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The Technicolor quality & clarity of all the movies are worth the price of admission. This 6 DVD set allows us into the hey day of Hollywood with Marilyn becoming the most celebrated star of her era. These movies are all upbeat musicals (Theres No Business Like Show Business & Gentlemen Prefer Blondes - Monroe & Jane Russell were honored & immortalized at Graumans Chinese Theatre (foot & handprints) for there success in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes.) or comedies (How to Marry a Millionaire, Seven Year Itch (the famous subway grate dress scene), Bus Stop, & Something's Got to Give (her final incomplete film restored and edited for our enjoyment (40mins)).

Marilyn was captured on film forever but now her true beauty & talent explode off the screen with these restored beauties.

This collection has the beauty, the vulneribilty and talent of Marilyn Monroe. These DVD's are the best sampling of Marilyn's eternal stardom, total audience appeal & obsession with her.

MM is totally delightful in all these upbeat color filled movies. She always steals the scenes, lights up the screen & audiences always want more of Marilyn.

She can act (comedy & drama), dance, sing & win our hearts.

If you have ever wondered about this Hollywood phenomenon you can now see for yourself the true talent & beauty of Marilyn Monroe. There are many extras but the movies are the candy. So sit back and enjoy this Diamond Collection of this legendary star immortalized forever on these DVD's.

14 of 14 found the following review helpful:

Warning!...Intoxicating Six Pack!....You May Smile Forever!Apr 28, 2003
By L. Shirley "Laurie's Boomer Views"
This review refers to the "Marilyn Monroe-Diamond Collection" DVD Collectors Edition(20th Cent Fox)...

Okay you've been warned. If you watch these films back to back your mouth muscles will tire from smiling so much! They are, like Marilyn herself, simply irresistable. They are also jammed packed with lots of other wonderful stars, fabulous music, snappy dialouge, and they are restored beautifully in the original widescreen and glorious technicolor.The set includes five fun films from the 50's, a captivating documentary, and an edited, reconstructed version of her final but unfinished project.

You'll find Marilyn and pals Lauren Bacall and Betty Grable foraging for rich husbands in "How To Marry A Millionaire"(1953). The men they set their caps for include David Wayne, Rory Calhoun, Cameron Mitchell and even William Powell.
Marilyn and Jane Russell sail for France and declare "Diamonds Are A Girls Best Friend" in the delightful romp "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes"(1953). This one co-stars the wonderful Charles Coburn.
Next up from 1954 Marilyn shares the spolight in "There's No Business Like Show Business" with Ethel Merman, Donald O'Connor and Mitzi Gaynor. This one will delight musical lovers with it's lavish song and dance numbers, and wait till you see some of Marilyn's outfits!
Even happily married Tom Ewell is not safe from Marilyn's charms in "The Seven Year Itch". The wife's away for the summer and poor Tom must find a way to cool off poor Marilyn from the hot weather! Hmmm....Delightful....and of course, this one has the famous skirt scene.
Can a girl with a past and a naive rancher find love? It's a pleasure finding out in this poignant tale of "Bus Stop"(1956). it also stars Don Murray, Arthur O'connell, Betty Field, Eileen Heckart and a very young Hope Lange. Marilyn shows us her tremendous dramtic skills in this one.
And then there's the very touching "Marilyn Monroe: The Final Days". Narrated by James Cobourn, it's an open and honest look at what took place in the last few months of Marilyn's life, and the problems she was having while filming her final film. Immeditaley following the documentary there is an edited, reconstruction of the scenes shot for the film. This film, also starring Dean Martin, "Something's Got To Give", which was to be a remake of the Grant/Dunne film "My Favorite Wife", finally saw an audience as "Move Over Darling" with James Garner and Doris Day.

If you are a Big Fan of MM or are considering this as a gift for some who is, this set is definatly the way to go. If you are like me, you know that eventually you will put out the money for all of them anyway!. Also I did not see "The Final Days" for sale separatly. This boxed set is an absolute bargain!. All the films look fabulous. All wonderfully restored. Each Disc has it's own bonus features, including comparisons of the restoration, and some theatrical trailers. There is a "Movietone Newsreel" relating to the cinemascope process on the documentary disc. The technical info here says that these discs are in 5.1, and although the sound on all the discs is excellent, they are not 5.1. Bus Stop, Millionaire and Show Business are all in 4.0, Seven Yr Itch is in 3.0, and Gentlemen in Stereo and full frame.That is what they say on the box and that is exactly how my DVD player decoded them. As I said they sound wonderful, but I thought I would mention that for those that it may make a difference to.

20th Century has put together a wonderful must have package, that you'll enjoy time and time again....enjoy ...Laurie

P.S. - check around for best deal. here is another place to look:Marilyn Monroe: Diamond Collection

9 of 9 found the following review helpful:

A Class ActJul 19, 2001
By Allen Smalling "Constant Reader,"
There's an awful lot to gain and little to lose for the Marilyn Monroe fan who invests in this groundbreaking DVD series of movies she made in the Fifties for 20th Century-Fox. Even people who have one or two of these movies "in the can" in previous DVD or VHS might still consider this a worthwhile collection.

Picture quality is astonishing. The people who carried out the restoration and video remastering aren't afraid to talk about it, too, because each disc has a few technical notes after the movie ends. This technology didn't even exist just a few years back. The technical notes compare the new DVD with a prior restoration (noticeable difference) and with the originally-released VHS (puts VHS to shame). By and large the color is magnificent, stable and true. If there is any tendency, it is to go with flesh tones, to understate the color with a champagne tone. The exception to this is "Bus Stop," which used three-strip Technicolor. The magenta strip had shrunk and so that element of the three-strip process had to be restored FRAME BY FRAME! Extraordinary.

As owner of an old-fasioned "mono" TV, I do sometimes have trouble with the sound. You may remember that when musical CD's were brand new, they drove people crazy with overexaggerated dynamics. Something of the same thing is at work here: get the volume up high enough to hear people speak and the music--particularly incidental music--can blast you though the sofa. Solution: fiddle with the options given you. I usually do best to turn off the Surround 5.1 and go with ordinary stereo or whatever the film originally used. The "bear trap" scene in "How to Marry a Millionaire" was not looped, it was zone-miked (and not terribly well) and I had so much trouble with that I had to turn on the closed-captioning. And no, I'm not a deaf person in denial.

In my opinion, all these films are terrific, with one exception: "There's No Business Like Show Business." I can't analyze why, because it isn't a matter of salaciousness, dirty words or bad taste, but to me that movie epitomizes vulgarity. Everything else is terrific.

Not to be missed is a documentary, "The Final Days." The first half details Marilyn's contribution to her last motion picture, "Something's Got to Give," with Dean Martin and Cyd Charisse. As the whole world knows, the film ceased production when Marilyn died from overdosing on alcohol and pills. On a lighter note, the preservationists followed this sad account with a "tag" version of the first two acts of "Something's Got to Give," and it was shaping up to be quite a good movie. (Movie buffs can also tell which director was at work in which scene: Jean Negulesco, who loved to fill the Cinemascope canvas; or George Cukor, who preferred classic mise en scene.)

But--don't overlook the central fact that "Marilyn Monroe--The Diamond Collection" is the ultimate in new technology and most of the best of her work assembled. It belongs in any fan's home.

11 of 12 found the following review helpful:

Five out of six ain't bad.Apr 17, 2002
By Farrell Mc Nulty
This set, for the most part, is an absolute dream. Monroe really shines in the SEVEN YEAR ITCH, BUS STOP, HOW TO MARRY A MILLIONAIRE, and GENTLEMEN PREFER BLONDES. The runt of the litter is, of course, THERE'S NO BUSINESS LIKE SHOW BUSINESS. Come on, guys, what the hell were you thinking? With LET'S MAKE LOVE, DON'T BOTHER TO KNOCK and NIAGARA, a predominantly Ethel Merman movie with cameos by Monroe was chosen for the Diamond Collection? I hated that movie. It was mostly Ethel Merman not being able to shut up even if her life depended on it. NIAGARA not on DVD - what's that about? But, moving on, THE FINAL DAYS was the clincher, an unedited, uninterrupted version of the great American Movie Classics documentary. When I watched this last June, I thought it would be interesting to see the lost footage. My God, I had no idea how great she was all this time. "Something's Got to Give" would have been a smash if finished and released. Monroe's scenes are very poignant and very funny. I loved her first scene coming home for the first time in 5 years. This was Marilyn Monroe as she had never been seen before. It would've been great. Buy this set - pretend THERE'S NO BUSINESS LIKE SHOW BUSINESS isn't in the box. In its place, rent THE MISFITS or SOME LIKE IT HOT.

7 of 8 found the following review helpful:

Don't Fall In Love With A Dead WomanNov 30, 2004
By Bob Lockett "Lockett, Stockett and Barrel"
I'll confine this review to the disc,"Marilyn Monroe: The Final Days", which does not seem to be available elsewise in the United States. That said...

James Ellroy fans (and homicide cops) will tell you: Don't fall in love with a dead woman. It's an occupational hazard of theirs, and they know it well; it leads to heartbreak, ulcers, early retirement, or eating a hollowpoint. This DVD may present you with a bit of insight-maybe a little more than you have in mind-as to this state of affairs.

"Something's Got To Give", a remake of a story as old as silent theatrical film, was to have been a quick and profitable moneymaking project for 20th-Century Fox, who were in serious economic straits over the massively overbudget production of 'Cleopatra". It starred Marilyn Monroe, Cyd Charisse, and Dean Martin, and became a quagmire of its own due to problems with Marilyn and director George Cukor. Eventually MM was fired, Dean Martin refused to work with her replacement Lee Remick, MM rehired and production rescheduled when Marilyn was found dead at her house, 8/05/1962. Of course that ended the movie: its footage was put in a vault, essentially unmolested for forty years.

In 1999, American Movie Classics paid to have the extant footage built out as far as it would go, making a release that is in essence an abruptly ending 37 minutes of what would have been a roughly 90 minute film. The film quality is superb and the scenes marvelous, including the famous swimming pool sequence which would have been the first nude scene in an American theatrical release, at least since the days of the Hays code (as it turns out that honor went to MM emulator Jayne Mansfield in 1963's 'Promises,Promises'.)

There's the tough part. Marilyn Monroe, at the age of 35, is in the best shape of her life and is absolutely magnificent in this footage. When the film ends abruptly and rolls memoriam credits-as if on a Moviola-you are seeing her on the last theatrical film shot of her in her life, the last day of her career, June 1, 1962. Her thirty-sixth birthday.

Nine weeks later, she was dead.

I'll spare the details, except to say that I've never met a ME or homicide officer who thinks it was suicide (and I deal with police officers and departments for a living.) If thinking about her doesn't bother you a little, you may be missing something. I can't put it any other way. If you're a lukewarm MM fan, you might really not want to watch this, because the game isn't necessarily worth the candle. If you don't get her at all, think you're 'stone to the bone'. or are a serious fan wanting to see all there is of Marilyn, this DVD will likely be one of the most important you have ever watched.

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