The Death of Marilyn Monroe: Images of Her Last Unfinished Film

Find out about Marilyn Monroe’s latest film since Les Désaxés and why it never got released.

Something’s Got to Give is the story of Ellen Arden, who returns home five years after she disappeared during one of her travels. After being declared legally dead, her husband Nick has remarried, but Ellen is determined to win him back. The film was to be a remake of the comedy My Favorite Wife (1940), starring Irene Dunne and Cary Grant, adapted from Alfred Tennyson’s 1864 poem.

After more than a year off the set, Marilyn has to answer to James Garner, but she finally got the big break. In addition, it does not suit him and he is replaced by Dean Martin, whom he knows well, and both were filmed under the direction of George Cukor, who had already directed the actor in 1960’s The Billionaire. Arnold Shulman directs. A scenario that does not complete when the footage is run.

Since the first day of filming on April 23, 1962, Marilyn has been absent. He recently underwent an operation on the gall bladder and lost 11 kilos, the actor is neither physically nor mentally fit. Not very confident on set, the star also has health issues including bronchitis and chronic sinusitis.

Merlin is very little present in the first month of filming, with Cukor pretty much canned scenes with Dean Martin and/or Sid Charis, who plays Nick’s character’s new wife. The shooting requires a 10-day delay, which a priori declares the budget overrun.

Among the scenes filmed by Marilyn, one remained famous: in the swimming pool, in which she appears only in flesh-colored bikini bottoms and, therefore, breasts, which would have been the first if the film had been completed. A star in the history of cinema. It’s finally Jane Mansfield who will bring back that historic distinction in Promises! Promises! (1963).

To help a weakened Marilyn, the script is unfinished, dialogue and scenes are changed overnight, and the actress struggles to remember her lines. Her edgy presence on set endeared her to producer Henry Weinstein and Cukor, who fired her from the film on June 8, 1962.

First of all, Something’s Got to Give had to be released by Christmas to compensate for the pharaonic budget of Cleopatra with Elizabeth Taylor, which was way behind schedule and especially with the demands of its main star. At the end of the day, no project that moves forward, even a small one in terms of budget, is instantly abandoned. Except that Dean Martin, who is contractually allowed to choose a female partner, refuses to finish the film without Marilyn.

The studio is deadlocked and chooses to renegotiate with the actor. He returns to finish Something’s Got to Give, $500,000 ($4.9 million in 2022) of $100,000, with a bonus if filming is completed on time, and promises to make the next feature, Madame Croque-maris, for another $500,000.

Marilyn asks Cukor to leave in favor of Jean Negulesco, with whom she worked on the movie How to Marry a Millionaire. The end of filming has been postponed until October.

But on August 4, 1962, Marilyn was found dead in her home. He was 36 years old.

Twentieth Century Fox decides to reboot Something’s Got to Give with a new cast. A film released in 1963 called Push yourself, darling, starring Doris Day, James Garner (still available) and Polly Bergen. As for the Madame Croque-Marie project, Shirley MacLaine ends up doing it opposite Paul Newman, Gene Kelly, Robert Mitchum, Dick Van Dyke and … Dean Martin.

In 1990, Fox broadcast footage of Something’s Got to Give in the documentary Marilyn: Something’s Got to Give, followed by Marilyn Monroe: The Final Days, which aired in 2001.