Goodnight, Sweet Marilyn

My review was written in October 1989 after watching the movie on Off Hollywood video cassette.

"Goodnight, Sweet Marilyn" is an interesting elaboration by conspiracy film specialist Larry Buchanan on his 1975 feature "Goodnight, Norma Jean". Pastiche feature is scheduled for theatrical release before its home video usage.

Though known primarily for his numerous '60s sci-fi pics. Buchanan has made many topical biopic covering everyone from Lee Harvey Oswald and Bonnie & Clyde to Jean Harlow, Howard Hughes, Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix and Jim Morrison. Common thread is a healthy interest in exploiting conspiracy theories.

Here he focuses on Marilyn Monroe's final day in August 1962, as fictional pal Mesquite (Jeremy Slate) confesses how he "took her life, to save it". Flashbacks from her deathbed (as two evident spooks from the CIA hover, removing photos of RFK and JFK from the mantelpiece) reveal her life history. A murder attempt by a fake masseur (presumably a deranged fan) also is depicted, but over an hour of the film is made up of footage from the 1975 picture, with a topnotch, moving performance by Misty Rowe as the young Norma Jean Baker in the '40s.

New scenes topline Paula Lane as Marilyn, whose physical and vocal carbon of the Hollywood icon is most effective. For fans unfamiliar with Buchanan's 1975 picture, package should satisfy, though it relies too heavily on old material that will be instantly recognizable to anyone who watched the Misty Rowe picture when it came out or on tv.

Phyllis Coates, erstwhile Lois Lane on tv, has a small rfole as the ghost of Norma Jean/Marilyn's mother.