Grant is a surprise here with his family man role, quite differentįrom the sophisticated characters he usually played, and has a great scene when the judge is going to take their child back because of his lack of income. Nina was a 'fierce' diva long before Grace Jones and I don't imagine she will be portrayed by Beyonce in a biopic, like Etta James was. Nina could do it all: classical, jazz, blues, pop, R&B, gospel. I love her 'Wild is the Wind', and course there's 'Mississippi Goddam'. She covered some Billie Holiday songs too like 'Strange Fruit' and 'Fine and Mellow'. Some of my favourite Nina songs include 'Dont Let Me Be Misunderstood', 'I Put A Spell On You', 'Seeline Woman', 'Be My Husband', 'Four Women', 'Trouble In Mind', 'The Other Woman', 'More and more and then some' and that 'My Baby Just Cares For Me' and 'Feeling Good' which were everywhere, and used in adverts, which was annoying as Nina herself never sold her music to commercial interests. She was classically trained of course but had to play in the clubs and cabaret rooms to get noticed. I particularly liked her 1959 album ' Nina At Town Hall' where she plays piano a lot - her playing is as distinctive as her vocals. Nina (1933-2003) of course was one of the biggest divas and legends around, a fascinating, complex woman, with that incredible voice, who left a wonderful legacy of recordings. a new slimmed down Marilyn for the 1960s. Her last two films for Fox were the dreary comedy LETS MAKE LOVE where she sparkled in a few numbers, and looked marvellous in the fragments of SOMETHING'S GOTTA GIVE. Then her most interesting films were made away from Fox: England for THE PRINCE AND THE SHOWGIRL, for her own production company, SOME LIKE IT HOT in 19's THE MISFITS. But soon she was leaving Fox for New York and the Actors' Studio, returning under new terms for BUS STOP. She was still working for peanuts though for Fox, who only saw her in dumb blonde roles - as in 1954's RIVER OF NO RETURN (where she makes an interesting character of her standard saloon girl role) and she certainly lights up the screen in THERE'S NO BUSINESS LIKE SHOW BUSINESS with those three sizzling numbers - apparantly she did this to get the SEVEN YEAR ITCH role.

Then, NIAGARA in 1953 followed by GENTLEMEN PREFER BLONDES and HOW TO MARRY A MILLIONAIRE.

1953 was certainly Marilyn's year - after those small roles that got her noticed in 1950 in THE ASPHALT JUNGLE and ALL ABOUT EVE (as well as that comic western TICKET TO TOMAHAWK), by 1952 she was in WE'RE NOT MARRIED, Lang's CLASH BY NIGHT, Hawks' MONKEY BUSINESS as Miss Laurel the secretary who cannot type, and her hypnotic role as the disturbed babysitter in DON'T BOTHER TO KNOCK.

GWTW by Gavin Lambert