Something's Got to Give

This movie should not be confused with the 2003 film Something's Gotta Give.

File:Marilyn monroe and dean martin.jpg

Martin and Monroe.

Something's Got To Give is one of the most notorious unfinished films in Hollywood history. The light bedroom comedy, a remake of My Favorite Wife, was produced in 1962 by a then-foundering 20th Century Fox and directed by George Cukor. It was to feature an all-star cast, including Marilyn Monroe, Dean Martin, and Cyd Charisse. Monroe was to play a woman returned to her husband after the Navy rescues her from six years on a deserted atoll in the Pacific. Martin was to play the husband, and Charisse the new wife whom Martin's character marries the day Monroe's character returns home.

A remake of My Favorite Wife was actually released in 1963 (called Move Over, Darling), using some of the sets from Something's Got To Give.

Pre-production

Several weeks before principal photography began, the cast and crew gathered for wardrobe tests on a set that was a fully-lit recreation of George Cukor's Beverly Hills home. Production designer Gene Allen had sent a crew of men to Cukor's home to photograph the entire estate. According to Allen, Cukor was photographed in the set's courtyard, with the intent of using the photo as his 1962 Christmas card, but is said to have abandoned the idea after Monroe's death on August 5th.

Marilyn Monroe had been absent from the screen for over a year. She had, at the time, recently undergone gall bladder surgery, and had dropped over 25 pounds, reaching the lowest weight of her adult life. The baby fat was gone, according to her costumer, Marjorie Pletcher. The costume and hair style drawings depicted a new Monroe, much more sophisticated and stylish than any character depicted prior. No one would be ready for what walked onto the set that day. Wearing some of her own clothes, and some of those commissioned by Fox for the film, Marilyn garnered applause and wolf whistles from the catwalks above. If she had been feeling let down at the director's absence, she let no one know about it. Smiling and radiant, she posed before the Cinemascope cameras for six hours of tests. She wore a thigh-length blonde wig meant for the beginning of the film, a two-piece black wool suit (also worn in Let's Make Love), a black and white spaghetti strap silk dress, and a lime green bikini with a bottom designed to cover her navel.

Before shooting had began, Monroe had let producer Henry Weinstein know that she had been asked by the White House to perform for President John F. Kennedy at Madison Square Garden in honor of his birthday on May 29, 1962. The producer granted her permission to attend the gala believing there would be no problems on the set.

Production

On the first day of production, April 23, 1962, Monroe telephoned Weinstein to tell him that she had a severe case of the flu, and would not be on the set that morning. Apparently, she had caught the flu after her trip to New York City, during which she had visited her acting coach, Lee Strasberg of the Actor's Studio, to go over her role. The studio sent staff doctor Lee Siegel to examine the star at her home. His diagnosis would have postponed Give for a month, but George Cukor refused to wait.

Instead, Cukor reorganized his shooting schedule to film scenes around his leading lady. At 7:30am, Cyd Charisse was telephoned at her residence with a request that she come to the Fox lot as soon as possible. Later that morning, the very first scene captured on film involved Martin's character (Nick) and Charisse (as Bianca Arden), in an encounter with children building a treehouse.

Over the next month production continued mostly without Monroe, who would showed up only occasionally. The production began to fall behind schedule. As Kennedy's birthday approached, no one on the production thought she would keep her commitment to the White House and miss almost a week of shooting. But she did, which made Cukor furious.

By this time the production was way over budget, and there still wasn't a totally usable script despite writer Walter Bernstein's efforts. The continual script rewrites aggravated Monroe's well known issues with script memorization. Monroe seemed very deeply introspective and would spend all of her free time on the set in her dressing room with Lee Strasberg's wife, Paula. It was she whom Marilyn depended on for support and direction during a shoot, not the director.

Pool scene

Upon her return from New York, Monroe decided to give the film a publicity boost by doing something no other major Hollwyood actress had done. There was a scene where she was to jump into a swimming pool at night and try to lure Dean Martin's character away from Cyd Charisse's character. "Come on in the water's so refreshing, after you've done- oh you know!" She playfully calls up to his bedroom window. Martin tells her to get out of the pool and then realizes she is nude. A body stocking was made for her, but Monroe took it off and swam around nude the whole day. The entire set was closed down to all but necessary crew and still photographers Monroe had asked to come in, like William Woodfield.

Monroe's last day on the set

On June 1, 1962 Monroe, Martin and Wally Cox shot a scene in the courtyard set. The day marked Monroe's 36th birthday, though the studio didn't even buy a cake. Monroe's stand-in, Evelyn Moriarty, bought a seven dollar sheet cake at the Los Angeles Farmer's Market. A studio illustrator drew a card of a cartoon of a nude Monroe holding a towel. It read, "Happy Bithday Suit". The cast and crew signed it. The cast attempted to celebrate when Marilyn arrived; however Cukor blew up and insisted they wait until 6pm because, "he wanted to get a full days work out of her." It would be Monroe's last day on the set. She left the party with co-star Wally Cox. She borrowed the fur trimmed suit she had worn while filming that day because she was to attend a Muscular Dystrophy fund raiser at Dodger Stadium that evening with Joe Dimaggio.

Monroe is fired

On Monday morning, producer Henry Weinstein got the call he dreaded. Monroe was on the other line telling him she wouldn't be there again that day. She had apparently caught cold at the Dodgers game. A meeting of studio suits quickly assembled. Cukor strongly endorsed her release from the picture. Marilyn's absence of 17 out of 30 shooting days led to her termination from the project on Friday, June 8, 1962.

Subsequent events

Monroe was to be replaced with actress Lee Remick, who was fitted into Monroe's costumes and photographed with Cukor. But Dean Martin had leading lady approval and stated, "No Marilyn, No Picture." The project seemingly ended there.

Monroe gathered the press and anyone who would listen to her story. She felt betrayed by the system. The system felt betrayed by her. She launched a campaign to win her job back. She contacted Cyd Charisse, and asked for her assistance and support in getting the film back on track. Charisse agreed to be part of the effort.

Monroe eventually met with studio heads. They agreed to hire her back due to the publicity she has raised against the studio which had always remained "nameless" in her interviews. They agreed to pay her more than her previous salary of $200,000. But first she had to agree to two more films for Fox. She accepted the offer on the condition that George Cukor was replaced with Jean Negulesco, who had directed her in How To Marry A Millionaire.

Filming was planned to resume in October, a plan which was abandoned when Monroe died on August 5th.

Years later, some footage is released

Nine hours of footage from the film sat in the vaults at 20th Century Fox until 1999, when it was digitally restored by Prometheus Entertainment and reconstructed into a semi-coherent, 32-minute segment for the two-hour documentary, Marilyn: The Final Days. It first aired on American Movie Classics on June 1, 2001, the anniversary of Monroe's birthday.

External link

• Something's Got To Give at IMDb