>> she had agency, she was hungry for more creative challenges. >> she had a lot of strength.

along with vulnerability. >> discipline. >> she stood up to the old hollywood guard. she said i'm not going to take it anymore. >> up until the day she died she was a fighter. >> get out of here. >> of course, early death is a tragedy, but that doesn't overwrite everything that she achieved up until that point. she became the biggest movie star in the world. and she remains one of the most famous instantly recognizable women in history. >> excited fans gather on a san diego beach to watch marilyn munro shoot her first film in two years.

>> billy wilder director in some like it hot, which is, arguably, her greatest role. she is incredible what she does with that. >> on paper, the role of sugarcane is very much an archetype of a dumb blonde. >> i come from this musical family, my mother is a piano teacher, my father is a conductor. >> what did he conduct? >> the baltimore, ohio. >> this woman is so dumb that she doesn't even realize that her two best friends are men in drag. >> i'm not very bright, i guess. >> marilyn transforms this very two dimensional character to a three-dimensional woman. >> they are borrowing money, and betting on horses. >> marilyn munro was able to make her character so relatable even though they were sort of vapid. you could identify with them.

>> by this time, in her career, marilyn was always making suggestions, and it is said she suggested that there be a blast of steam, as she came out on the train station. >> the fact that she asks wilder to shoot steam at her in the seven year itch is very interesting. >> did you feel the breeze in the subway? >> it shows that marilyn has a very self-aware image. >> the last thing you ever here is that marilyn contributed to the comedic genius of billy wilder. she is never given credit for being deliberately funny. >> billy wilder was not the easiest of directors. he just wanted the actors to do what he wanted them to do, but marilyn was a perfectionist. she wanted many takes, and she would just ruin a taker she didn't like what had been done.

her style of acting didn't go well with the highly efficient, time driven, money driven studio. and bill wilder aimlessly said it was . >> this was not cheap, even in those days. she cuss like $20,000. so you just say, my god, my god, who is going to have a nervous breakdown? me or the moneyman? >> i cannot help but think about the ways that men are allowed to have a lot of leeway on certain ways women aren't. >> it is the way in which we talked about, well, this male actor is passionate. he is a method actor, and this actress is just a crazy onset. and i've heard that time and time again. and that is gendered.

>> three, four, five, six. >> as ever, the story is more complicated than the versions we get. and when she was happy with the way that the scene was being interpreted and felt like she was being listened to, she was delivering scenes with perfect comic timing. >> look. if you are interested in whether i am married or not-- >> oh, i'm not interested at all. >> well, not. >> that's very interesting. >> when i knew i had the final shots it was a moment of, never again. well, all i can tell you is if marilyn was around today i would be on my knees, please, let's do it again. >> despite the problems onset, some like it hot is a huge hit for the studio >> people really responded to it, some people think it is the greatest comedy of all time, and if ever she was full of life in a film, and seemed completely at ease in her skin, it is this one.

>> but for marilyn, the film's success comes at a time of personal tragedy. >> i want to be loved by you, nobody else but you. ♪. >> it turns out, marilyn was pregnant while filming onset, which the people did not know. she actually miscarried after the film wrapped. >> i want to be kissed by you, just you. ♪ >> a few years earlier she suffered an up talking pregnancy, and her dreams of motherhood were dashed. >> so, when she saw herself on screen, thinking back to how she was pregnant and all of those things, it must have been extremely hurtful for her. >> i want to be loved by you. ♪ ♪ >> marilyn had to suffer that

pain in the public eye, she had newspapers and journalists all gossiping about it. >> to be reading about her miscarriages, and her difficulties, that must have been very, very trying for her. >> the misogyny is absolutely astounding. there was a sense that she was a failure, because she couldn't have children. this is a story that is all too familiar to women everywhere. >> but marilyn forges ahead. she is set to star in a major hollywood film, written by her husband, arthur miller. >> the misfits had been conceived as arthur miller's valentine to marilyn, this gift of love, from her genius play right husband, and finally, she

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all while staying on track to reduce our carbon emissions intensity in the area. because it's only human to tackle the challenges of today to help ensure a brighter tomorrow. closed captioning is brought you by sketchers go long pants. marilyn and arthur arrive in reno to begin filming the misfits. >> the misfits is written by maryland's husband, arthur miller. it's supposed to be able to

really show off how far she has come. >> i came to work on "the misfits", and i was delighted to meet arthur miller, i was an admirer of his work. and the story cass, and marilyn seemed very sweet, tim was friendly with all of the rest of the cast. >> i would like you to meet a friend of mine. >> the coup de grace was clark gable. he was one of her idols when she was a child. she likes to imagine that he was her father. she didn't know her father was, so why not clark gable? >> well, what you do with yourself? >> the story a is of roslyn, played by munro, who goes to reno for a divorce. >> i've never had anybody. here i am. >> the film was inspired, when arthur miller was in reno, getting his divorce, so he

couldn't mary maryland. >> he even called the character roslyn, that he sees marilyn in this way. >> i don't mind that. >> but the changed her relationship. >> he's doing rewrites on the set, and she usually presented the way he presented the character. seems to change from being a celebration of everything that he loved about marilyn to a parody that showed the content he had started to form for his wife. >> we are all dying, aren't we? >> rosalind is not very white, bright, and she is just this body who runs around hugging trees and hugging men. >> it is more than a professional disappointment for marilyn, it is also a

disappointing one, because she's does not feel seen or understood by her husband, the person who is supposed to know her best. >> come, i want to show you the rest. >> there is a scene where there is a locker room door open, and it has pictures from early in her career, and what the script makes marilyn do is shut the door on those pictures. >> how do you like it? oh, don't look at those, they are nothing, i just hung them up as a joke. >> her husband has are saying that she is a joke. >> come on, let's have lots of drinks. >> when everything that she had been fighting for was specifically to be taken seriously. >> marilyn becomes frustrated with this role. her addiction to barbiturates and to alcohol is becoming a problem on the set. >> she was always on sleeping pills at night. the pills were to wake up. and it was getting worse and

worse. everyone making the movie falls into two camps who went around marilyn, one around arthur. eventually he moves out of her suite to another suite. >> the first time i think i knew the relationship with marilyn and arthur was difficult was when arthur said to me one day, well, can i come in the car with you and john? and then, going home, can i come back in the car? so, well, you know, they, different times, true, but it was every day. >> you can see something die! >> miller seems to have been mining their lives together for a lot of their material, and some of the characters are speaking for him. >> she's crazy. they are all crazy. you try not to believe it, because you need them. >> he starts talking about women as them, and men as you. >> you struggle, you build, you

try, you turn yourself inside out for them, but it is never enough. >> and she said to think arthur did this to me, and at that point the marriage became irretrievably over. >> i pity you! >> she experienced these miscarriages during her marriage to arthur. and now her third marriage had ended in divorce, and it was a very bleak. >> after the divorce she has a very bad nervous breakdown, and her psychiatrist felt that she needed to be put in the hospital to be revitalized and taken off drugs. marilyn voluntarily went to a hospital, thinking she was going to get some therapy and some care. >> imagine being in the early

60s, you are a woman, one of the most famous and recognizable people on the planet. i think her decision to ask for help shows a tremendous strength and self-awareness within her. the problem, of course, is sometimes the help you get is not the help you need. >> she checks into payne whitney, and she was basically locked into a violent psychiatric ward. and she was constrained, against her will, for 3 days, treated as a violent patient. >> she is locked into a room, and she yells and screams. >> it was such a harrowing experience for her. she was so isolated, so alone. >> all of that was compounded by her very real fear that her mother's mental illness was heritable, and she might have it as well. >> and this made it seem like her worst nightmare was coming true. and she would do anything to

get out. >> early in her career, she had played a psychotic babysitter, of all things. and when the payne whitney episode happened, it took her back to that performance. she said she actually put on a show for them. >> you don't want to do that. >> she thought of this scene that she filmed, in "some like it hot" three. she got a piece of glass and threatened to harm herself. >> give it to me. >> they expected her to be crazy, so she acted crazy so that she could get their attention and get them to listen to her. >> you are going to a hospital now. >>.back there. >> here in new york, we are going to help you. >> eventually she gets into columbia-presbyterian, which was a hospital that had a drug

withdrawal clinic. >> after three weeks there, marilyn leaves. >> marilyn was a fighter. she fell and got up again. and she kept dusting herself off and starting over again. use your vision benefits before they expire. visionworks. see the difference.

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marilyn really wanted to settle down and plant roots. she set out and found this home in brentwood. this was like a new beginning for her. it was a fresh start. it was a modest home for a movie star. it had an inscription on the floor of the entrance that said this is my journey's end. >> it was very unusual, even at that point, for a woman herself to buy a home alone, so marilyn really is showing a good deal of independence, by buying that home.

>> it has been over an year since marilyn wrapped her last film, when fox calls her back to set. >> contractually, marilyn munro owed fox a movie, so she signed up to be the lead in a comedy called "something's got to give". >> this is her first mature role, and marilyn is playing someone who has responsibility for someone else. she is a mother. >> come here. >> why? >> i want to hug you. >> me too! >> in "something's got to give" i think you do see a maternal aspect, which is completely unexpected. >> it naturally brings a certain softness. you can't help but wonder what could have been. and i'm sure i'm not the only one to have thought that whilst watching those scenes. >> i start like --

>> going into the movie she wasn't in the best of health at all. >> really? >> she had colds and sinusitis and was dependent on prescribed medication. >> marilyn was at a really intriguing turning point. she is still hungry for more creative fulfillment, but she is also still struggling with mental health issues that make it very difficult for her to show up on time. >> the studio dr. had wanted the film production to be delayed a little bit, but 20th century fox were going through big problems at the time, with their own finances, so they just wanted it over and done with. >> here's the special event of the year, a first in television history. >> during the 1960s, the film studios were really competing with the rise in popularity of television, and one way to get

people into the movie theaters was to produce these huge, big- budget epics, with incredible costumes, and so much luxury that you had to see it on the biggest screen possible. >> and by that time "something's got to give" is being made, they are working on their biggest productions ever, which was "cleopatra" . >> marilyn and elizabeth taylor has been set up as rivals, elizabeth taylor was getting paid 10 times what marilyn munro was getting paid. >> it is absolutely disastrous shoot. elizabeth taylor is sick, they have to tear down expensive sets and rebuild them. >> hello, miss taylor, how are you? >> i feel a little bit week, thank you. >> as a result, they had to shut down all reductions except "cleopatra" and "something's got to give", and the financial well-being of the studio was effectively on marilyn's shoulders. >> are you going to stay long?

>> i don't know yet. would you like me to? >> but in the middle of production on "something's got to give", marilyn takes off to new york. she had a date with the president. he was having a big birthday party at madison square garden. >> the president is winding up his new york day, here at madison square garden, in a sort of pre-birthday celebration. >> a lot of very famous performers were singing, and dancing. >> she asks permission from the studio to go off, but because of the production delays, the studio said she could not go. >> she was furious, because in her view a star of her stature at the right to say that she was going to go to this for a couple of days, they were just going to have to deal with it. >> marilyn has spent weeks rehearsing for the event.

it was a really big deal. and she prepared so much for that brief performance. >> marilyn had an association with president kennedy, and it links together politics and hollywood. and john f. kennedy's presidency was very much a hollywood presidency. >> mr. president, on this occasion of your birthday, this lovely lady is not only but punctual. >> i think the whole world knew that there was a relationship between marilyn monroe and the president of the united states. it was show business, and it was secretive. >> mr. president, marilyn munro. >> that night, the whole madison square garden sat there, in all, waiting for this princess of motion picture industry, and the president.

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>> i remember, her hair was very exaggerated. she was almost like a cartoon of herself. >> mr. president, the late marilyn monroe. >> and then there is this body. inside this sheath, and it is just like, oh my god. oh my god. >> i was honored when they asked me to appear at madison square garden. you know? a little worried about my voice, but it came out. but still, i do know this too, i can't forget the words happy birthday, it's always been happy birthday. >> the ♪ ♪ happy birthday to you. happy birthday to you. ♪ happy birthday, mr. president

, happy birthday to you. ♪ ♪ >> it is very , and incredibly powerful overt sexuality in the 1960s would be seen by many, many people as being just utterly inappropriate, truly inappropriate. >> ♪ mr. president, for all of the things you have done. ♪ >> that song is very deliberately a performance. marilyn performing marilyn. >> ♪ we thank you so much. ♪ everybody! happy birthday. >> i definitely think marilyn was trying to send a message to the powers that be at 20th century fox. her performance was a way of highlighting her own power, in

a way that says i don't need you, you guys need me. >> ladies and gentlemen, the president of the united states. >> when she sang happy birthday, i do remember watching that and being very amused by it. i think she was playing with him, but it was certainly brave. >> i can now retire from politics after having had happy birthday son to me. >> the standard take on the aftermath is that jfk was publicly embarrassed, and that he dumped her. the story continues, she was heartbroken, calling him every t , that she wasn't in love with him, and that she wasn't forlorn, but we insist on seeing marilyn as a passive

victim of the men around her. nobody can seem to imagine a different version of the story, that she was a 36-year-old woman, who clearly had a very pragmatic attitude toward sex, and that she could be getting a kick out of sleeping with the most powerful man in the world. >> but marilyn's trip spells disaster with her relationship with fox. the studio files a breach of contract against her. >> i think there is a sense that going to madison square garden was her resting too much control from the studios, instead of sitting back and doing what she was told. >> what happens after is just a sign of the industry's inability to handle a good thing when they have it. >> back in l.a., marilyn has devised a plan to remind the studio of who they are dealing with. she enlists the help of photographer, lawrence schilling.

>> i went out to her home in brentwood, and we started to go through the script. and there is this scene, where she is in a swimming pool, and dean martin is looking at her from the balcony. >> get out of there! >> and maryland said, splash, splash, this would make some interesting pictures. >> i said, oh, yeah, no question about it. and she says, larry, what if i have to jump in the swimming pool with my bathing suit, nude color, but came out with nothing on? she wanted those pictures as publicity to show 20th century fox that she was as popular as liz taylor, who was on the cover of every magazine in the world. >> hey, it's cool here.

>> i had two cameras on my neck, maybe three, and maryland said, look, in between each of the takes i will do the posing, because marilyn would look at where my camera was, look at the wide, and turn her body. she knew exactly what to do. >> is a superstar, being on a film set, and just stripping down and being absolutely naked at that stature, at that level, highly unusual. it is beyond titillation. it is really pushing the envelope. i was born here, i'm from here, and i'm never leaving here. i'm a new york hotel. yeah, i'm tall. 563 feet and 2 inches.

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closed captioning is brought to you by sketchers go walk pants. marilyn had approval of my photographs, so she knew more about photography than most photographers that ever photographed her. and just as i am driving in, she's about ready to drive out in a convertible, and she says, hop in, and hands me a bottle of don perry own perry own. i popped the cork, and she takes it, full bottle right then. let me see the pictures? she takes the pictures and she is holding them up to the streetlights. and then she takes out a pair of painting shoes and she goes, zip, and my heart drops and she looks at more, cuts right

through the image. all of the pieces that she's cutting are going on the floor of the car, and i'm grabbing them and putting them back. and then i'm looking over and i'm saying, you know, she's pretty good at editing. but that is how marilyn monroe edited my color pictures. so you might see some transparencies that survived, marilyn monroe looking at a t bird, at a spotlight. >> i was afraid you would misunderstand about that. >> what is to misunderstand? >> on the set of "something's got to give" marilyn's relationship with the studio goes from bad to worse. >> can we start again? >> they say that she is uncooperative, and caused costly delays, and tried to dismiss her as temperamental star, who overplayed her hand. >> all you can think about is the way i behaved with this poor little-- okay.

>> this poor little fly. >> the studio was looking at what is happening on the set. >> sorry, george, but we can do it. >> and they are saying, you know what? we are not going to make it here. >> that was good though. >> and we are going to lose money, and they pulled the plug. they just pulled the plug. >> the studio had fired her. they made marilyn take the fall, instead of saying we can't afford to keep this going, because "cleopatra" is costing a fortune, they said it is because she is an adult mess, and the footage is unusable, nobody can ever work with her again. and that is it. >> it is shocking that they would let her go, because marilyn was the biggest star at the time. even if they didn't want to admit that. >> two weeks after she is fired,

the sensational photos of marilyn hit news stands. >> the public reaction was just overwhelming. i call her on the phone and say perry is running the covered six pages. germany is going to run a cover in three pages, and every time i get on the phone, her voice would go up another octave, because she was achieving what she wanted to achieve. and that was worldwide notoriety. her weapon was her body. her weapon was this incredible face. her weapon was to knock liz taylor and everybody else off of the cover. >> it is absolutely stunning that she pulled off what she did, really being smarter than the managers she had. she really knew what she needed to do better than other people did. >> would you like to drink? >> no. >> oh, have a little. >> that summer, marilyn invites life magazine journalists, and

photographer, alan grant, to her home for an exclusive interview. >> i think richard miriam interview is her chance to control the narrative and appeal to her fans, who had been a loyal to her. >> disillusioned, the way the industry treats these stars. i mean, the things they said about me. they never lost sight, to discipline or be disciplined. >> she talks about herself being really undermined by hollywood, and badly treated by hollywood. >> you have a code? how dare you have a code, executives can get a code, forever, how dare you get a cold. >> there is an extraordinary moment, where marilyn says, somewhat thoughtlessly, how do

you crank yourself up for performance? and it really clearly strikes a nerve. >> i don't crank anything, you know? i'm not a model t. you know, i don't crank. i don't know. i think it's disrespectful to refer to it that way. we are not machines, no matter how much they want to say we are, we are not. >> she was so bold, she was so honest. i mean, that was really an act of bravery, to say i am a human being, with integrity and artistry, and i must insist that to you. >> as the interview draws to a close, marilyn makes a final request of merriman. >> i hope you got everything here, but please don't make me look like a joke. >> it is just so sad that after all of this years of being this leading lady, this major force in american cinema, that she has to beg a journalist not to make a journalist make her look like a joke.

>> a few days later, marilyn is called to a meeting at 20th century fox. >> films always cost more than i expect. >> after a six-year absence, darrell is returning as the studio's president. >> he takes one look and says you guys are crazy, marilyn is the one who is going to make you money, so he reinstates marilyn. >> it is ironic that someone who is so opposed to her career at the very beginning now really saw what kind of a goldmine he had, in marilyn monroe. >> when fox rehired marilyn, she showed them who was in charge. she had finally forced them to accept her value, they rehired her at a million-dollar contract, and that contract has to have meant more to her professionally than any other victory that she achieved. she had been vindicated, she made them eat her words.

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i had a dream about marilyn. and she was in terrible pain. and i woke up and i said to milton, "you better go to beverly hills." he says, "what, are you crazy? i'm packing up to go to paris." but she was a good friend. i said, "listen to me. i dream about something, and it happens." always, my whole life. "she needs you, she doesn't have anybody." he said, "okay, i'll call." he called. he said to her, "amy had a dream." she laughed, ha ha. and they spoke on the phone for three hours. he was going to fly to beverly hills. fine. and she died. >> about 5:30 in the morning, i get a phone call.

marilyn monroe died last night. i said, "don't give me that," hung up the phone. i'd seen marilyn just hours earlier. >> she was found dead early this mor morning, an empty bottle found on the table -- >> then i turned on the television and there it was on the news. i went to the house. there was a couple of police officers there. reporters. only one or two photographers. the word hadn't gotten out yet. i had a camera with me, by i didn't know what to photograph. you photographed somebody alive, and now they're dead. >> it appears to be one of nature's strange turns that beautiful women with the world at their feet often feel unloved, inadequate. >> i can remember th

this was massive. marilyn is dead. and i remember they showed the bed they found her in. >> after she died, there was this kind of glamorizing of her dead body and the sexualization of her corpse to a really extreme degree. >> she was face-down, covered only by a sheet, her hand on the phone. >> it's like this woman was never allowed to just be a human being. she had to be an object of desire for everyone and everything, even in death. >> a simple chapel saw only 23 of marilyn monroe's closest friends and acquaintances inside. >> there's this sort of performative memorial that happens in which everyone then is so sad, and how could it have happened? and yet no one in our culture is able to look inward and say, oh, i was part of the problem. >> the official cause of death

is barbiturate overdose. >> we thought she was murdered. everybody thought she was murdered. everybody. all kinds of conspiracy theories came out. this is the '60s. we don't believe it because we don't believe what they tell us. >> it was a mistake. nobody gave -- i mean -- don't go there. nobody -- the cubans weren't there, the kennedys weren't there, everybody that is supposed to have killed her, never happened. it was a mistake. she took the damn sleeping pills, then she forgot she took them, so she took more. that's how it happens. >> a month before her death, marilyn met her friend, photographer george barris, for

a photo shoot. >> they're very beautiful. i love these. >> these pictures reflect the old marilyn. someone you could talk to. someone who is accessible. >> it's like you're seeing her soul, in a way. she's just looking right at the camera. and, you know, it's like -- it's like she's looking at you. >> marilyn monroe, the person, is gone. the image is not gone, and it will never be gone. her legacy is defined more by the images we see of her, by her

career, than anything else, despite the tragedies of her life. she's up there as fresh and new and wonderful as she ever was. >> marilyn monroe is a mirror for people's ideas about women's sexuality and women's power. about whether beautiful women can be intelligent. whether women have agency in their own careers. >> how are they supposed to be treated as equals? how are they supposed to be respected? those are questions that most women, if not all women, are still struggling with, and marilyn monroe is the symbol of all of that. >> if she were alive today, i think she would have been on the front lines with a lot of activists and organizers, and she would have become a very big voice in the "me too" movement.

>> she was so limited by the public's gaze of who she really was and what she was capable of. but she broke all of these barriers. she became the biggest actress in the world. and the biggest cultural icon of the 20th century. i mean, she really was truly extraordinary. >> with the sun setting and one shot of film left in the camera, marilyn turns to george. "this is for you." >> you do miss sometimes just being able to be completely yourself and someplace and people just know you as another human being. hello and welcome to our viewers joining us from the united states and all around the world.

i'm laila