2hotFeature one of my absolute favorites!

HottWwjdIam There is just so much movie here. For some it may be too much. But in the same secretly sarcastic way most telemarketers say the phrase, the title of this one is particularly apt.

Plustown A lot of perfectly good film show their cards early, establish a unique premise and let the audience explore a topic at a leisurely pace, without much in terms of surprise. this film is not one of those films.

Michelle Ridley The movie is wonderful and true, an act of love in all its contradictions and complexity

seeingbystarlight Marrying a millionaire is not as easy as it sounds.As Marylin Monroe's character puts it:"Men are getting nervous these days, especially the loaded ones."But jaded Schautzey Paige (Lauren Bacall), and her two savvy lady friends, the kind hearted Loco Dempsey (Betty Grable), and the naive Paula Debevoise (Marylin Monroe) have a plan:Rent an expensive apartment in upscale New York, and after selling the furniture off piece by piece to pay for restaurant like Stork and 21 "trap a really fat one".On the day of their arrival at the place, Loco (who's awfully clever with a quarter) shows up with a man named Tom Brookman (Cameron Mitchell), having just conned him into paying for her groceries.Tom Brookman (though clearly interested in Schautzey) looks like a gas pump jockey, and that's exactly what Schautzey pegs him for as she hurries him out the door, promising that he can call sometime, and ignoring his protests: ("But I don't know your number!...But I don't know your last name!").After outlining her plan to her roommates, Schautzey waits for a fish to bite...it doesn't.Four months pass, and having sold all their furniture, Paula, and Schautzey are forced to sit in folding chairs in the living room, waiting for Loco to return with from the drugstore with more aspirin and shower caps, she's tricked a guy into buying.Schautzey is in despair."Four months, and we're not even engaged."Paula says she could've have gotten engaged last week if she'd wanted to.When Schautzey asks to whom, Paula says:"To that tall English fellow that borrowed five dollars from me.""That's exactly my point!" Schautzey snaps.It's just then when the door bell rings, and a moment later Loco comes through the door...The other two women crowd around, for at her heels is not some greasy gas pump jockey, but a clearly wealthy man named J.D. Hanley (William Powell) his arms full of expensive packages.And after some pleasentries during which Schautzey apologies for the furniture ("We just sent everything out to be cleaned!"), the three women get invited to a social gathering to meet some of Hanley's fellow oil men."Only oil men?" Loco asks "Well no...some bankers too, I believe."After he leaves, the women are in a daze."This is it kids." Schautzey says "A room full of rich entrepreneurs...and us." Of course, things don't go that smoothly.The only relationship that goes on wheels is Schautzey, and J.D's (the only fly in the ointment being that Tom Brookman won't stop calling to try and get her to go out with him, in spite of the fact that she "never wants to see him again!").Loco ends up in a lodge in Maine she thinks is a convention, and after petulantly bemoaning her fate, ends up contracting the measels.As for Paula, she has snagged a one eyed pirate with everything but a T-shirt that reads "Con Artist", and is naively heading to Atlantic City to marry him.But unbenounced to all three women, Freddy Denmark (the man who actually owns the apartment) has been breaking in for a mysterious reason having to do with his being on the lamb from the IRS.This turns out to be the catalyst for one of the nicest twists ever conceived in a romantic comedy (and there are several in this one).The true message of this movie is really captured in it's funniest scene:Loco's married companion thinks he's got the art of concealing an affair all figured out, and is about to learn he's wrong when he gets his picture on the front page of every New York newspaper in acknowledgement for his being the fifty thousandth car to drive across a certain bridge.To quote him as he's driving across, (right before the police sirens start blasting):"Man is master of his fate. And king of his destiny."Well, that's what you think."Gentlemen...to our wives."Originally, Review #9Posted On: May 3, 2009

Charles Herold (cherold) How to Marry a Millionaire is a very 1950s movie. A glossy technicolor cinemascope flick that starts with a remarkably long and tedious overture, the movie is slickly made and stars three Hollywood legends, Marilyn Monroe, Betty Grable, and Lauren Bacall, as three golddiggers on the make. It's a story that was made several times in the 30s and 40s but doesn't age well. Bacall seems smart and capable, yet instead of starting a business, which is what someone like her would do nowadays, she says the ultimate goal of any woman is to be married and she decides she'll take money over love. She also seems too smart to fail to second-guess her instincts about the guy she doesn't know is rich.Monroe has a reputation for playing the dumb blonde, but here she's really more of the insecure blonde whose refusal to wear her glasses in public has her bumping into walls. The actual dumb blonde is Betty Grable, who is amusingly earthy as a genial idiot who is stupider than a typical 13-year-old.Monroe and Grable are pretty amusing, and Monroe has her typical radiance, but they fail to elevate the predictable story and the bland comedy. There are occasional bright moments, as when Bacall says she likes older men like "that old guy from the African Queen," but most of the movie is stupid and rather witless.The movie's portrayal of women is also pretty awful. Not only is their plot to catch millionaires creepy, but they rent someone's apartment and then sell all their furniture, which is played for laughs even though its criminal behavior. All of the women and most of the men are actually pretty awful people, and it's weird how the movie doesn't seem to even recognize that. I read an interesting critique that portrayed this movie as anti-feminist propaganda determined to show women that their proper place was as pleasure objects for men, and it's a reasonable theory (it did come out just a few years after The Second Sex was published). It's certainly a movie that has aged poorly, especially when it trots out one of the most common terrible features of 1950s movies - the endless fashion show, and a movie that feels like a low blow in the war between the sexes.Not really worth watching except for the stars, who put their all into this terrible thing.

iamyuno2 Whew! A cast full of the finest talent and yet this movie is so tedious it is hard to slog through! The vacuous premise of the film is partly to blame - the idea of three women seeking men solely for their money is deeply offensive to say the least although this is a sin society tends to allow them. This idea, however, could have worked in a comedy - and this purportedly was a comedy. But it was such a snoozer it did not come across as funny in any way shape or form. It just came away as a B or C movie about worthless and shallow women. Strange that Robert Osborne, the esteemed movie expert and historian, liked this film and felt Lauren Bacall stole the film. She wore a perennial scowl (one that made her look ugly, if you can imagine that!) and was the most unlikeable of all the characters - constantly telling the man she eventually settles down with, "I never want to see you again!" That, I guess, was meant to be funny, but it only came across as cold. William Powell, with a minor role, is his endearing self but is handicapped by an unimaginative script that relegates him to an almost irrelevant character. What a waste of talent! Marilyn Monroe arguably is the only one who still manages to shine on some level, putting on a comic performance that displays her comedic talents at their best...yet even that effort falls short because the movie sucks the oxygen out of every scene it's so dull. Nothing is believable so when these unsympathetic characters manage to marry by movie's end, you could care less. There's certainly no reason to celebrate. These marriages seem motivated only by shallow desires and intentions. Therefore one almost cringes at the end, out of embarrassment for the great actors whose presence was wasted in this poor excuse for a film. Really, in retrospect, it appears to have been more a vehicle to show off three hot babes and sell tickets on their sex appeal than anything else. And so if you're a huge Marilyn fan - and possibly even a Betty Grable fan - you might enjoy this, for her attractiveness and sparks of true acting talent. Grable still looks good in her late '30s and so big fans of hers might also want to see this film on that one level - the level of curiosity and fandom, not of the true movie connoisseur. Oh - and David Wayne fans will like his comic vignettes. He also manages to survive the film unscathed, like Marilyn. The only laugh in this film, by the way, is actually pretty funny. (It's a throwaway line by Bacall about her real-life husband Humphrey Bogart (who fortunately wasn't in this train wreck of a film), which I won't spoil here.)

utgard14 The opening prologue is an orchestra performance that has nothing to do with the rest of the movie. I began to wonder if I was watching the wrong movie. I've read they did this because it was the first movie shot in Cinemascope and they wanted to highlight the new stereophonic sound system. Seems to me it was unnecessary but times were different then I guess. Anyway, the plot is about three women on the hunt for husbands. Naturally, they would prefer rich husbands. Lauren Bacall plays the leader of the three -- she's the smart, sophisticated one. Betty Grable plays the ditzy, naïve one. A role Marilyn Monroe probably would have played just a few years later due to typecasting. Here Marilyn plays a sort of middleground between Bacall and Grable's characters. Not too bright and not too dumb. She wears glasses but frequently takes them off because she thinks men don't like girls who wear glasses. There are several amusing gags that come as a result of her poor eyesight. All three ladies are beautiful, of course. They are also very funny and immensely appealing. The men in the film are pretty good, too. Even the ones playing jerks, like the great Fred Clark. Cameron Mitchell, David Wayne, and Rory Calhoun play the three primary love interests and are all likable. William Powell, in his second-to-last film, is as classy as they come. The themes are a little dated but it's all light and fluffy so nothing to get indignant about, for those of you who might. It's a fun, enjoyable romantic comedy. Fans of the three leads will love it most.