agency where she became a successful pin up model. The model and top-billed actress was a star that shone bright.

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Image courtesy of "TownandCountrymag.com"

How Did Marilyn Monroe <em>Really</em> Die? (TownandCountrymag.com)

A new documentary, The Mystery of Marilyn Monroe: The Unheard Tapes, sheds light on conspiracy theories, Kennedy connections, and the final moments of an ...

I want other people to come away from the film feeling they’ve gotten to know her and know the things that happened at the end of her life and why. That’s the only thing that’s important to me, is that we’ve got the truth, and I believe we have. The making of the film really mirrored the way Tony wrote the book; it took years, and I think that people respond to that methodology. I tried to tell her that I’m standing here as a woman who’s older than she was when she died, and it’s the 2020s and I’m hoping to give her the right voice. I always knew that what Tony had evidenced in his book—the timeline we’re able to put together—was a revelation to me, and I thought it would be to other people. Time and time again, when I was trying to untangle her final days, the truth always ended up being somewhere in the middle.

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Image courtesy of "Financial Times"

The Mystery of Marilyn Monroe: The Unheard Truth — another ... (Financial Times)

Often seen in whirring close-up, they belong to veteran journalist Anthony Summers, whose investigative biographies include Goddess, his 1985 account of the ...

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Image courtesy of "Radio Times"

How did Marilyn Monroe die? The Unheard Tapes theories explained (Radio Times)

Netflix's The Unheard Tapes reveals previously unheard recordings of those around Marilyn Monroe.

"She died in the ambulance," Sherlock alleges in the documentary. It's usually the false things." They had done everything to hush this up." "They came on the scene immediately. It had to be instructions from someone high up, higher than [former FBI director J Edgar Hoover]. The [attorney] general or the president." The case was closed.

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Image courtesy of "Manchester Evening News"

How did Marilyn Monroe die and did she have children? New Netflix ... (Manchester Evening News)

The documentary investigates the movie star's life and, more specifically, her death - and the circumstances around it. The new show airs tapes of Marilyn ...

Marilyn was just 36 when she died in the late evening of Saturday, August 4, 1962. Marilyn Monroe was hugely popular during her life. The new show airs tapes of Marilyn Monroe that have never been released to the public.

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Image courtesy of "Newsweek"

What Does 'Waif' Mean? Inside Marilyn Monroe's Childhood (Newsweek)

Throughout her life, the star referred to her younger self not as "homeless" but "waif" as per Netflix's "The Mystery of Marilyn Monroe: The Unheard Tapes."

Russell would go on to adopt three children in the 1950s: Tracy, Thomas, and Robert John. She spoke about her experience of being abused by her lodger to her biographers Ben Hecht in 1953 to 1954 and Maurice Zolotow in 1960. She also spoke her of childhood abuse in interviews for Paris Match and Cosmopolitan. Yeah, I was never used to being happy. I was bought up a waif. Newsweek has everything you need to know.

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Review: Half-Baked Documentary The Mystery of Marilyn Monroe ... (thirdcoastreview.com)

A documentary has to work hard for me not to like it. So imagine my reaction to seeing how hard director Emma Cooper worked (or rather, ...

Instead, the revelations have more to do with what happened after her body was found, or more specifically, exactly what time her body was found and how long it took authorities to declare her dead. The movie also reminds us what a fragile and emotionally driven person Monroe was and all that that entails, good and bad. After about hour of backstory, director Cooper finally gets to the point of the film, which is to either prove or disprove the cause of Monroe’s death and explore why there is still such confusion about it. Summers’ interviews and biography began when the L.A. County district attorney reopened the investigation into Monroe’s death (which was ruled a death by overdose, though either intentionally or accidentally isn’t clear) in 1982, so most of the interview subjects are long dead. Summers walks us through his impressive catalog of recordings, most of which have never been heard, talking to Monroe’s friends, work associates, and even actors and directors she worked with closely, including John Huston, Billy Wilder, and Jane Russell. But while these interviews certainly paint a more vivid portrait of Monroe as a performer, they don’t really give us more insight into her motivations to succeed or her approach to her craft. But before we get to the juicy bits, Cooper pieces together a fairly standard-issue life story, complete with Monroe’s stories of bouncing from orphanage to orphanage as a child and man to man as an adult, including baseball superstar Joe DiMaggio, playwright Arthur Miller, and both Robert and John F. Kennedy.

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Image courtesy of "Belfast Telegraph"

Marilyn Monroe was a remarkable actor – so why are we only fixated ... (Belfast Telegraph)

This image is none more apparent than in Netflix's The Mystery of Marilyn Monroe: The Unheard Tapes, which can be streamed from today (27 April). The film ...

Missing from that reading is the raw skill she had as an actor: her loopy guile in Some Like It Hot, the dangerous allure she brought to the underrated noir Niagara, or the piercing loneliness of her work in The Misfits, her final film. Or that much of her life seemed to be an endless parade of sexual abuse, exploitation and bullying from the men she put so much romantic faith in. She is, after all, the prototype of all kinds of modern media phenomena, from the mystery and allure of the “dead blonde” in popular entertainment (see Twin Peaks or any of the television formed in its image), to the hyperfixation with young women struggling in the spotlight. “Missing White Woman Syndrome”, or a kind of discrimination in which missing persons or victims of crime are granted comparatively larger news coverage when they’re young, white, female and pretty, feels somewhat indebted to her, too. Nothing gets confirmed, making the whole thing a bit aimless, but there are allusions to Monroe’s affairs with both President John F Kennedy and his brother Robert – which may have put her in fatal government crosshairs – as well as claims she was being investigated and monitored by the FBI due to her leftist politics. Monroe died 60 years ago this August, which explains the abundance of material being released about her this year.

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