11 essential Marilyn Monroe films and why you should watch them, according to an expert

June 2026 marks 100 years since the birth of one of the most iconic figures ever to grace the big screen: Marilyn Monroe.

More than 60 years after her tragic death, the star remains one of the most recognised figures in the world. Her image is still used as a shorthand for old-school Hollywood glamour, while numerous books, documentaries and films continue to be released about her life and career.

But there can sometimes be a feeling that the iconography of Monroe – and the gossip surrounding various scandals in her personal life that still commands so much discussion – has come to unfairly overshadow her incredible talent.

This is something which a new BFI season curated by its lead programmer and film expert Kim Sheehan hopes to put right.

Titled Marilyn Monroe: Self Made Star, the season – which runs throughout June and July – showcases a huge range of Monroe's films, including both well-known classics and under-seen gems, alongside various events, documentaries and talks.

Speaking to Radio Times about the season, Sheehan admitted the process of curation was both an exciting and daunting one, but she quickly realised there was an important story she wanted to tell which "cuts through the iconography and the commodification of her image".

"She always wanted to improve herself as a performer," Sheehan explained. "She studied acting, famously in New York, but also prior to that earlier in her career, and was always wanting to better herself.

"And she was also a trailblazer behind the camera as well. She was the first woman to set up a production company since the silent era. She went on strike – which is a really brave thing to do when she was at the height of her career – and Fox were throwing script after script at her, wanting her to do more musical comedies.

"But she didn't like the parts and she was going to be paid a third of the amount of Frank Sinatra. She protested against that stuff, and that was really ahead of its time. And I think if she was given more time, she would have moved into writing. I think she would have been a trailblazer elsewhere.

"So it felt like going back to Marilyn, seeing this amazing woman behind the camera, what a sort of strong, hard-working woman she was. But also going back to the performances on screen and reminding ourselves she was dynamite."

With that in mind we asked Sheehan for her picks of some of the essential films that are featured in the season (although it's worth noting she added "they're all my babies") and Monroe's exceptional performances in them.

Read below for 10 essential Marilyn Monroe films – with expertise from Sheehan explaining what makes each of these films so ripe for revisiting.

1. The Misfits (1961)

Monroe's final completed film – and also the last appearance of Clark Gable, who died before the release – is this downbeat Western from John Huston.

She stars as a 30-year-old divorcee who drifts into the orbit of three misfits including Gable's ageing cowboy and Montgomery Clift's thrill-seeking rodeo rider, all of whom are desperate to find meaning in their lives.

What Kim Sheehan says: "I think it is one of her best, if not her best performance. I think it shows the potential that she had if she kept going, that she's really pulling into dramatic performance, which is something she always wanted to do. It's really pulling into some vulnerable parts of her own life. I think she was sort of digging into her personal life to bring that performance onto the screen.

"It was written by Arthur Miller, who was her husband at the time, and it was supposed to be a gift for her because she wasn't getting these dramatic roles in Hollywood. And he was like, 'Here, I've given you this gift.' And then it turned out to be a hell of a gift, because their marriage fell apart during the production, and it was really stressful, and she found it very difficult.

"And it's a film where I think the context in which it was made becomes the text, in a way. The film captures this sort of horrible, fraught energy that was around when they were making it. And I think it's so important to her story, because this is one of her greatest performances, but also she was doing it in such a turbulent time in her life.

"And it feels like it goes against the common image. People think of her as, like, bubbly, fun, comedy humour – which is great, she's so great at that stuff – but she was also a talented dramatic performer, and this film shows just the tip of the iceberg of what she could have been doing if she'd carried on for a few years."

2. Some Like It Hot (1959)

One of Monroe's most iconic roles, Billy Wilder's classic is often cited as one of the finest comedies ever made.

She plays Sugar Kane, the singer in an all-female band who meets and befriends Daphne (Jack Lemmon) and Josephine (Tony Curtis) – two men who have disguised themselves as women to escape the mob – leading to all sorts of complicated shenanigans.

What Kim Sheehan says: "She's brilliant in it, but also it's very much about her chemistry with Jack Lemmon. And obviously Billy Wilder films are just fantastic.

"She won a Golden Globe for that part as well. So I think it has a special meaning because it was a role where people really started to recognise her talent. It's interesting because we think of her as iconic, we think of her as a triple threat, and we enjoy these films now, but actually on release, people were scathing about her performances sometimes.

"They distilled it to 'she's just a fun, frothy blonde, and this isn't a challenge,' or 'she's not doing anything more than something two dimensional.' But I think Some Like It Hot gave her some more room. It isn't a two-dimensional part. She gets to do comedy. There's a sense of pathos.

"I think she's the emotional anchor in the film. You know, everyone's delivering broad, broad performances. She does too, but she kind of carries the emotional anchor that brings the story together."

3. Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953)

Another truly classic Monroe performance, this musical comedy from legendary director Howard Hawks sees Marilyn and Jane Russell play two showgirls travelling to Paris on a cruise liner – and having plenty of fun along the way.

What Kim Sheehan says: "If you only ever watch one Marilyn Monroe film, it should probably be Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. It is an absolutely brilliant film. So funny, amazing songs, she's great in it.

"I think it's the one I'd recommend first because it's really broad and accessible. It's a fun, easy storyline. She's playing a fun character with Jane Russell – who's also dynamite – and they're women who maybe you'd say are unlucky in love. But Jane Russell's looking for a good time, and Marilyn's looking for a financial time.

"And that's a funny sort of foil, and just a setup to begin with. And it's a farce, there's misunderstandings and slapstick things that go on. And I think it's just accessible, because, as I said, it's a simple story. it's really fun, and the songs are great, and it's uplifting."

4. Ladies of the Chorus (1948)

Monroe had her first leading role in this low-budget musical romance – playing the daughter of a former burlesque queen who becomes involved with a prestigious producer when she discovers his success and wealth.

What Kim Sheehan says: "I'd also love to pull people towards a film that she made very, very early in her career, called Ladies of the Chorus. It was a B-movie, a very cheap movie. It's barely an hour long. It was something that was created to sort of play with another film rather cheaply. And it's her first leading role.

"She's very young when she's in it, but it is a role that foreshadows Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, because she's playing a showgirl. So she sings in it, she dances. And there's a storyline that's going on stage and behind the stage. And she's very good in it, but she's also a young performer. You can see where she perhaps is nervous and holding back and finding her feet.

"And it's amazing to think she made this film only five years before Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, and to see the difference and the evolution of her as a performer. And it's also seeing her very young with darker hair, with a different voice. You see how she built her Marilyn persona out there."

5. Niagara (1953)

This noir thriller sees Monroe take on a femme fatale role – playing a young woman who is plotting to murder her husband and run away with her secret lover while she is holidaying in Niagara Falls.

What Kim Sheehan says: "It's just a great, fun film. It's a sort of thriller noir, and she plays a femme fatale, and she's so good at it, she is so beautiful and conniving and absolutely manipulating all the men around her in the film. It's really fun to watch her firing on all cylinders in a role that she's particularly well suited to play.

"And seeing something like Niagara on a technicolor print, the colour is incredible. Seeing some of the famous sequences, like when she walks away from the couple in this famous walk and the way that she's carrying herself. It's so controlled and sexy, and you can really appreciate that in a different way when you see it on the big screen."

6. Don't Bother to Knock (1952)

Monroe stars opposite Richard Widmark in this psychological thriller. She plays a live-in babysitter at a New York hotel, who begins to unravel while being pursued by an airline pilot who is staying as a guest.

What Kim Sheehan says: "Don't Bother to Knock is terrific. She's plays a mentally unraveling babysitter, and it's an interesting performance.

"When people think about the sort of things that Marilyn Monroe is best known for, and then you find these things earlier in her filmography where she is doing something different – seeing the sort of emotion that she brings to that performance, the way that she uses her facial expressions, and how she carries her body and how she moves through the scenes in that film.

"Because it sort of unfolds that we're with that character, we know that she's unraveling, but there are other characters who don't know her, and they just see this pretty woman. So she has to communicate so much in her performance to us as the audience, and I think she's terrific in that.

"And it's also just a fun, sort of campy thrill of a film."

7. The Prince and the Showgirl (1957)

Monroe and Laurence Olivier play unlikely lovers in this romantic comedy; he is Charles, the Prince Regent of fictional Balkan state Carpathia, and she is Elsie Marina, the showgirl with whom he becomes smitten.

What Kim Sheehan says: "The Prince and the Showgirl is also a film that's really interesting to watch. She's playing opposite Laurence Olivier and it was the first film she made under her production company – so that is also sort of an important milestone in her career.

"But her and Laurence Olivier famously didn't get on because they came from two different worlds. He was a man of the theatre who was very serious. And she was the biggest celebrity in Hollywood in that time. And they have very different performance styles.

"And I think the film was a very fun and interesting watch, because he is there on stage playing for the people at the back – a very sort of restrained performance, I'd say a very serious performance. And Marilyn makes it look easy, she's really frothy and bubbly, and she's just such a natural.

"But seeing them together with those two different acting styles, it feeds into the characters in that film, because he's this prince regent and she's a fun showgirl. So although I think in the production they were really struggling, it kind of plays out on screen. It really works for the characters."

8. Clash by Night (1952)

This film noir from Fritz Lang is led by Barbara Stanwyck – who plays an embittered woman who is seeking escape from her marriage – but there's a key supporting role for Monroe.

What Kim Sheehan says: "She's the third billing behind Barbara Stanwyck, but it's a really important role. It's a role before she really established her breathy, sexy Marilyn Monroe voice as well. And it's interesting to see how she was evolving as a performer and evolving her persona.

"It's a Fritz Lang film. I think it's really interesting, because the part she's playing, I think mirrors her life a little bit. She's playing a young woman who is negotiating the evolving gender roles in the 1950s, so she wants to be independent but there's also conflict in that – if she gets married, there's security there, and that's her only option for security in many ways because she's a factory worker.

"And Barbara Stanwyck, in that film, has the same journey, and I think it's a really interesting film. It definitely has aged and has some issues that don't feel contemporary, but it feels like a really curious snapshot in time. And then the fact that she was drawn to a role like that I think mirrors the sort of struggle she had in her own life.

"Also it was a film she made when the nude calendar scandal came about. And I think it's interesting to look at that performance and those themes when she was negotiating something like that in her personal life. And she's also very good in it!"

9. Marilyn on Marilyn (2001)

This 2001 documentary consists of audio from the two major interviews Monroe gave to the press during her lifetime, in addition to previously unseen footage of her from before she became a megastar.

What Kim Sheehan says: "We're showing a double bill [of documentaries] called Marilyn: In Her Own Words. What they have in common is... it's Marilyn's own words. She did two major interviews in her life, with Marie Claire France and Life magazine. And they were recorded interviews. They obviously came out in print at the time, but they were recorded and transcribed.

"So both of these documentaries use those recordings. And one of the documentaries, Marilyn on Marilyn, was made in 2001 and at the time it featured what was newly discovered footage of her when she was a teenager. What I like about these documentaries is that they use snippets from those interviews to hear Marilyn's perspective.

"Both of those interviews were her reflecting back on her career and also her childhood. So we're hearing it from her. You know, so many documentaries are made that sort of dip into the JFK relationship and scandal, or dip into her marriages or dip into her use of drugs.

"Whereas these documentaries, you're hearing her voice, a natural voice, and her saying, 'This is why I love the movies. I went to the cinema as a child. This is what my childhood was like. It was really tough. This is what I was thinking when I was making these films.' And it feels like for a woman whose voice has perhaps gotten lost by the amount of documentaries that have been made, it's taking us back."

10. Bus Stop (1956)

This drama sees Monroe play a cafe singer named Cherie who attracts the affections of a travelling cowboy but rejects his advances, only for him to force her onto the bus back to his home in Montana. However, an unscheduled stop allows her to turn the situation around.

What Kim Sheehan says: "That was a film that she made after she renegotiated her contract and she wanted to take on different roles. And that was a film where she does a different accent.

"It's one where she's not glamorous. She's wearing really ill-fitting make-up because she's playing a sort of washed up character who never quite made it as a star."

11. All About Eve (1950)

One of the most iconic films ever made – but one in which Monroe's own part is relatively small, before her career had really taken off.

Joseph L Mankiewicz's film stars Bette Davis as Margo, an established theatre actress – whose new personal assistant Eve (Anne Baxter) is desperate to take over her career.

What Kim Sheehan says: "She's only in two scenes of that film. It feels like she's in it much more and she's a much more major character – because of the impact that she has."

Marilyn Monroe: Self Made Star runs at the BFI from 1 June - 31 July 2026.

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