Marilyn Monroe plays Rose Loomis, a young woman plotting to kill her husband and run off with a younger man, in this crime thriller which is one of the actor’s more serious roles.

Monroe is full-on femme fatale, but the ticks and mannerisms that make her such an effective comedy actor work less well here. She’s still good but it’s easy to see why her comedies are the works she’s best known for.

The backdrop of Niagara Falls is an impressive one, and provides for some excellent set pieces, as well as the constant sound of rushing water, which will be a disappointment to the small bladdered community.

If someone had told me Niagara was made by Alfred Hitchcock I would have believed them as it has a number of his hallmarks: a well-known leading lady, a twisting thriller plot and an epic landmark as its backdrop. But while plot-wise it’s not far from Vertigo, it was impressively made five years before.

The intriguing script, well directed by Henry Hathaway, represents a solid addition to the Monroe canon.