Hollywood, at all times shimmering with glamour and ghosts, has its justifiable share of legends half-told, and Marilyn Monroe’s swan song, Something’s Got to Give, is one in every of those glimmering phantoms. Official records may close the curtain on her profession with The Misfits in 1960, but behind the scenes, she was knee-deep in what was imagined to be her grand return to the screen two years later. It was never meant to be a final chapter, but fate has a cruel way of writing scripts nobody asked for.
Health Struggles and On-Set Drama
The new edition, a remake of the 1940 screwball romp My Favorite Wife, had Monroe step into the shoes of a long-lost wife coming back from the dead to search out her husband, played by Dean Martin, snarled in a brand new marriage. It was a comedy gold on paper, but what unfolded was less a revival and more a slow unraveling. From the very starting, the production felt cursed. Monroe, battling through illnesses, surgeries, and the crushing weight of depression, struggled even to indicate up, let alone perform with the flicker the studios demanded. Studio executives at twentieth Century Fox, watching deadlines burn, weren’t particularly amused either.
Then got here the infamous birthday gala for President Kennedy. Monroe, dazzling in a glittering dress, skipped one other day on set to sing for the president, and it proved to be the last straw, as she was immediately fired. (via Screenrant)
The Return That Never Got here
The studio scrambled as they searched for Monroe’s replacements in Kim Novak and Shirley MacLaine, but Dean Martin wasn’t having it. He stood firm that he wouldn’t shoot without Monroe’s presence, and subsequently, the studio unwillingly needed to bring her back. The plan was to restart filming in October, but Monroe wouldn’t make it that far. Her death on August 4, 1962, turned the pause right into a full stop. The movie and dreams of a comeback were left to collect dust within the studio’s vault.
Nonetheless, not every thing vanished into the shadows as a handful of scenes survived, which were enough to stitch together to supply a glimpse of what might’ve been. It was rediscovered in 1989, and about half-hour of footage were salvaged and shared in documentaries, including that iconic scene by the pool that fans still swoon over. But whispers of nine hours of raw footage suggest much more stays buried, likely never to surface again.
Marilyn Monroe’s last film didn’t get a premiere. There was no red carpet, no applause, but what lingers from Something’s Got to Give captures the raw, vulnerable fringe of a lady attempting to reclaim her stardom, fighting against her own unraveling world.
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