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How To Marry A Millionaire

How To Marry A Millionaire

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Bacall steals the show!
Review: Ok, so it is not a movie from which I will learn a whole lot from. However, if one likes older movies and wants to have fun then one should watch this one, i.e., How to Marry a Millionaire VHS ~ Lauren Bacall. Not finding Monroe to be all that beautifull; I instead directed my attention to that of Bacall and she is stunning. The story focuses on three women, Bacall, Monroe and Grable whom all want to marry a millionaire. The comedy is well time, the lines are silly yet effective and the comedy goes of without a hitch. Highly Recommended.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Second Cinemascope film and Monroe's 20th
Review: Set mostly in the urban jungle of New York, How To Marry A Millionaire was Marilyn Monroe's 20th film, and despite her sharing starring roles with veterans Lauren Bacall and Betty Grable, she evolved more compared to her previous hit, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes.

Schotzie Page (Bacall), Pola Debevoise (Monroe), and Loco Dempsey (Grable) are three models who live in an expensive penthouse apartment. Their master plan, engineered by Schotzie, is to snag classy-looking people who wear neckties and to get nobody under six figures a year. The apartment is to keep up appearances. Appearances? Within three months, DISappearances is what happens, especially to the furniture.

The men they meet are a mixed bag. Tom Brookman likes Schotzie, but with the way he dresses, which isn't that bad, she thinks he's a common gas pump jockey. J.D. Handley is a middle-aged widowed Texan millionaire who's charming and polite in a smooth but humble way. Schotzie falls for him. Waldo Brewster is an uptight square who's married and complains about his family, but that doesn't stop him from snagging Loco. The two deserve each other, as he bellyaches while she whines. Pola ends up with J. Stewart Merrill, who's quite the fashion victim with that jewelled eyepatch of his.

The fashion show segment is a highlight, seeing the fashions of the 1950's. Of the three, Pola's red outfit is striking. And of the dreams the three have, Loco's is the funniest compared to the other two's.

As for the women trio, Lauren Bacall (Schotzie), Marilyn Monroe (Pola), and Betty Grable (Loco) do well, though Bacall is the character we see struggling to overcome her pride and thus the most interesting one. Monroe plays the nearsighted Pola with laughs, as we see her bumping into things when she refuses to wear her glasses in front of men. She's the most lovable of the three. In fact, her scene with David Wayne aboard the plane is my favourite in the whole movie. And actually, she does look cool with glasses.

Speaking of which, this was Wayne's fourth and last film with Monroe. He plays Freddie Denmark, the owner of the apartment the trio are living in. Two other stars deserve honorable mention. It's quite a sight to see the 50's blonde beauty queen starring opposite her predecessor of the 1940's, Betty Grable, who in a modelling sequence, briefly strikes a pose reminiscent of her famous pinup. And William Powell (Handley) in his penultimate film plays his role with a quiet dignity of a man in his years looking for emotional fulfillment.

A film injoke occurs when Schotzie says she likes older men, listing Roosevelt, Churchill, and "whatsisname in African Queen" The joke is that Lauren Bacall IS married to Humphrey Bogart. Another is when Loco hears the radio and thinks Harry James is playing. James was of course Betty Grable's husband at the time.

There are two Movietone newsreels here, one for the premiere of this movie, the other for the sneak preview of The Seven Year Itch.

This remake of The Greeks Had A Word For Them was the second movie filmed in CinemaScope, the new 2.35:1 widescreen process pioneered by Henri Chretien, the first one being The Robe. Hopefully, Chretien got to see this movie before his death in 1956. The opening number "Street Scene" is a six-minute orchestral prelude that served no other purpose than to show off stereophonic sound.

This is a slightly better gold-digging manhunter movie than Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, as the message comes through that money doesn't necessarily buy you happiness, even though it doesn't automatically depress one either. However, Handley says it best when he says "there's only one cure for loneliness--human companionship."

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: BETTY GRABLE RULES O.K.
Review: So this is 1953, Marilyn is sleeping her way to the top,Bacall han,t had a hit for years, and Betty Grable is tumbling from the top , oh dear! wot shall we do?,well Darryl lets put them altogether in a movie,right?!, so Grable gets top billing (its in her contract)she,s been the number one moneymaker for donkeys years , Marilyn hungry for fame,and a friend of spyros skorous so she gets a part, Bacall is out of work and works cheap so she gets a part, Grable contract gives her the top wage as she,s always had for years so tum tee tum we make the movie.at the end of filming Grable tears up her contract in Zanucks face and walks out.well were left with the top money maker after the robe, Monroe gets a bigger head, Bacall gets not much more work, Grable heads to Columbia for "Three For The Show" getting even more cash,and "how To Marry A Millionaire" is released, Grable gets most best reviews, Monroe gets most publicity, Bacall gets ?
.
This is how it should have been ,Zanuck,We need to showcase Grable, lets get Bette Davis and Jane Russel, add a couple of songs for Grable add William Holden and John Wayne put the whole spotlight on Grable, thats how it should have been (i wake up from my dream)watch this movie in widescreen.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Watch it At Least Twice
Review: The first time I saw this, I just thought it was an okay movie, but the second time I picked up on a lot more jokes. Monroe is hilarious in this one as the girl who doesn't want to look ugly with her glasses so she simply runs into things and reads books upside down.
It is funny, and I'm going to watch a Laren Bacall movie. She really stood out to me.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Overall ok!
Review: The only reason I rented this movie is because I am a Marilyn fan. This movie was really boring compared to her other films. Basically the movie is about three New York models named Shatze (Lauren Bacall), Pola (Marilyn Monroe), and Loco (Betty Grable). They are all golddiggers as well. They rent this really nice lavish apartment. Shatze comes up with a plan that they set up to find eligible millionaire bachelors so they can marry them. And it turns out two of them fall for poor men. This movie has a couple of laughs but overall I found it kinda boring! The costumes were really neat and pretty. I don't condsider this as one of Marilyns best but if your a fan of hers its worth a see!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Fabulous, Glamorous, Lightly Romantic and LOL Funny!
Review: There are many assets in the movie:

-The story line. Timeless, classic tale. This is a good movie to watch while you are EATING. YUM! Also great as an inspiration to watch while you are getting dressed for a special occassion. The wardrobe is FABULOUS!
-The characters. GradeA portrayals of endearing models who set out to "catch a millionaire" by living in a NY penthouse and splitting the rent. "If you want to meet a millionaire you have to surround yourself with them."(or something to this effect) which is the bases of getting the penthouse.
-Betty Grable and Marilyn Monroe are innocent, endearing, and Lauren is stubbornly charming.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Brilliant
Review: This as definatly a feel good movie. A sweet romantic comedy (leaning heavly on comedy) about three models who take up a expensive penthouse in New York hoping to catch themselves some millionairs. Schatze Page (Lauren Bacall)is a woman who is through with marrying poor men, or as she calls them "gas pump jockeys" for the simple reason that poor men have broken her heart. She's the brains of the bunch. Bacall is wonderfull in this film. Pola Debevoise (Marlyn Monroe) is the blonde, and blind, one who is really just going along with what shounds like a good idea. In this role Monroe pulls off a stunning performance, marked by her sweetness and child-like inocence, as well as many commedic scenes. She is somewhat sill (she beleives that her glasses make her unatractive) but warm-hearted.
Loco Dempsey (Betty Grable)is a girl who has an appetite..... for food. She is nice, somewhat dumb but a good person. Her performance is good, but not as outstaning as Monroe's.

Overall this is a really sweet movie with alot of substance.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Wonderful
Review: This film, remade several times and turned into a short-lived television series starring Barbara Eden, is truly a wonderful film. Monroe, although she didn't want to wear the glasses required for the part, gives a wonderful performance as Pola, who, without her glasses, can't see her own hand in front of her face. Monroe really proves her comic talent in this film.

Bacall plays Schatzie, the brains behind the gold-digger plot. She is a first in her first major comedy. In fact, with this film, she opened up a whole new career for herself.

Grable, in her first non-musical role in years, plays, Loco, who brings the men back to the Sutton House penthouse. Although she had few comic lines, she played those she did receive to perfection. It was the last movie she made under contract with Twentieth Century Fox after a long starring career beginning in 1940. In fact, she only made two more films after this one.

Monroe, who was being groomed to take Grable's position as top glamour girl of the Twentieth Century Fox lot, was purposely teamed up with Grable in hopes of fireworks between the two, which would boost tickey sales. Studio bosses were foiled, however, when the two hit it off immediately and became fast friends who visited each other often and always had a kind word to say about the other.

All in all, a very enjoyable movie to be watched over and over again.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: bad early use of cinemascope (at least for tv viewing)
Review: This is a fun movie, but if you have a regular size tv, I don't recommend buying the dvd. I normally like letter box viewing, but this was the second Cinemascope movie made, and the director shot almost 80% of it (or more?) in medium long shot. So every shot shows the actors from the top of their heads down to mid-calf, usually clumped in the middle two-thirds of the shot, with lots of extra space on the far sides of the screen, filled with such interesting things as furniture and curtains. Close ups are rare, as are mid shots. It's like the director, faced with the new screen shape, shot it like a play viewed from the 22nd row. If you have a regular size tv, it means you can barely see the talented actress's faces. This is one of the times it's too bad that the dvd wasn't released (as some used to be) with BOTH widescreen and the "pan and scan", formatted-for-tv versions. Normally I way prefer the letter box -- but this movie is pretty hard to watch that way. So that's my warning. The movie itself is commercial fluff, but Lauren Bacall is a lot of fun in her smart, edgy mode; and this was Marilyn Monroe's break-through year, with this charming, funny performance, and also "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes" (which is not in Cinemascope and looks just great on dvd).

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: EXCELLENT! BRAVO! 5 STARS!
Review: This is a magnificent movie. It is artful, filled with humor and it's just good clean fun. It is an excellent choice for parents who have girls--like mine--who idealize Marylin Monroe. I can let my 5 and 8 year old watch this classic without any qualms. Betty Grable is fabulous as is Laurne Bacall. The dialogue in the movie is worthy of being memorized. If you like old classics, you'll love this movie. We sure do.


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