How to Marry a Millionaire (1953)

This movie starts off with an orchestra playing on and on and on so long at least 10 minutes that I thought something was wrong and I started to fast forward the thing....then when the credits finally rolled I thought I had missed a key part of the beginning plot..I wondered how Bacall came to rent an expensively furnished penthouse apartment? as a sublet?? Turns out there is no detailed explanation. She rents an apartment calls Monroe who has another friend and the 3 get on with their business of finding millionaire husbands. There is no background to their friendship etc... it just happens.

In 1953 when this film was made, Monroe is 26 Bacall is 29 and Grable 39. (Assuming you believe the Hollywood statistics.) Like another reviewer stated Bacall has this curiously old persona (he used the word "ageless"...one could have believed her older than Grable in fact I found myself studying her face finding it hard to believe she was under 30. She also monopolizes every scene in a bitchy way that no one could possibly find sympathetic or appealing. I guess this was to show she was the brains of the operation. One thing I noted Bacall didn't need to insure her rather hefty legs for 1 million (like Grable supposedly did.)

Monroe has some innocent charm and Grable is sort of the Betty White from Golden Girls...with Bacall being the Maude.

I may have smiled at a couple of Bacall's cynical lines but she is too harsh in the movie. Monroe was sort of funny in the Magoo role but most of this movie is not funny at all and you begin to tire of it towards the end wondering how long you are going to have to endure it.

It also seems chopped up, the male characters become mixed up....what was the fashion show all about? If you are in to period female costume extravagance this movie will work for you. Maybe it had to do with the new color cinema-scope they were using....thinking clothing in all its colors was a great way to show off its features??? Here is an oddity that truly had to be for the wide cinemascope features...all the doors in the apartment are double wide and opened from a nob in the middle (trivia).

Don't really recommend it. The characters are not likable at all. The plot is idiotic and full of holes. Humor mostly missing.

Forget all romance and character development which this thing pretends to have.

Brainless... The sets are almost entirely glossy set ups that prefer to look artistic rather than real.

AVOID

Fmovies: This movie is great. I don't care what people say about it, you can't deny that it is very entertaining! I really don't know what goes through peoples minds when they say Betty Grable wasn't good in this movie, or was too old for the part. I can't imagine the story without her to make it what it is. I personally thought she looked the same age as her co-stars, and not a bit older.

Lauren Bacall was perfect for her role, and as always, so was Marilyn Monroe as another dumb blonde character. But I hate when most people think that just because she portrayed a ditzy girl, that it means she was like that in real life too - SHE WASN'T! Marilyn Monroe was an intelligent natural dark-brown haired brunette.

Anyway, HOW TO MARRY A MILLIONAIRE is really good in my opinion, and anyone that is a Monroe, Bacall or Grable fan absolutely MUST see it! I personally am a HUGE Marilyn Monroe fan, and enjoyed this movie as much as her others.

The storyline was great, and it had some very funny moments. I give this movie 9.5/10, losing a half-mark only because of the extreamly prolonged and unnecessary musical feature at the beginning, which makes you lose interest and want to fast forward 5 minutes worth of inactive classical music. An overall fabulous movie.

I enjoyed this cute story of gold-diggers on the prowl. I agree with those who said that musical prologue was way too long -- it was eight minutes before the opening credits came on! This seemed the perfect setting for Marilyn Monroe to sing "Diamonds are a Girl's Best Friend," but that gem was in another of her films. I don't agree with those who said Betty Grable was too old for her part. She merely *looked* old. I tried to figure out why. She was only 35 years old. She was still slim (possibly even slimmer than Lauren Bacall, who'd recently had her second child) and her face looked relatively youthful. So why did she look 45? I concluded it was the hair. That poodle cut was unflattering and added years. I also enjoyed Grable's coy reference to real-life husband Harry James and Bacall's to Bogart. All in all, a charming movie and a fun way to spend an hour and a half.

How to Marry a Millionaire fmovies. How to Marry a Millionaire is one of the brightest and wittiest comedies of the fifties and certainly quite an eyeful when you've got three leads of the caliber of Lauren Bacall, Marilyn Monroe, and Betty Grable.

These three lovely girls, following the cue from Lauren Bacall, chip in and get a long term lease on a swank apartment where the owner has had to leave the country because of income tax problems. The post World War II years saw a lot of that happening. The idea is to set up a mantrap, put up a good front in the hopes of attracting men with wealth. And all three come up with men of all varieties.

Betty unfortunately takes up with the already married, but not working at it too hard Fred Clark. His plans for a romantic getaway with her are spoiled by her coming down with an adult case of the measles and Grable catching sight of Forest Ranger Rory Calhoun. You will love the way the scheming Fred Clark gets nailed.

Marilyn meets up with David Wayne, the guy whose apartment the women have taken over. In Marilyn fashion she gets on the wrong plane with Wayne, thinking it was Atlantic City instead of Kansas City.

And Bacall the most determined of all to marry a millionaire. She has her choice between elderly sophisticated William Powell and earnest young Cameron Mitchell.

The irony of this film is that all three women set out to trap a bankroll, yet all three fall for people themselves. No telling what fate has in store for you.

How to Marry a Millionaire is the next to last film of William Powell and his first after leaving his long term contract at MGM. He's the picture of elegance and sophistication. Listening to every line from his mouth is a joy.

Nunnally Johnson's screenplay and Jean Negulesco's direction make How to Marry a Millionaire one of the best films of the Fifties. Catch those lines referring to the celebrity husbands of Bacall and Grable.

This entertaining film has the three girls (Pola, played by Marilyn Monroe in specs; Schatze, played by Lauren Bacall and looking rather mumsy; and Loco, played by Betty Grable with those fabulous legs) setting up shop in an apartment, ready to reel in wealthy husbands.

The boys in question include David Wayne, Rory Calhoun, Cameron Mitchell, William Powell, and Alex D'Arcy. Trying to figure out the scheming girls is hard for them, especially when the girls are going all out to hide their real personalities!

This glitzy fluff is enlivened by real-life in-jokes - Betty Grable doesn't recognise a Harry James record (she was married to him at the time), and Lauren Bacall says she's mad about 'that old man in The African Queen'(real-life husband Bogart of course). Bacall comes out best of the girls although Monroe is always worth watching and Grable was effective decoration even towards the end of her career, as she was here (having been on screen for over twenty years at this point - her first appearance was in her teens in 'Hold 'Em Jail', I think).

I just had a wonderful opportunity to catch a screening of this film on a wide screen. What a treat!

Unfortunately, it wasn't the best print; lots of dust and scratches on reel changes, and the colors were quite faded, but these films simply must be seen on a wide screen with an audience to be truly appreciated. Of course, almost any movie is improved by seeing it at the Castro Theatre in San Francisco, and I consider myself fortunate to have had the opportunity.

Lauren Bacall has always been one of my favorite actors, and she and Powell do work wonderfully together. Monroe is also, always a delight - I think that she was a much better actress than she is generally given credit for. However, though I've seen this movie close to a dozen times before, I was really struck at the wonderful performance that Grable turned in. She was perfect! I haven't seen much of her other work, but in HTMAM, she shows herself to be a wonderful comedic actress, playing a "dim blonde" who really isn't that dim. What a revelation and what a delight.

I would definitely recommend this movie to anyone who likes old movies, but if you have a chance to catch it on a real movie screen - DO SO! You won't be disappointed.