Cast overview, first billed only: | |||
Misty Rowe | ... | Norma Jean Baker | |
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Terence Locke | ... | Ralph Johnson |
Patch Mackenzie | ... | Ruth Latimer | |
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Preston Hanson | ... | Hal James |
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Marty Zagon | ... | Irving Oblach |
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Andre Philippe | ... | Sam Dunn |
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Adele Claire | ... | Beverly |
Sal Ponti | ... | Randy Palmer | |
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Paula Mitchell | ... | Cynthia Palmer |
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Jean Sarah Frost | ... | Ethel |
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Lilyan McBride | ... | House Mother |
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Burr Middleton | ... | Sleasy Photographer |
Stuart Lancaster | ... | George | |
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Ivy Bethune | ... | Ruby Kirshner |
Robert Gribbin | ... | Terry (as Robert Gribbon) |
Aspiring actress Norma Jean Baker lives in squalor in the early '40s as she works at the munitions plant and dreams of being a movie star. Abused as a child and an adult, she lacks self-confidence, but photographer Ralph Johnson takes some publicity shots and convinces her to try for her dream, and supports her as she's bounced from casting couches to sleazy photo shoots. She befriends once-powerful producer Hal James, who tries to steer her toward her dream of stardom, to where she will eventually be known as Marilyn Monroe. Written by Ed Sutton <esutton@mindspring.com>
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!