All language subtitles for Reframed.Marilyn.Monroe.S01E03.1080p.iP.WEB-DL.AAC2.0.HFR.H.264-AEK_track4_[eng]-en

Come on, everybody. Let's give
the little girl a great big welcome.

APPLAUSE

BAND PLAYS

By the time Marilyn was shooting

There's No Business Like Show
Business, she was a huge star.

She is this beautiful,
larger-than-life icon.

After You Get What You Want,
You Don't Want It -

that's a perfect number because
that's really her story, too.

She had the money, and the lights,
and the costumes, and the fans...

..but there was something missing.

She doesn't want to be stuck at Fox
making stereotype movies.

I could have sworn you were
a dramatic actress.

You think that's impossible?

What I'd like to do
is to be a good actress.

When you want that,

you're not necessarily
going to find it in Hollywood.

There's No Business Like Show
Business opens to great fanfare -

but Marilyn is nowhere to be seen.

Marilyn Monroe didn't show up
for her own movie premiere.

Her mind and her life
were already somewhere else.

She is incognito as Zelda Zonk.

Zelda Zonk was a beautiful woman
in a black bobbed wig...

sneaking away from LA

to start a new life in New York.

She didn't tell anybody anything,
and nobody knew.

Marilyn walked out as
a declaration of independence.

She wanted control of
her own destiny.

She was saying "I don't want
just this any more.

"I have so much more to offer the
world - and I'm gonna show them."

By deciding to break the contract
and go to New York

Marilyn was announcing that she
belonged with the serious artists,

that she belonged where
real art was being made.

She wanted more control
over her career.

She wanted to be able to choose her
own projects and her own directors

and just play different roles.

Weeks after fleeing Hollywood,

a small crowd is invited
to an Upper East Side apartment

to meet the new Marilyn Monroe.

Everybody was having a good time -
drinks, hors d'oeuvres.

Lawyers were there.
A lot of press was there.

They're all waiting on tenterhooks

to find out what
Marilyn is going to say,

what she's going to announce, and if
indeed this is some new Marilyn.

She wore high heels,
and then the white Norell dress

and then the piece de resistance
was the white ermine coat.

The bulbs were going like crazy.

Snappy, snappy, snappy, snappy.

Marilyn announces she's setting up
her own film company...

..Marilyn Monroe Productions.

Setting up a production company
in her name.

She didn't use anything like "Blonde
Goddess Productions" or something.

Everybody's going, "Huh?"

For a woman during
the Hollywood studio system

to really decide,
"I'm gonna step out on my own"

is really astounding to think about.

At that time,
that was almost unprecedented.

A very feminist act
but also a very powerful act.

Marilyn's new business partner
is photographer Milton Greene.

They were deep friends.

He loved beauty, and he loved
to take great pictures

and she appreciated that.

He never told her to
take the shirt off,

he never told her to lift her skirt.

Mutual respect.

The whole purpose behind
this production company

was so that she could throw herself
into the types of roles

that she had been wanting to do
her whole life.

She knew it was time
not to stop being Marilyn Monroe,

but to expand everybody's ideas
of who Marilyn Monroe could be.

It wasn't until the next day
when the newspapers came out

that they realised
what a disaster it had been.

The few journalists
that even bothered

to write about
Marilyn Monroe Productions

speculated that Marilyn would be
a failure, that she was a joke.

Women didn't do that.

Women didn't make their own movies.
Are you crazy?

It was really unfair and
very sexist of the press

to not give her the respect

that what she was doing
was ground-breaking,

that that was revolutionary.

Back in Hollywood, the news reaches
Fox studio boss Darryl Zanuck.

He hadn't shown her much
professional courtesy

and so she left him to find out
about it in the papers the next day.

Basically, he was the last to know,
and he wasn't happy about that.

He felt, "I made her a star.

"Who would she be
without 20th Century Fox?

"She owes us. That's it, boom."

He was so used to being able
to treat actresses as bodies

and not have to deal with them

having any sense of
power or control at all.

It was ludicrous to think
that this dumb blonde

could possibly be
in charge of her own productions

or choose her own directors
or her own scripts.

There is a tremendous sense
that she's David against Goliath,

that she cannot fight
20th Century Fox,

that she shouldn't even try.

But Marilyn has a plan.

Tonight we'll be going first
to western Connecticut

where photographer Milton Greene,
his wife,

and her friend and
house guest Marilyn Monroe

will be waiting for us.

Edward R Murrow was far and away

the most respected journalist
in America.

If you went on Murrow,

you were there to talk about
something serious.

Ed, this is my wife, Amy.

Good evening, Mr Murrow.

CBS had to build a tower
150 feet high on our lawn,

and they were there ten days.

Oh, I had the best time!

How do you do, Mr Murrow.
Good evening, Marilyn.

It was kind of a real power move
on her part

to show Zanuck,
"Here I am being interviewed.

"I'm still here,
and I'm not backing down."

She was a fighter
in a really big way.

MURROW: What's the basic reason
for this corporation?

Primarily to contribute
to help making good pictures.

Or would it be fair to say that
you got rather tired of playing

the same kind of roles
all the time

and wanted to try
something different?

It's not that I object
to doing musicals or comedy.

In fact, I rather enjoy it.

But I would like to do,
also, dramatic parts, too.

Marilyn refuses to return to Fox

unless Zanuck gives her
the control she wants.

Instead, he threatens legal action.

By this point, the antipathy
between Marilyn and Darryl Zanuck

was very real, it ran deep, and they
were both determined to win.

So it really was
a battle of the wills

and it was kind of
a battle to the death.

NEWSREEL: This is New York,

the largest single concentration
of theatres, operas, musical halls

and entertainment centres.

Marilyn is embracing
her new life in New York City.

It's the people.

I like the streets.

The atmosphere, I just like it.

Guiding her is friend
and photographer Sam Shaw.

Our first time we met Marilyn,
I must have been about 16 years old.

We had this wonderful day
at the Met.

She was so enthusiastic
to learn about art and literature.

In New York, she could be herself
a little bit more.

Yeah, it gave her more freedom,

and that was something
she required, being a free spirit.

Marilyn discovers
the music of the era.

JAZZ TRUMPET

Jazz at the end of the war

was the music of young
African American soldiers

coming back and
demanding their freedom.

It was a breakout music,
it was a liberating music.

My very favourite person,

and I love her as a person
as well as a singer,

I think she's the greatest,
and that's Ella Fitzgerald.

SCAT SINGING

Ella Fitzgerald,
she had a voice like an angel.

And Marilyn played her records
all the time.

There's a lovely picture of them
sitting together

where they look both kinda rough.

And you can tell that
they're really tight friends.

There's a famous story
that Ella Fitzgerald

was wanting to play the Mocambo Club

but the owner of the Mocambo
didn't want Ella.

It was a mostly a whites-only club.

But when it did have
black performers,

they had to be
spectacularly beautiful.

And the owner of the Mocambo
didn't really care

about Ella's immense talent if she
wasn't, you know, hot and svelte.

Marilyn read this in the paper.

She got very annoyed.

So she called the manager and said,
"Hi, this is Marilyn Monroe.

"And if you rebook Ella Fitzgerald,

"I will come every night to hear
her sing - both shows."

This was the beginning of
the civil rights movement

where the Ku Klux Klan was out.

What was Marilyn going to get
out of that,

being that visible a friend
with Ella Fitzgerald?

Nothing, nothing.

Advocating for somebody
like Ella Fitzgerald -

when she did not have to
and when it was unpopular -

this speaks to her principles.

Ella did say Marilyn Monroe
was ahead of her time

and she didn't even know it.

While Marilyn is
creatively expanding,

Darryl Zanuck is busy
trying to replace her.

He believed that he could create
another blonde movie star

and that audiences would
love her just the same.

It's classic Darryl Zanuck to think
that you could replace Marilyn

with Sheree North, replacing a body
with another body of similar type.

The more that Zanuck pushed,
the more that Marilyn came back

saying, "But the people
make me a star,"

and so, from her point of view,
just go direct to the audience,

who needs Zanuck?

And Marilyn knows
exactly how to fight back.

The photoshoot that Marilyn did
for Redbook magazine

was a really pivotal moment for her.

The choice of Redbook was
definitely a symbolic one.

Redbook was geared at women,

and it had been running
some serious journalism.

This was the exact opposite

of all of the posed
heavily made-up photos

where she's looking
right into the camera

saying, "I'm here to seduce you."

She was really questioning
not, I think, just herself

but how to show herself differently.

Marilyn was trying to position
herself as a kind of everywoman.

It has that vulnerable
everyday kind of girl look -

working girl on a subway...

..with her cameraman!

In fact, Marilyn never
really did ride the subway -

but the important thing is

she saw herself as a woman
who rode the subway.

Marilyn applies
this new realism to her acting.

The thing I'd like the most
is to become a real actress.

I realise more and more
the responsibility -

and it is a responsibility.

She wanted to be a deeper actor.

And for her generation of woman
in her 20s,

the best place to learn to be
an actor was the Actors Studio.

How would these people behave?

What would motivate me
to behave that way?

Lee Strasberg used The Method,

and The Method said
you had to do true things.

So everything had to be true.

Look, you look, and you always do...

It's an approach Lee defined
one time

as training your imagination
to respond

to imaginary circumstances
as though they're real.

You went so much
with the personal thing

that you lost some of the things
that she has.

That was a shattering experience,

the first time
I got up in front of him -

and it was like he had
an X-ray machine in his eyes,

and he just went in.

Now, I'm sure that's the same thing
that happened with Marilyn.

I think that might have been
the bravest thing that she ever did,

because the people in those classes,

they actually looked down
on Hollywood stars.

They saw the stars and the starlets

as very, very different
than the real actors.

Lee Strasberg - I think
probably he changed my life

more than any other human being.

Not everyone welcomes
the new Marilyn.

Her last movie for Fox
is about to open,

and Darryl Zanuck orchestrates a
stunt to put her back in her place.

The whole energy of
the response to her

was about resistance to the idea

that Marilyn Monroe could be
anything other than a sex object,

and certainly that
what she was not was an actress.

Oh, I think it's terrific.

Very nice, some girl.

I think it's wonderful. I think it's
wonderful, wonderful, wonderful.

It's the same thing as ever, same...
look at this basically upskirt shot.

I said, what has Marilyn Monroe got

that a million other women have
and prefer not to show?

The two Marilyns were seen
as somehow impossible to reconcile,

as if it isn't possible to imagine
that a woman could be sexual,

and flirty, and giggle,
and also be serious and be driven.

At the New York premiere
of The Seven Year Itch

the press is on red alert.

No-one can be sure which
Marilyn Monroe they're going to see.

NEWSREEL: A popular
Broadway New York theatre

readying its glamour for the sneak
preview of The Seven Year Itch

and its star,
the incomparable Marilyn Monroe.

As the battle with 20th Century Fox
rages on,

Marilyn attends the premiere with
her estranged husband, Joe DiMaggio.

They had separated eight months
earlier before she left Hollywood.

Here she was
in the middle of evolving

and experiencing this new life

and now she's on the arm
of her soon-to-be ex-husband.

It felt so artificial

and Marilyn hated that feeling.
She hated a lie.

What few realise is that
Marilyn's appearance with Joe

is a convenient cover story.

The summer of 1955 was
a real idyllic summer for Marilyn.

She spent almost all of it
on Long Island

and she finally got to do all
of those summer family activities

that she never had
the chance to do before.

There's one particular photograph
where she's on a boat

and there's a man that
we can just see from the back.

Nobody really knows who it is

but the general consensus is that
it could have been Arthur Miller.

They were meeting because of
shared people in New York...

..hanging out and having fun.

He, of course,
was married at the time,

and Marilyn knows how it would look
for this major film star

to be with a man
who was still married.

Marilyn's least favourite word -
home-wrecker.

She had a fear of being called
a home-wrecker.

It'll be over a year

before Marilyn's relationship
with Arthur Miller

becomes public knowledge.

Marilyn Monroe was someone
who was attracted to intelligence.

So it makes sense that
she would be attracted

to one of the foremost
American intellectuals at the time.

He treated me as a human being

and he was
a very sensitive human being

and he treated me
as a sensitive person also.

It's obvious that
she felt very protected by him

that he would take care of her.

And it certainly looked like...
she adored him.

Marilyn ended the year with the
same people she began the year with

and those were
Milton and Amy Greene.

And she and Milton still don't know

if Marilyn Monroe Productions is
going to actually take off or not.

They don't have
any real movie deals.

They don't have any real funding.

The struggle with Zanuck and Fox
had dragged on for a year,

and Marilyn was nearly out of funds.

In fact, the lawyers said

they could have gone bust
without making a picture.

Marilyn had no idea if
this entire experiment

was going to end in
complete humiliation and disaster.

Finally on New Year's Eve,
Marilyn receives a letter from Fox.

Marilyn twirled me around and said,
"It's over!

"It's signed, sealed,
and delivered."

She got everything she wanted,
everything -

which was unheard of in 1955.

Fox offers Marilyn a new contract
which gives her a higher salary,

director approval,

and the freedom to make films
through her own production company.

It's very remarkable
20th Century Fox

gave Marilyn the deal
that she wanted

and the control that she desired.

They ended up giving in because
they knew that if they allowed her

to do the roles
that she wanted to do,

that she would occasionally
do roles for them

and they could keep
getting those profits.

The magnitude of Marilyn's victory
was huge.

She gets to return to Hollywood
in a really triumphant way.

Tell me, Marilyn, is it true

that you submitted a list of
directors that you would work with?

Um...

We only know the rumours
we're hearing, you know.

I would rather say that I have
director approval, and that is true.

Her first film under
the new contract

will be the drama Bus Stop.

She gets approval of
the director, Joshua Logan,

and she gets to really
become involved with creating

the character that
she's going to play in this film.

Marilyn had got to portray a role
that she really wanted to do,

something that would stretch her
as an actress -

but now she had to prove that
she actually had what it takes.

She really was going to be on trial
in front of everybody as an actress.

Finally, Marilyn has the serious
acting role she's been fighting for.

In Bus Stop, Marilyn plays
this kind of down-at-heel singer.

She has an Ozarks accent,
which she perfected.

Nan got this job as a waitress

and I got to workin'
in Liggett's Drug Store.

We can see that
Marilyn Monroe's physicality

is being treated differently
from earlier movies.

There's a different quality to it.

It's more realistic.
It's less voyeuristic.

And, look, you can see by this
just how straight my direction is.

River Gulch, that's where I started.

This is where I am now.
And look where I'm going. Where?

Hollywood and Vine!

Looks like a dumb blonde,
it talks like a dumb blonde,

but inside is this roiling person
who's really full,

not just a stereotype.

He called me an ignorant hillbilly.
How do you like that?

Well, ain't ya?

I don't mean ignorant. I mean,
but you do come from the Ozarks.

I ain't some hillbilly
since I was...

This was the first time
that she was showing

her new style of acting
developed at the Actors' Studio.

I've been trying to be somebody.

A much more realistic performance,

a performance that tapped into
a new well of emotion

that we hadn't seen from
Marilyn Monroe before.

Marilyn had learned tremendous
dramatic and comedy technique.

She could really get
into a character

and play it with great truth
as well as humour.

The character is a kind of wannabe
Marilyn, a failed starlet,

and they were trying to make her
glamorous, and she was saying,

"No, this girl wouldn't be
glamorous."

Marilyn insisted that
her make-up had to be ghostly

because this woman
never went out in sunlight.

HESITANTLY:

She did the hardest thing to do.

She chose to play it like somebody
who is not very good

at what they do
but trying really hard to be good.

That's very hard to accomplish

and to have it be
adorable and funny.

Whereabouts were we, Henry?

"I should stay away."

It's very complex, what she's doing.
It's multilayered.

HE WHOOPS, CROWD CHEERS

WHISTLING, CHEERING

There is a real kind of
aching loneliness

at the centre of her performance,

and in the middle
of this love story.

The moment the film is running
in the camera, Marilyn acts.

I think she is one of the most
extraordinary actresses

that ever lived.

A lot of people said
that she really deserved

an Academy Award nomination
for that role.

She was awfully good
in Bus Stop, awfully good.

Marilyn doesn't slow down.
She's on to the next project.

She still had dreams of
her own production company,

so Marilyn and Milton settled on
purchasing the rights to a play

that was being performed
by Laurence Olivier in England.

She loved the idea of
working with Laurence Olivier.

He brought with him
a level of gravitas,

and I think by him agreeing
to be in a movie with her,

it showed that she was being
taken seriously as an actress.

Marilyn's new venture

puts a recently divorced
Arthur Miller in the spotlight.

Marilyn is going to England to film
The Prince And The Showgirl.

Arthur Miller wants to
accompany her, be with her,

and applies for a passport,
and runs against a wall.

Are you a member
of the Communist Party

or have you ever been
a member of the Communist Party?

Arthur Miller was subpoenaed
by the US government

to appear before HUAC,

the House of Un-American Activities
Committee.

In Hollywood, this was really
ruining a lot of careers

by forcing people to name names

of their fellow communist
or communist sympathisers

that they had known or knew.

Are you a member of
the Communist Party,

have you ever been a member
of the Communist Party?

Are you a member
of the Communist Party?

Are you now or have you ever been
a member of the Communist Party?

She anxiously waits,
even as he refuses to name names.

The story about
Arthur Miller's defiance

is usually told in terms of
his political courage,

and Marilyn is there
standing by her man.

According to people who knew both
Miller and Marilyn at the time,

it was Marilyn who urged Miller
to stand up to them.

She hated McCarthyism
and everything that it stood for.

We need to really think about it
as somebody who has principles

and who is making her own statement

about a very toxic political
and cultural climate.

Emerging from the hearing,
Miller shocks the press.

Mr Miller, why did you fill out
an application for a passport?

I wanted to go to England.

For what reason?

You guess. We'd like you to...

I wanted to be with the woman
who is going to be my wife.

You mean Marilyn Monroe?
That's correct.

He hadn't asked her to marry him.

She was a little taken aback...
hearing that announcement!

It's hard to not see it
as somewhat cynical

given the pressures that
he was under at the time

and Marilyn's status
as America's sweetheart.

Maybe Arthur was using
his relationship with Marilyn

as a way to whitewash himself.

Before Marilyn has time
to take it in,

the press descends
on her Manhattan apartment.

Have you been engaged long?
No, just a few days.

You see her against the wall, and
she looks so fragile and flustered.

Yes, she's someone who knows
how to work the press

but you can still see the cracks of,
"This is really overwhelming,

"and I'm trying to make sense
of this huge change in my life."

When are you planning to have
some children?

Well, I'm not married yet, dear.

Only two weeks later,
Marilyn and Arthur are married.

She wore my wedding veil,

and...what I did, my veil was white,

so I dumped it in tea -

and she loved it.

She thought she was getting
the final thing she wanted

which was a complete
and happy family -

but she doesn't realise
that she's heading into a storm,

that's what's coming next.

NEWSREEL: "She's here,"
said the headlines

and everyone knew
they meant the American film star

with the famous shape
and the wiggly walk.

Marilyn arrives in England

to produce and star in
her production company's first film.

The Prince And The Showgirl
was going to finally demonstrate

everything that she had been
fighting for, for a decade,

that she was going to get all of
that credibility that she wanted.

Who was more credible
than Sir Laurence Olivier?

I said I would only do it with him.
I would only consider doing it...

Why? Because I would go to see
Sir Laurence and myself in a movie!

THEY LAUGH

He had theatrical respectability
and the reputation of a great actor.

She was a household name.

They're opposites who are going to
get together to make a whole.

In the romantic comedy,
Marilyn plays an American showgirl

opposite Olivier's European prince.

Olivier also directs.

It's just my stage name, Elsie
Marina. My dad was a Marine, see?

My real name is Elsie Stoltzenberg.

Indeed.

In the beginning,
obviously, she was nervous,

needs time to settle in with not
only the crew, but with the cast.

Marilyn had come into
Olivier's territory, in every sense.

There's a big age difference
between them,

and he just quite blatantly does
not see her as a creative equal.

Turned quite warm all of a sudden,
hasn't it?

I wasn't addressed.

Give me the ambassador...

As a method actor, Marilyn insists

on real caviar and real Champagne
for every take...

She didn't want to be
an automatic, you know, "Roll 'em!"

and she does the scene.
She wanted to have a motivation.

Yes, yes, my dear fellow, you can
speak freely. There's no-one here.

..but Olivier derides
her techniques.

..Un-Carpathian activities...
SNIGGERS

He told her to stop thinking
and just to be sexy.

It was like he was being
a British Zanuck.

Pushed her right back
to where she had started from.

I imagine for her it was very
frustrating and heartbreaking

to have to deal with someone's scorn

when you were hoping
they could support you in the role.

He is treating this woman,
30 years old,

in charge of her own company,
as a child.

And she responds in kind.

She said that she started
being bad with him.

And what that meant was that she was
late, and she was obstructive.

She was a pain.

She knew exactly what she was doing.

It was how she could push back
against them.

One day,
we waited for a very long time

and Sir Laurence made her
apologise to the whole crew

for keeping them waiting so long.

Excuse me.

But once she was in front of
the camera, she was magic.

Say, listen,
I could use a short one.

I need it for my heart.
It's kind of beating down here.

I'm so sorry.
It's all right. It's not your fault.

In fact, if I'd known this was
all that was going to happen,

I wouldn't even have been nervous.

Long life to your Grand Highness!

Cheerio.

Better luck next time,
only not with me, of course.

When you watch the movie, I think
she's much better than he is in it.

I think he comes off stilted,
and she is always luminous.

Say, listen.
There is something to this stuff.

Are you sure there's no effect
when you drink it that way?

She upstages him into the heavens.

It's one of her loveliest, sweetest,
most effective performances,

and she steals it from him.

I think you have had enough.

I think so, too.

Behind the scenes,
the conflict with Olivier

is splintering Marilyn's
relationship

with her friend and co-producer
Milton Greene.

He would get up every day
go to Pinewood, and be a producer -

which meant calm everybody,
make sure everybody shows up.

It's a thankless job.

Milton found himself at times
siding with Olivier,

or at least feeling sympathy
for Olivier.

Marilyn then started to think,

"Well, he must be
on Olivier's side."

By this point, Marilyn was
also having trouble sleeping.

She took a lot of sleeping pills
every night.

When you're filming,
you have to be wide-eyed

and you have to look fresh.

And if you haven't slept,
you're not going to.

So everybody in Hollywood
takes pills.

And once she starts taking
the pills, she can't stop.

ADVERT: If even counting sheep
can't help you to sleep

then Sominex brings 100% safe sleep.

During the '50s into the '60s,
there's this ramping up

of prescribing medication to deal
with psychological problems.

VOICE ECHOES: Control yourself...

Women were definitely medicated
in ways that men were not.

ADVERT: If you're a woman, you
know what it means to be needed.

Those women were tormented
in a lot of ways,

and they were not really able
to show their whole authentic self

which created in them secrets.

All the fun can go out of your life.

So it's no surprise that people
would become addicted.

Not a surprise!

All of the stories about
The Prince And The Showgirl

focus on Marilyn's difficulties

and the difficulty of her very
toxic relationship with Olivier.

Clearly, her addictions were
a problem for her and for the set -

but she wasn't incapacitated.

People who worked with her

spoke about the smart notes
that she would give

after watching the dailies

where she said very specific things
that she wasn't happy with, and why.

They were emblematic of
a woman who knew her craft

and knew exactly what she wanted
and exactly what she needed.

Before she finishes filming,

Marilyn comes face-to-face
with real royalty...

..but behind the smiles,

she fears the worst
for her production company.

During the making of
Prince And The Showgirl,

things were not going well
for the production company

or for the partners.

When Marilyn views
the first cut of the film,

she thinks it's slow and tedious.

She blames co-producer
Milton Greene.

She decided she was going to take
control of the production herself.

She didn't know what to do
with Milton. She loved him,

but she didn't know what
to do with him. She was embarrassed.

Marilyn had one last meeting
with Milton Greene

and it was heartbreaking.
They were both sobbing.

It was very disheartening for him

because he thought they were going
to make wonderful movies together.

These two human beings loved movies.

When the film premieres in New York,
Milton is nowhere to be seen.

It was over.

We had a life to live.

Marilyn was,
as her story always shows,

pretty clearly somebody
who looked forward rather than back.

In the summer of 1957, Marilyn's
only concern is her family.

She embraced her marriage in
a way that she'd never done before.

My father Sam was shooting
a lot during that period.

When they were in Amagansett,
those photographs

of Marilyn on the beach...
Very playful.

She adored him.

She discovers that she's pregnant,
and she is ecstatic about it.

She wanted to be a mom.
I think she wanted to love a baby.

I think she wanted to move forward
with her life

out of just being this poster girl

and being a woman who chooses to be
a mother, chooses a family.

She loved children.
I mean, the way she treated us,

I think she would have been
a great mother.

But on August 1st 1957,

Marilyn collapses and is
rushed to a Manhattan hospital.

She'd not only lost her baby,
she almost lost her own life.

She's released from the hospital

to a whole battery of reporters
and media.

She was very, very ill indeed.

And yet she somehow had to
turn it on for the cameras.

There is something so
predatory-feeling about paparazzi.

She was that famous that
you would expect that attention,

but it's still really sad it had
to be there in her darkest moments.

It is just so heartbreaking
to see someone

who's really trying to
put on a brave face

with this tremendously
painful moment

that leads her to feel like
a failure...

..because in the 1950s
you were still considered

to be not fully fulfilled
unless you had a child.

On the heels of her loss,
Marilyn faces another struggle.

They needed money, so it was
time for her to return to work.

Taking time out from a high-profile
career remains risky today,

and it was even riskier
in the '50s.

There was always the chance
that her popularity

was going to pass her by, that she
would hit an expiration date.

In March 1958, an intriguing new
project lands on Marilyn's desk.

She absolutely knew a good script
when she read one

and particularly
a very funny script.

She had a sense of what was
going to be box office gold

and she knew that
she could perform that role.

Some Like It Hot

remains one of her finest
performances.

Anyone can play a ditz
but to play one that you love...

..that, to me, takes
a talent that cannot be taught,

and she had that in spades.

There was no-one else like her.

And the moment you put her
in front of the camera,

it's like watching magic.

Next, on the final episode of
Reframed: Marilyn Monroe...

She does not feel seen
or understood by her husband,

the person who's supposed
to know her best.

In the middle of production,
Marilyn takes off to New York.

She had a date with the President.

I think she was playing with him,
but it was certainly brave.

Marilyn said, you know,

"Splish-splash, this would make
some interesting pictures."

Stripping down
and being absolutely naked,

it's really pushing the envelope.