. . . Six months on the set with Marilyn and Olivier

This journal of the filming of The Prince and the Showgirl is one of the more entertaining in the film diary genre. The book is funny and also shows the arguments, ego battles and a chronicle of the beginning of Marilyn's marriage to Arthur Miller (this was actually their honeymoon) who traveled with her to make this film in England.

Colin Clark is the son of Kenneth Clark, who created the Civilization series on PBS. Colin became Olivier's personal assistant on the The Prince and the Showgirl and this book is the journal he kept back then but published in 1995.

This movie, The Prince and The Showgirl, was to be Marilyn Monroe Productions first project. Expectations were set too high on both sides. For all the complaining we hear about Marilyn - not one of her pictures lost any money. Could that be said of many stars today?

On page 73, after viewing the first rushes from the first shots of Marilyn, "The film was magical and there is no other way to describe it. . . . MM looked like a young delinquent girl. . . by afternoon she was an angel - smooth, glowing, eyes shining with joy, perfect lips slightly parted, irresistible".

When talking about the relationship Marilyn has with her make up man Whitey Snyder and commenting on the transformation - Whitey says, " Nothing to it. The camera just loves some people....for the camera she can do no wrong. I tell her all the time but she doesn't believe me. And sometimes I feel like telling the directors - don't fuss her, don't tell her what to do, just let he rip".

And lastly - Clark states, "I can see that he (Snyder) is genuinely fond of MM. The only person I've met so far that is".

Colin Clark wrote with the true naiveté that one does not usually find in books about celebrities.

Clark also talks about the "idiotic Rattigan script". Much has also been said about this in other bios on Marilyn - that this was not a wise choice for her first MM productions film.

On page 135 Clark states, "MM is carrying quite a lot of burdens as well - a husband who is unsupportive, and away; a manager who could be seen as exploiting her, and her 'best friends' who are sycophantic and weak. MM rose to where she is now by being stronger, more talented and more ambitious than the competition."

Talking about people who made it to the top he goes on to say, "We have no right to demand that they (the stars) share that little extra with us and then criticize them for being difficult or 'dangerous to know'.

When discussing MM having to act like she is in love with Olivier- "In MM's close-up she had to make it clear that she is now ecstatically in love with the Grand Duke. This was asking a lot of both of them.... Added to the fact that she clearly loathes the man she is meant to be in love with. I think the final result was successful - more the result of self-hypnosis, than great acting, but perhaps there isn't, or shouldn't be, much difference between the two."

In the final analysis of the film, I think it is safe to say after reading the book, that both Olivier and Marilyn went into the film with the wrong expectations. He went into it thinking he was a 50 year old, almost over-the-hill actor who would be the love interest for the sexy American star. I think he also planned on seducing her and she was not the least bit interested in him. Marilyn was using Olivier as her entrance fee to becoming a "legitimate actress".

These two actors may have had a better acting experience had they not chosen a play (and a poor play at that) and tried to stretch it into a full-length film. Marilyn stole the movie and proved she was the STAR. Olivier may have been the better actor - but who noticed?

I do recommend this book for anyone who does not have it and wants a behind the camera view of movie making and movie making with Marilyn Monroe.