How To Marry A Millionaire (1953)
Resourceful Schatze Page, spunky Loco Dempsey, and ditzy Pola Debevoise are money-hungry gold diggers. The trio rent a luxurious Sutton Place penthouse in New York City from Freddie Denmark, who is avoiding the IRS by living in Europe. The women plan to use the apartment to attract rich men. And on the day they move in, Loco carries in groceries, assisted by Tom Brookman, who is attracted to Schatze. She dismisses him as being poor and sets her sights on the charming, classy, rich widower J.D. Hanley. While she is stalking the older J.D., Tom pursues her. After every date, she says she never wants to see Tom again, refusing to marry another "gas pump jockey".
How to Marry a Millionaire (1953)
Loco and Pola are reunited with Schatze just before her wedding to J.D.. Schatze is unable to go through with the marriage and confesses to J.D. that she loves Tom. He agrees to call off the ceremony. Tom is among the wedding guests and the two reconcile and marry. Afterwards, the three happy couples end up at a greasy spoon diner. Schatze jokingly asks Eben and Freddie about their financial prospects, which are slim. When she finally gets around to Tom, he casually admits a net worth of around $200 million, which no one takes seriously. He then calls for the check, pulls out an enormous wad of money, and pays with a $1,000 bill, telling the chef to keep the change. The three astonished women faint, and the men drink a toast to their unconscious wives.
In 2000, 20th Century Fox Television produced a made-for-TV remake, How to Marry a Billionaire: A Christmas Tale. It reversed the sex roles, and had three men looking to marry wealthy females. It starred John Stamos, Joshua Malina and Shemar Moore.
The only objectionable content in How to Marry a Millionaire is the premise, which is that the best thing a woman can do with her life is marry into money. It's a good opportunity to start a discussion about when in the past that was true (if ever), how things have changed, and whether more change is still needed. It's also a good opportunity to talk about how smoking in movies has changed over the years, what kind of influence it may have had on audiences, and how and why attitudes about smoking have changed. Otherwise, two or three brief kisses are shown, and there's a fair amount of social drinking.
Three young women friends (Lauren Bacall, Betty Grable, and Marilyn Monroe) decide that their best chances to meet rich, eligible bachelors will come if they live where the wealthy live. So they scrape together every penny they have to pay first and last month's rent on a luxurious Manhattan apartment, which serves as their base of operations. But landing a millionaire doesn't happen overnight, and soon they're forced to sell off the apartment's furnishings to maintain their lifestyle. As the apartment empties and they're reduced to folding chairs and camping cots, they of course find themselves falling for guys without a penny to their names. Will their hearts be able to resist?
Parents and kids who are fascinated by old Hollywood will get a tremendous kick out of seeing three legends, Betty Grable, Lauren Bacall, and Marilyn Monroe, playing to their strengths. (Not to mention a delightfully understated, elegant turn from William Powell.) It's a sheer pleasure to watch them do what they do best. Everything about the production under director Jean Negulesco (1953's Titanic, Johnny Belinda) showcases the star power of the three leading ladies, with the fashion-show sequence as a real highlight not only of the stars' appeal but also of Negulesco's careful eye and Nunnally Johnson's (The Grapes of Wrath, The Dirty Dozen) tight, clever script.
Although there's nothing kids shouldn't see, the movie's appeal will be fairly limited. Some extended shots showcasing the glory of CinemaScope probably thrilled audiences in its initial theater run, but today they seem intrusive and clunky. Also, the plot's about trying to find someone to marry, and the pacing is quiet and gentle. To go along for the ride, modern audiences need to set aside modern sensibilities about what a woman's best options are. If you (and your kids) can do that, you're in for a real treat.
this is the film equivalent of those viral facebook posts that are like "girls.. as a woman here's some advice..marry a nerd.. you don't know what you're missing ;)" & are obviously written by some nerdy man. but marilyn monroe is still a genius so
How to Marry a Millionaire is a comedy about three man-hunting New York City models that are tired of cheap men and a lack of money. The women pool their resources in an attempt to trap eligible bachelors but their plans go awry when two of them fall for men who appear to be poor. Trying to stop each other from marrying the wrong guy, Monroe, Grable and Bacall deliver the finest comedic performances of their careers.
Bacall nearly gets an aging millionaire (William Powell), but her conscience bothers her and instead she goes for the poverty-stricken chap (Cameron Mitchell) who has been pursuing her all along. Not to worry: It turns out that he is one of the richest men in New York.
Schatze, Pola and Loco are three models who devise a scheme to marry rich men. They agree to share the lease on a New York penthouse. Schatze believes that they must put themselves in the same orbit as men of wealth in order to attract them. And if they must pawn the furnishings of their new apartment to make ends meet while they hunt, well then, a girl must do what is necessary.
The ladies are not meeting with much success. Until by chance, Loco runs into Texas millionaire JD Hanley (William Powell). JD invites them all to a meeting for oil tycoons. While Schatze latches on to JD, Pola and Loco find their own prey. Suddenly things are looking up. But just when everything is going according to plan, fate throws a monkey wrench into the works.
My first full day of movies at the 2018 TCM Classic Film Festival mostly consisted of lighthearted fare, with four musicals and/or comedies preceding the late evening screening of the melodrama LEAVE HER TO HEAVEN (1945).Number three for the day was HOW TO MARRY A MILLIONAIRE (1953), shown in a digital print and introduced by new TCM host Dave Karger. Although my records show I saw this film many years ago, it's the rare film where I had zero memory of a past viewing, so it felt as though I were watching it for the very first time! This 1953 film was also the "newest" film I saw at this year's festival, with the exception of BULL DURHAM (1988). Most of the films I saw at the festival dated from the late silent era through the mid '40s.HOW TO MARRY A MILLIONAIRE is one in a long line of 20th Century-Fox films about three girls looking for wealthy husbands; past Fox titles with this theme included THREE BLIND MICE (1938), MOON OVER MIAMI (1941), and THREE LITTLE GIRLS IN BLUE (1946). MOON OVER MIAMI starred Betty Grable, also one of the stars of HOW TO MARRY A MILLIONAIRE, a dozen years later.As an interesting side note, HOW TO MARRY A MILLIONAIRE was partly based on a play by Zoe Akins, who wrote the story for GIRLS ABOUT TOWN (1931), seen at the festival the next day. Akins' great-great-niece, Zoe Perry -- who is also the daughter of actress Laurie Metcalf (LADY BIRD) -- was at the festival to help introduced GIRLS ABOUT TOWN.HOW TO MARRY A MILLIONAIRE memorably opens with an orchestral prologue of Alfred Newman's "Street Scene," showing off the new-fangled widescreen CinemaScope and stereophonic sound. "Street Scene," which originated in the 1931 film of the same name, was used in many Fox films; it's particularly familiar to many classic film fans as the opening credits theme music in many classic Fox noir titles, such as I WAKE UP SCREAMING (1941), THE DARK CORNER (1946), and CRY OF THE CITY (1948).After "Street Scene" and the opening credits we dive into the story, in which three women carry out a plan to rent an upscale furnished apartment and nab wealthy husbands. The women are Schatze (Lauren Bacall), Loco (Betty Grable), and Pola (Marilyn Monroe). The "plan" includes pawning the apartment's furnishings to come up with rent money, and before long the apartment is nearly empty. Then the women think they may have hit the jackpot, as Schatze meets kind and wealthy J.D. Hanley (William Powell), and the other girls meet potential "prospects," but nothing goes as planned; Schatze keeps thinking about the nice young man (Cameron Mitchell) who accompanied Loco home with groceries, while Loco falls for a forest ranger (Rory Calhoun) and Pola "meets cute" with the man (David Wayne) from whom they're subleasing the apartment -- who's on the run from the IRS!The movie is an entertaining, colorful 95 minutes, although it has minor problems. The main issue is that Bacall seems too intelligent to be comfortable with her as, essentially, a crook selling off furniture that isn't hers. The concept works better with the lighthearted, giddy Grable and Monroe, who have an innocence to them, but Bacall's character knows exactly what she's doing, and it's wrong...as is later accepting money from a suitor to redeem the furniture.It's also a bit odd that Monroe's character falls for a potential crook, even though it's explained he's searching for his accountant who swindled him.Otherwise, the movie is pretty much exactly what one wants, with gorgeous sets and gowns, consistently well-played humorous bits (Monroe has some funny stuff about her need for glasses), some romance, and a terrific, well-played ending, as Schatze gets the shock of her life.HOW TO MARRY A MILLIONAIRE was directed by Jean Negulesco and filmed by Joe MacDonald.The movie is available on DVD, Blu-ray, and VHS.Coming soon: Overviews of my daily festival viewing schedules and additional reviews.
Marilyn MonroeMonroe is one of Hollywood's most recognisable icons. Early in her film career she starred as a dumb blonde in movies like How to Marry a Millionaire (1953). Her va-va-voom beauty made her a star! 041b061a72