Marilyn Monroe

CHICAGO – The movie star Marilyn Monroe, arguably the brightest star in the history of Hollywood, led a life of triumph and tragedy, up to and including her death in 1962. The recent Netflix release of “The Mystery of Marilyn Monroe: The Unheard Tapes” – directed by Emma Cooper – is a documentary that seeks truth, through never-heard-before audio interviews.

CHICAGO – Patrick McDonald of HollywoodChicago.com audio film review on “The Mystery of Marilyn Monroe: The Unheard Tapes,” the latest documentary on the movie star who passed away in 1962 but is still revered. The film will stream on Netflix beginning April 27th.

CHICAGO – Misty Rowe is a Country Music cultural icon, through her many years with TV’s “Hee Haw,” but she also portrayed Marilyn Monroe in “Goodbye, Norma Jean” (1976). She remembers it all in her new memoir, “Misty Memories.”

CHICAGO – Misty Rowe is a Country Music cultural icon, through her many years with TV’s “Hee Haw,” but she also portrayed Marilyn Monroe in “Goodbye, Norma Jean” (1976). She remembers it all in her new memoir, “Misty Memories.”

CHICAGO – There was a time in America when the medium of the magazine produced superstars. Famous writers, reporters, photographers and illustrators ruled the day, from the magazine’s invention in the 1920s to their ebbing in the 1960s (when TV became a rival) to their last gasp before the internet. One superstar that emerged worked for Playboy Magazine, and was as influential as founder Hugh Hefner in creating the ethos of that particular empire. A legendary art director is profiled in the documentary, “Art Paul of Playboy: The Man Behind the Bunny.” The film is screening at the 54th Chicago International Film Festival on Sunday, October 14th, 2018 (7pm). For details and tickets, click here.

LOS ANGELES – Hugh Hefner was the man who turned the key to the sexual revolution when he founded Playboy Magazine in 1953. What started in an apartment in Chicago became a worldwide empire as the Playboy brand and image was embedded into American consciousness. Hefner died on Sept. 27, 2017. He was 91.

CHICAGO – Quirky Greta Gerwig is at it again (being quirky), and this time she’s looking for solutions in “Maggie’s Plan.” The made-in-New-York-City film has overtures of Woody Allen, combined with “Crossing Delancey.” Director Rebecca Miller (“Personal Velocity”) produces a valentine to all her influences and settings.

CHICAGO – Few celebrities can be so easily defined by their first names as Marilyn and Elvis. They went beyond their professions to become cultural icons and three of their works have just been released this week on Blu-ray for the first time. While fans of Monroe and Presley will probably gravitate to “Bus Stop” and “Love Me Tender,” the best of the three is easily the underrated “Niagara,” a clever thriller that uses the notorious Falls in a way that Hitchcock probably respected. If you’re going to pick just one, that’s the one.

CHICAGO – This weekend is the Turner Classic Movies (TCM) Classic Film Festival, and few movie stars alive represent that classic status better than Miss Mitzi Gaynor. Whether co-starring in movies with Gene Kelly, Frank Sinatra and Marilyn Monroe, or starring in the film version of “South Pacific,” Mitzi Gaynor always inspires the old “razzle dazzle.”

CHICAGO – They don’t make ‘em like Robert Mitchum any more. Every few years, there’s a DVD collection of classic movies that rises above the others for the holiday season. One of this year’s most star-packed entries includes not only Mitchum but John Wayne, Deborah Kerr, Kirk Douglas, Shirley MacLaine, Richard Widmark, Gene Kelly, Paul Newman, Shelley Winters, Marilyn Monroe, and many more. Mitchum may be the face on the cover but the set is a trip through the golden era of Hollywood through more than just one star.