Ray Cutler (Max Showalter) and Polly (Jean Peters) are on their way across the Canadian border to finally get around to a long-delayed honeymoon. He is a well-regarded marketing executive, and she is his willful wife who is happy to finally be spending some time with him. They have decided to have a few days to themselves under the shadow of Niagara Falls, which they both claim has been a location they have been clamouring to visit. However, almost immediately, they sense something is amiss, starting with their cabin at a local resort being occupied by the previous tenants. Not only is this an inconvenience to them, it also proves to be a cause for concern when it becomes clear that this isn’t just a case of a delayed departure, but rather something more sinister. George Loomis (Joseph Cotten) and his wife, Rose (Marilyn Monroe) have spent some time there, but rather than simply being a couple on an exotic getaway, they’re instead trying to resolve some issues in their marriage. It doesn’t help that Rose is secretly trying to dispose of her meddling, psychologically-disturbed husband, choosing this location as a place to commit the murder with her boyfriend (Richard Allan), knowing that getting rid of the body will be extremely easy with the deadly rapids being more than enough to convince the authorities to the fact that it was merely an accident, preventing all suspicion, or at least according to their intentions. Their plan doesn’t come to fruition, and the likeable couple they come to know prove to be obstacles to the plan, especially the very perceptive Polly, who spots a malicious plot from quite a distance. Suddenly, the two couples are thrown into disarray, and with murder lingering in the atmosphere, it’s not long before there is some serious trouble brewing under the beauty of the rushing waters.

It’s certainly a delightful experience to come across a film that pays tribute to a particular genre, but still finds a way to reinvent it in its own way. When it comes to the heyday of film noir, we tend to imagine smoke-filled rooms, foreboding alleyways and intimidating cityscapes – all normally captured by the beauty of black-and-white cinematography. It’s not a prerequisite for a classic noir to follow these conventions, but it is at the very least ingrained in their tradition. Therefore, it only makes sense that any lover of the genre will stop and look at Henry Hathaway’s ambitious Niagara and be utterly engrossed by how he managed to redefine the genre without changing too much about what makes it compelling. The dimly-city cities are replaced by the shadow of Niagara Falls, with the action taking place in broad daylight, amongst the crowds – all of it filmed in absolutely gorgeous Technicolor. Added to this, Niagara occurred in the same year that Marilyn Monroe finally broke out as a commercially-strong performer, with this forming the first in a trio of compelling films that performed well at the box-office, were critically-revered and remain adored to this day (the other two being How to Marry a Millionaire and Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, both of which are inarguably better-remembered than this one, even though there are certainly a fair amount of devotees to the present film today). Niagara is a terrific film, a simple but captivating crime drama that hits all of the necessary targets, and leaves us reeling in wonder at how Hathaway managed to do so much with such a relatively paltry premise, and the constraints of a location-based story that could’ve easily have fallen apart from the outset, but instead builds itself up as something thoroughly compelling, and quintessentially entertaining in every conceivable way, even if it may come across as somewhat bleak at times.

Reading of the production history of Niagara, it becomes clear that this is one of the many films that came about as a result of a single idea that may not have had a particularly strong basis other than being of interest to someone in the inception phase, from which an entire story is spun, from a process of layering narrative and thematic concepts onto the original idea. In this case, screenwriter Charles Brackett was intending to write a screenplay centred on the famed waterfalls referenced in the title, a location normally romanticized as being a beloved holiday destination for many occupants of North America. Working with co-screenwriters, the cast and a range of executives, Brackett and Hathaway crafted a film that went in an entirely different direction, being an astoundingly complex crime thriller that finds creative ways to use its setting, repurposing it as a location of criminal behaviour and intrigue, one which would keep the viewer on the edge of their seat, but also provide a very thrilling story that would stand the test of time. Interestingly, Niagara Falls isn’t shown as something to be feared – despite its enormous size (and the fact that the film does exceptionally well in showing how this seemingly-idyllic locale could easily become the scene of horrifying actions), the film’s use of the setting is far more focused on the characters and their intentions for being there at that particular place and time. The gorgeous cinematography by Joseph MacDonald manages to only further prove the majesty of the gorge and its waterfalls, making it both terrifying and alluring, which is certainly not an easy task in any way, and helps calibrate this film to occupy a very specific place in terms of how it addresses some very complex themes that tend to make film noir a genre of considerable interest.

Niagara is a simple film, but an effective one, and it never attempts to be anything more. By the standards of the genre, it never quite abandons the more common tropes associated with film noir, following all the constraints perfectly, and only deviating in terms of specific superficial elements, such as the stunning Technicolor photography, and the setting being one that has yet to be the site of such twisted, dark storytelling. Yet, it still has a spark of genius that works incredibly well – it never runs too long (clocking in at a mere 87 minutes, it’s an absolute breeze to get through), and it keeps us thoroughly engaged and fully attentive to the different avenues this story traverses. It doesn’t always live up to some of the classic conventions, but it makes up for this in how it promises something slightly different – and when dealing with a genre that can be truly predictable, there’s a certain appreciation that tends to be directed towards films that deviate enough from tradition to stand on their own as unique works of profoundly moving storytelling. It rises to the occasion and gives us something entertaining and encapsulating, and when taken alongside the solid performances and well-composed script, its difficult to see why Niagara is anything other than a complete and unrestrained success in many different ways.