If you were thinking that Netflix’s new documentary The Mystery of Marilyn Monroe: The Unheard Tapes. may finally give the definitive answer to how the world’s most famous died, you will in fact be deeply disappointed. Emma Cooper‘s intriguing film that gets us on the edge of our seats revealed some interesting new, and not so new, facts. However, in the very end it made us like Hollywood’s famous blondeshell even more, and at the same time deeply sympathize with her and the toxic masculinity that was so rife in the Studios system. It all made the latter-day antics of the likes of Harvey Weinstein now seem like a walk in the park.
Cooper based her film on the findings of Irish investigative journalist Anthony Summers’ 1985 biography, Goddess, who also acted as a de facto narrator in part. Summers was commissioned by a British newspaper editor in 1982 to cover Monroe’s story when the Los Angeles County district attorney reopened the investigation into her death 20 years previously looking for evidence of foul play,
Summers three-week commission turned into three years during which time he made 650 taped recordings of interviews with people who had been close to Monroe, or who had worked with the star, or the star’s friends. Kudos to Cooper presented these in low-light, grainy “reconstructions,” with half-unseen actors lip-syncing the tapes which remarkably added to their feelings of authenticity.
We see many sides of Monroe as she became a worldwide sex symbol but fostered so many doubts about her acting talents and how at the same time she craved both love and affection. Many of the myths about her private life were confirmed here as solid facts. Like how she sought the validation of important men, such as her two husbands baseball champion Joe DiMaggio and the legendary playwright Arthur Miller, and both the Kennedy brothers as her lovers.
It’s the latter part that is most disturbing as they were not casual one-off hookups but arranged liaisons mainly at the Malibu Beach House of their brother on law Peter Lawford. The arrangements seem sordid, particularly by the fact that Lawson unequivocally acted as a pimp for the Kennedys. What was never spoken about was what Patricia Kennedy, Lawfords wife, thought about these ‘parties’ where both her brothers competed to have sex with Monroe.
The film deals little with Monroe’s film career and how she always felt her acting talents were too often ignored. The powerful patriarchal Studio heads treated her like their private property and like some of the light-headed blondes she played on-screen. This meant to get her next role, she would often have to act out the part to them in private. Summer’s research shared that this practice was widespread and accepted as a norm, but hearing it discussed even now is extremely distressing.
Much of the film like the book, deals with the fateful night of Monroe’s death. As I mentioned earlier it doesn’t answer the burning question of what really happened, but it does confirm a great deal of the murky facts that have been the subject of gossip until now. Like the fact that Robert Kennedy had definitely been in town that night and had been mysteriously whisked away by helicopter at 3 am just before Monroe’s body was ‘found’ and after his people had ‘cleaned’ her house of anything linking him to her.
It was a very well-known fact that both Kennedys had been in a fierce public battle with Jimmy Hoffa the Teamsters Union Leader a major Mafia figure. Both sides were determined to finish the other side off, and so the whole death scenario was suggested to be at the heart of some covert operations that Hoffa may have led in order to get enough dirt on the Kennedys.
And then there is the matter of the FBI being led by the powerful Director Hoover who never disguised his outright hate of his political masters. Could he have orchestrated the whole thing, or at least the cover-up?
On the positive side so many of the taped interviews simply confirmed not just Monroe’s remarkable charisma, but reminded us yet again she was a remarkable woman and actress, the likes we will never see again. There will always be many myths about why some 60 years later we are so fascinated by her and her legacy. This should be so much bigger than her death, but we wonder if it ever will.
