Something's Got to Give (1962)

Unfinished remake of "My Favorite Wife," due to the firing of Marilyn Monroe from the film. She was eventually re-hired, but died in August, 1962. Film was never completed.

Director:

George Cukor

Writers:

Bella Spewack (screenplay), Sam Spewack (screenplay),

Stars:

Marilyn Monroe, Dean Martin, Cyd Charisse

Cast

Cast overview:
Marilyn Monroe	...	Ellen Wagstaff Arden
Dean Martin	...	Nicholas 'Nick' Arden
Cyd Charisse	...	Bianca Russell Arden
Tom Tryon	...	Steven Burkett / Adam
Alexandra Heilweil	...	Lita Arden
Robert Christopher Morley	...	Timmy Arden
Wally Cox	...	Shoe Salesman
Phil Silvers	...	Johnson
John McGiver	...	The Judge
Grady Sutton	...	The Judge's Clerk
Eloise Hardt	...	Miss Worth

Storyline

Years after his wife, Ellen, was lost at sea, Nick has her declared legally dead and remarries. That same day, Ellen is rescued from a desert island and returns home. This unfinished remake of "My Favorite Wife" was the last film Marilyn Monroe worked on before her death in 1962. Most of the footage was unseen, until it was restored into a 37-minute short which aired on television on June 1, 2001.

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Plot Keywords:

remake | unfinished film | blonde | lead actor's last film

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Genres:

Comedy | Short

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Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

1 June 2001 (USA)

Also Known As:

Marilyn - Ihr letzter Film

Filming Locations:

Stage 14, 20th Century Fox Studios - 10201 Pico Blvd., Century City, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation

Technical Specs

Runtime:

37 min 37 min (2001)

Sound Mix:

Stereo (Westrex Recording System)

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

This material eventually became Move Over, Darling with Doris Day and James Garner replacing Marilyn Monroe and Dean Martin. Many of the sets constructed for this version were used for that one.

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Quotes

Ellen Wagstaff Arden: Come on, the water's so refreshing! You know, after you finish doing, uh... you know.

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Connections

Featured in Arena: Screen Goddesses (2012)

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Soundtracks

"Something's Gotta Give"
Written by Johnny Mercer
Courtesy of Twentieth Century Music Corporation
Instrumental version performed by Ray Anthony and His Orchestra

User Reviews

One Last Wink

Whether or not George Cukor would have made a good, sexy comedy from "Something's Gotta Give" is a moot point. We'll never know if it would have been compared favorably to its source, the very funny Cary Grant/Irene Dunn movie "My Favorite Wife." It would have to have been better than "Move Over, Darling," the mess it turned into after Marilyn Monroe died.

We don't know what sort of screen chemistry would have been generated by Marilyn Monroe and Dean Martin (though if an actor ever came off bad with Martin, it wasn't Martin's fault). We don't know if the public would have accepted Monroe as a performer of significance for the emerging nineteen-sixties; each new decade necessitates weeding out what or whom isn't going to work from the previous one. We don't even know if this movie would have been entertaining or embarrassing, or both like "Some Like It Hot."

But thanks to the 37 minutes of footage that someone managed to find, process, and splice together, we do know a couple of things:

1. Though a little underweight, Marilyn Monroe still looked like she would glow in the dark; sexy, funny, tremendously likable to men and to women, and unlike any of her imitators. She drops a lot of the breathless affectations she picked up around "How to Marry a Millionaire," using mostly the sweet voice we hear in her TV interviews.

2. She missed lines here and there but Marilyn was touching and convincing as a mother of two kids (!) as well as a sexy wife. Nobody seems to be enjoying the famous nude swim scene more than she.

It's common knowledge that a few weeks into shooting "Something's Gotta Give" Marilyn was fired by 20th Century Fox. What too few people know is that shortly thereafter the studio and her agents were already negotiating a new contract for Marilyn, one that would guarantee her better material, choices of directors, and a substantially higher salary. A few upcoming projects that were being considered for her were "Period of Adjustment," "Irma La Douce," "Two for the Seesaw," and "What a Way to Go."

If you have a chance to see this 37-minute curiosity, do so by all means. It isn't much, but it's like Marilyn popping out of the sky, laughing and giving us one last wink.