Goodbye, Norma Jean

This movie is wrong in so many ways - MM did not start out as a blonde, as others have noted.

The only concession the producers made to period authenticity was the cars. No one has authentic 1940's hairdos or makeup. Check out the scene where everyone is leaving the screening room - they all look like they are in the 1970's which is when the movie was made. The main character's wig is a mess and looks like it has never been brushed.

And one character describes a "snuff" film as one where two women kill a guy - not what I usually hear a "snuff" film consists of.

The whole film is painful to watch as the production values are just terrible. Looks like the budget was about $500.

The only thing this film got right was the fact that Norma Jeane disliked sex, a problem that most people who were molested and/or raped in childhood have in common. Although, such things can be overcome for short periods of time ... the person tends to slip back into their norm.

Misty Rowe ... what can I say about her performance that would not be cruel? Can't! Anyone taking on this role, as written in the script, had to be 100% STOOPID! The script turned Marilyn into a vulgar brainless twit, and no real fan of this Iconic Star would have accepted this role, as written! It amazes me that this trash is out on DVD, while Catherine Hicks' "Marilyn: The Untold Story" has never been released on DVD. The latter being thee best film on Marilyn ever created .... SO FAR! LadyShalene

this is the worst movie i have ever seen. yes, i know that marilyn was raped but they make it so rediculous,like with a woman. i really dont think she would stoop so low.i have read up on her very much and there was no mention of that many rapes, or that close together. it seemed like everyday she got raped at least once. it is just heartbreaking to see a movie like that saying this is how it happened and it is the worst movie ever made

The Intro. reads "not as others told it; not as she told it; but as it really was". WRONG! It doesn't even get her early hair color right.

It depicts Marilyn as a complete naive airhead, who did not enjoy sex, and whose life (other than her eventual success in movies) was one of neverending abuse. She is depicted as really the same as the studio-pushed persona she later often had to use - a dumb blonde with that airhead voice. There is something of the Cinderella story here, as her early life was rough. The real basis of the film is the "revenge" theme. There is quite a man-hating aspect to it. It is not graphic, but the heroine endures repeated abuse, including rapes, forced lesbian sex and oral sex (in this movie it might be called "the casting floor"), but gets her revenge by eventually becoming a success as Marilyn. Some poor films and most soaps are watchable because of an attractive cast; this one lacks even that, other than Preston Hanson and Patch Mackenzie.

I remember bullying my then-boyfriend (now husband, in spite of my demonstrably bad taste in movies by wanting to even SEE this) to go see this in '76 when it first came out. He fought it, but being a guy, he finally agreed to humor me. About ten minutes into the movie, people started leaving -- it was THAT bad. I turned to him and said, "OK, you win. It stinks. Let's go." My punishment? We couldn't go -- we had to sit there and watch the WHOLE THING. Omigod, it must have been filmed by a blind man and edited a drunk and on crack. It was just an exploitively poor excuse for soft porn that happened to tack Marilyn Monroe's name on it. If I were her, I'd sue from the grave! When the final credits started to roll, he turned to me and said, "I'm sorry -- it was so bad that NO ONE should have had to sit through that." We still laugh about it, 30 years later, but it's definitely the top of the list as far as bad movies go!