Marilyn in Manhattan

Marilyn in Manhattan (1998)

*** (out of 4)

Short (43-minutes) but entertaining documentary takes a look at the time Marilyn Monroe spent in Manhattan while trying to get her career going into a new direction. The documentary really focuses on 1956 through early 1957 as Monroe struck up a friendship with photographer Milton Green and the two quickly started Marilyn Monroe Productions in hopes for the actress to be taken serious. We hear from various people who spent time with Monroe over this year period and we see how much changed thanks to these relationships. We hear from several people who knew Monroe during this period including Amy and Josh Greene, Ben Gazzara, Ellen Burstyn, Donald Spoto and Susan Strasburg. At such a short running time there's nothing that gets too much attention but for the most part I think fans of the actress should enjoy this. We get to hear what a strange year it turned out to be for the actress as she tried to be taken serious and then would end up doing a film with Lawrence Olivier. We hear about the troubled production of that film as well as Monroe's troubled relationship with Joe DiMaggio and Authur Penn. The documentary also talks about some of the final days in her life and even has someone bringing up the theory that someone in the Kennedy family was after her. There's certainly nothing ground-breaking here but it's entertaining and that's the most important thing.