Marilyn Times Five (1973) Poster

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6/10
To Monroe or not to Monroe?
mrdonleone1 May 2008
Warning: Spoilers
What do we see in this picture? Nothing. But I'm not going to write down what we do see, because that would ruin the movie experience totally.

Monroe, or someone who looks like Monroe, is shown here in the erotic images that made quite a scandal in the time they were filmed. But scandal or no scandal, I guess every man adored these images in that time. Nowadays, we don't need soft erotic images. Our society is changed so much that we have to see full frontal nudity to be excited. I'm telling you this because I was a bit bored when I saw 'Marilyn Times Five'.

Another thing: what's the title about? We see Monroe in different camera angels, but is that all there is to make a movie? On the background we here Monroe's 'I'm Through with Love'. The first time you hear it, you think it's a beautiful picture. The images and the music, that's fantastic.

But then the song is done. It's true, every song has got an ending. But a few seconds after the song, we hear the same song over and over again! That's pretty dumb, if you ask me. Monroe had lots of songs, why always that song? When the third song (still the same song) started, I didn't want to watch anymore. Perhaps it's really superb when you hear the same song five times in a row, but I don't see the beauty of it. But art can be strange, so watch it if you want to see it.

I gave this experimental movie 6 points.
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Wasn't sure what to think of it
TJ13801 February 2006
I saw this in a film class yesterday and really didn't know what to think of it. Somehow it managed to be intriguing to me, so I decided to look it up on this site just for the hell of it. Since nobody else has commented on it, I figured I would make the first (and probably only) comment.

Basically, this very avant-garde consists of very repetitive footage of Marilyn Monroe from a stag film she made before she was famous set to what seems to be a continuous loop of the song "I'm Through with Love" from "Some Like it Hot." That's pretty much it. No plot, no dialog, just brief glimpses of a nearly-naked Marilyn Monroe (I say "brief glimpses" because the screen is, more often than not, black) and a song that is repeated so many times it's guaranteed to drive anyone completely insane. In a way, it's almost an anti-porn film; Marilyn Monroe is still considered to be one of the most beautiful and sexy women in the history of Hollywood, so I would imagine a lot of guys would've loved to see her naked. Needless to say, that's exactly what we get here, yet it's's presented in a fashion that is so mind-numbingly repetitive and devoid of all other content that after awhile I just wanted it to end. As sexy as Monroe was, this movie ceases to be sexy before too long, and I think that's what is supposed to happen.

This is indeed a very strange and almost maddening film, but I can definitely see what the filmmaker was trying to do.
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4/10
3 times may have been enough Warning: Spoilers
"Marilyn Times Five" is a 13-minute black-and-white short film from 1973, so this one is already over 40 years old as well. Mariyln had already been dead for a decade when Bruce Conner made this little film and it is basically 5 times the same in here. At some point, it did a get repetitive, even if you have to give Conner a thumbs-up for this statement pro-women and against their exploitation in Hollywood. But maybe another approach would have been better. I have seen some stuff from him and I guess he had the necessary talent and creativity to make a bigger impact than he did with this film here. This also shows that it is nowhere near his most known works, which is disappointing as it is such a controversial topic. All in all, I only recommend this one to huge Conner or Monroe fans. Everybody else can skip it.
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8/10
Marilyn Times Five (experimental feminism)
safelylu7 May 2014
Warning: Spoilers
A commentary on the destructive expectations of females in a male dominated society, Marilyn Times Five was made from an old stag film called "The Apple-Knockers, and the Coke"(1948) these sections of the film were set to Marilyn Monroe's song "I'm Through With Love". The film depicts a Marilyn Monroe look-a-like slowly taking her clothes off for the camera (the viewer). The woman's actions are looped several times which gives the audience a sensation of exhaustion. That exhaustion keeps building until the very end where the woman is shown crumpled on the floor in an awkward position, which makes it appear as if she is lifeless.
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Arline Hunter as Marilyn Monroe
zvinci16 February 2006
Marilyn Times Five, otherwise known as "The Apple-Knockers, and Coke" was purported to have been recorded in the mid to late 1940s and was NOT Marilyn Monroe, but rather a Monroe contemporary and Playboy's Miss August 1954, Arline Hunter (sometimes credited as Arlene Hunter). She bears a striking resemblance to a young Monroe, but alas has a chipped front tooth and much larger breasts. It is sometimes hard for people to believe it is not Marilyn, for Miss Hunter does a great impersonation indeed. Not much is known about Arline Hunter except that she was a popular pin-up in the late 1940s through the early 1960s, always close to a dead ringer for Monroe. She recorded various B-films throughout the 1950s including "Sex Kittens Go To College" also starring Mamie Van Doren and others like "The Angry Red Planet" and "Big Daddy". Perhaps her biggest B-film was Ron Ormond's "White Lightnin' Road" in 1965.

As far as Marilyn Times Five is concerned, it is an amazing piece of American "cinema" which both fooled and fascinated many for quite a long time. Hunter has the innocence of a young Monroe and the looks to back it up, if only her anatomy was not so exaggerated. Bottom Line: Marilyn Times Five is a propaganda film with an underground lookalike.
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