Jerry Oster of the New York Daily News gave the film half of a star and called it a "vulgar ripoff", adding that "Missy, who bears a startling resemblance to a department store mannikin—and acts no better—has been put through her paces by an unknown named Larry Buchanan, who produced, co-authored and directed this clap-trap, thus assuring continued anonymity.
"[5] Vincent Canby of The New York Times called it "a terrible, witless, schlocky movie that Norma Jean Baker might have made in her desperation to be somebody.
"[1] Jeanne Miller of the San Francisco Examiner called the film "a tawdry and repellent portrait of one of the screen's most alluring tragic heroines.
"[7] George Anderson of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette called it "a woefully inept little movie" that "paints another moustache on the death mask of Marilyn Monroe.
Tim Radford of The Guardian wrote that "the film more or less begins with a rape, peaks on a lesbian seduction and fades out on an all too explicit reference to fellatio, leaving (as it were) a very nasty taste in the mouth.
"[12] Romola Costantino of The Sun-Herald called the film "a shabby, unconvincing picture" that "has the kind of sloppy story line typical to cheap girly-pictures lots of pointless un-dressed-to-panties scenes, and a series of lecherous assaults' upon the heroine's virtue.
"[13] Colin Bennett of The Age wrote that the movie, "monotonously plugging away at its one-track-mind notion of 1940s Hollywood as one giant casting couch [...] cheaply plots the rise and rise of Norma Jean Baker from Miss Whamo-Ammo beauty contestant to platinumed pouting star" with "not much else to commend it except Misty Rowe, who works hard, does a passable baby-voice and finally turns into a good facsimile of the actress as remembered on screen."