Niagara (1953)

Directed by Henry Hathaway; produced by Charles Brackett

Two married couples check in to holiday cabins on the Canadian side of Niagara Falls. The union of George and Rose Loomis (Joseph Cotten, Marilyn Monroe) is already shaky just two years into it, with Rose bored with her husband and meeting with a lover (Richard Allan). Ray and Polly Cutler (Casey Adams, Jean Peters) have delayed their honeymoon for three years, but are still rather like newly wedded youngsters. Rose’s disillusion with her marriage has a dark side: she and her boyfriend are plotting to kill George and escape to Chicago, and the Cutlers, trying not to become involved in their fellow guests’ problems, find themselves unwittingly enmeshed in murder.

Niagara has a number of elements that should have contributed to a successful film. Hathaway is a very good director with a number of fine films to his credit (eg. The Desert Fox, Kiss of Death, True Grit), and his direction here is involving, especially during the climax. Use is made of a wide variety of locations, not just the majestic waterfalls. Hathaway includes touches that add to the story and characters, such as George Loomis standing near the base of the falls, becoming soaked, then instinctively trying to avoid lawn sprinklers as he walks back to his motel. There is one irritation in Hathaway’s work, to be discussed below.

The acting is good. Cotten, an old pro, easily captures the desperation of a man in love with someone he should never have married, hoping to recapture what he never had in the first place. Monroe’s performance is adequate, and she satisfactorily conveys the impression of a woman tired of what she sees as the constrictions of her life.

The story is a good one, if rather predictable. There is an inevitability to the actions which, to the director’s and writers’ credit, does not make the finale expected. The air of Greek tragedy pervades the tale, and the roar of the water over its precipice lends a background noise of doom.

Unfortunately, the actual script does not create sympathetic characters. None of the four major personalities are that likeable. The Cutlers are not unlikeable, but neither are they people anyone would go out of his way to meet. Adams (later to work under his birth name of Max Showalter) is annoying much of the time, something I ascribe to the writing and directing (the flaw in Hathaway’s work mentioned earlier) rather than his acting. Ray grins like a silly child most of the movie; I expected him to burst out giggling half the time.

Rose is meant to be the villainess of the piece, so her cold and calculating manner is deliberate. But George embodies the adage of ‘no fool like an old fool’ rather too well, and his petulant, abrasive behaviour does not invite sympathy. And though Polly tries to help, but even her willingness seems one of convenience: she wants to assist but only if it’s not much trouble. All of this means that there is no one to root for, no point of view the audience will favour.

Niagara is an entertaining movie to an extent, but the lack of sympathetic characters leave it with the feeling of watching events re-enacted for a true-crimes tv series, rather than a dramatic film noir.