"Marilyn Monroe: Still Life," Jan. 30, PBS

NEW YORK (CNS) -- When a 20-foot cutout of Marilyn Monroe -- in her trademark upswept-dress pose from "The Seven Year Itch" -- loomed over Broadway's Times Square in 1955, the Legion of Decency wanted it taken down.

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The anecdote may be apocryphal, but it's included in "Marilyn Monroe: Still Life," filmmaker Gail Levin's unique spin on the life of Hollywood's most iconic sex symbol. It will be rerun as part of the "American Masters" series on Wednesday, Jan. 30, 10-11 p.m. EST on PBS (check local listings).

The story of the bit player who became more famous than she could have dreamed, with husbands and lovers from the world of sports, the arts and politics, has been recounted endlessly. While other documentaries have explored the films in which she starred, no one has looked at her work in front of the still lens, a body of work -- in hindsight -- as significant as her movies.

Even in repose, she was a mercurial presence able to convey endless emotional variety in her poses, and it is suggested she was actually more herself in front of the still camera. The luminosity of the photographs, with their often aching vulnerability, is striking.

Levin's artsy, impressionistic approach sometimes gets in the way of her storytelling. But there's plenty of substance here, including perceptive interviews with photographers Eve Arnold, Arnold Newman, Elliott Erwitt, George Zimbel and Phil Stern, along with writers Norman Mailer and Gloria Steinem. Most of them are remarkably consistent in their view of Monroe as an unpretentious, chameleonlike but deeply troubled young woman. The shots of her in deep conversation with Carl Sandburg, for instance, reflect the depth of that anguish.

"Still Life" focuses largely on her lengthy period in New York when, determined to become a better actress, she enrolled in the Actor's Studio. Candid shots of Monroe anonymously walking the streets, including a couple of extraordinary, rare images that show her pregnant by then-husband Arthur Miller (she'd later miscarry), or listening raptly to an Actor's Studio lecture as an audience member, are fascinating.

The photographers were to a person, it seems, completely smitten with her. Even Steinem acknowledges that while Monroe was a creation of male moviegoers, photographers and filmmakers, women ultimately came to identify with her. And though one doesn't think of Monroe as a feminist, it's clear from all the work shown here, that she was the one in control. Her early, pre-fame nude calendar was later published by Hugh Hefner -- who here, as might be expected, extols Monroe's lack of embarrassment.

Of interest are several audio excerpts from a late-period interview with Monroe. It's a revelation to hear her everyday speaking voice, quite different from her on-screen breathiness.

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There are sprinkled throughout the hour some highfalutin musings on Monroe's mystique ("the very Stradivarius of sex," she's called at one point), and some of Mailer's comments, much like his gushing writings about the lady, are way over the top. He unashamedly admits -- tongue only partly in cheek -- that he had hoped to steal her away from Miller!

Nearly all the actual photographs shown are decorous, except for a couple of fleeting nude images. Those and the mild sexual references restrict this otherwise serious-minded film to adults.

"Marilyn Monroe: Still Life" is rated TV-PG/S -- parental guidance suggested, some sexual situations.

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Copyright (c) 2007 Catholic News Service/U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops