Absolutely the worst movie.

It's a movie as timely as it is provocative and amazingly, for much of its running time, it is weirdly funny.

The acting is good, and the firecracker script has some excellent ideas.

Close shines in drama with strong language, adult themes.

. . . John Wayne told NIAGARA's Cabbie, Harry Carey, Jr., on the set of BIG JAKE. Co-starring in a Wayne vehicle was NOT like driving around with Jerry Seinfeld, or even NIAGARA's Marilyn Monroe. Movie buff Leonard Maltin elicits this anecdote from the gray-bearded actor during an eight-minute-long 2005 interview entitled, THE JOHN WAYNE STOCK COMPANY: HARRY CAREY, JR. Of course, the problem with Wayne's comment is fairly obvious. He and Carey were NOT co-starring in a summer stock revival of THE WIZARD OF OZ. Instead, Carey had let his hair grow out all scraggly to play the doomed bad guy in BIG JAKE, Junior's first villainous movie part (after a career of playing Cabbies--as in NIAGARA--or other minor functions). That makes Wayne's dig tantamount to Dennis Rodman yelling out "Airball!" as his teammate Michael Jordan is about to release a free throw that could clinch Game Seven of the NBA Finals for their Chicago Bulls squad. Or Jordan Spieth shouting "Mashed Potatoes!" as Tiger Woods addresses the ceremonial first tee shot at the Masters. Or Condominium Rice screaming "You lie!" as George W. Bush spins a web around Yellow Uranium during an Address to a Joint Session of Congress. Or Butch Cassidy commanding "Jump!" as the Sundance Kid nears the edge of a cliff. The point that Matlin's highlighting in his editing of this interview is that normally a movie cast views themselves as teammates--NOT hecklers, trying to goad their cast mates over NIAGARA Falls without a barrel!

The Cutlers (Jean Peters, Max Showalter) are from Toledo, Ohio on their long awaited honeymoon in Niagara Falls, Canada. They arrive at the Rainbow Cabins to find their cabin still occupied by Rose Loomis (Marilyn Monroe). She's a former beer hall waitress in a volatile marriage to George Loomis (Joseph Cotten) who suffered battle fatigue in Korea. She contacts Ted Patrick for some nefarious reason. George goes missing and Rose is hospitalized from the shock. The Cutlers move into the cabin. George surprises a half-asleep Mrs. Cutler. Later at the bottom of the Falls, he tells her that he killed Ted in self-defense and now wants to disappear as a dead man.There are two stars in this movie. It's the power of Niagara Falls and the attraction of Marilyn Monroe. In another age, Monroe would have dined out as a noir femme fatale. She is magnetic on screen. She is convincing as a woman who could drive men crazy and Joesph Cotten embodies that madness. Every men turn their heads when she walks in and the camera focuses on her mercilessly. Jean Peters is a beauty in her own rights but she is downright plain Jane in her presence.

This nifty thriller represented one of Hathaway's few forays into noir (he was largely known for Westerns). It was unusual for noir in being filmed in shimmering Technicolor rather than the pallet of grays, blacks, and whites more commonly associated with the genre, but then, given the resort setting, this was almost inescapable.The storyline is straightforward: an amiable Midwestern couple, the Cutlers, Polly and Ray (Jean Peters and Max Showalter, billed as Casey Adams) arrive at the Falls to find the cabin they've reserved is occupied by another, more fractious couple: the Loomises. George (Joseph Cotten), the husband of the latter couple, could be nicknamed "Gloomy Loomy" given his downcast and cynical demeanor; we learn that he spent time in a psychiatric hospital for war veterans. His ravishing and none-too-faithful wife, Rose (Marilyn Monroe) provides ample reason for his suspicions. Turns out she's been two-timing George with a man who looks like the textbook illustration of a smooth gigolo (Richard Allan) and she and loverboy are planning something most foul for George.But Polly, the distaff half of the Cutler twosome, has witnessed some of the hanky- panky, and when Rose and her lover's nefarious plans run into trouble, Polly finds herself caught between a vengeful husband and a scared-out-of-her-wits wife. The suspense arises from Polly-in-peril and her efforts to extricate herself from another couple's troubles.Monroe is excellent in one of her few villainous roles in a non-comedy, and Cotten is riveting as the troubled, betrayed husband bent on revenge. His voice-over during an insomniac late-night/early-morning walk by the Falls at the start of the film is almost worth the price of admission alone. And the Falls? They never looked more beautiful- or deadly.

This is the role for which Marilyn Monroe won the Photoplay Gold Medal Award for Best Actress of the year, an award which doubtless helped to secure the 20th Century Fox movie's top-grossing domestic income for 1952-53 of over $6 million. But actually, MM is not in the movie all that much. Not that it matters, because, if anything, her frequent absences give added zest to the scenes in which she does appear. Nor does it matter that her co-star is Joseph Cotten, an actor's actor certainly, but a man with little charisma. Hathaway and the studio wanted James Mason, but he was unavailable. As a second banana lead male, Casey Adams was reasonably but not overly personable and this suited his role as a go-getting but somewhat lackluster company man who didn't seem to deserve a spicy wife like Jean Peters. And as for Jean Peters himself – helped no end by director Henry Hathaway who took no nonsense from his cast and actually placed her in real danger – she gave the performance of her life as the imperiled heroine. Yes, although he could work equally well in the confines of the studio, director Henry Hathaway preferred location work and was renowned for his ability to get the best effects from moody natural locations. He really excelled himself with Niagara. No matter how any times you see this movie, and how familiar you become with its plot, it always comes across with enormous power and charisma.