How to Marry a Millionaire

10.16pm – This isn’t on the Empire list but its a only 1hr 35min long and I can’t be arsed to watch Its A Wonderful Life after going to a tupperwar party >.<

2.11am -I really loved this film and not just because of Marilyn Monroe [if you’ve been reading my reviews, you’ll know how much I love her!]. It’s a fantastic romantic comedy and makes me a little sad that they don’t make them like this anymore. There’s just something about this movie that makes the recent romcoms look terrible.

The first thing we see is a glittery curtain which reveals an orchestra. Now, the little film studies student in me thought “ooo, they must be doing this so as to show the audience that this movie is more like a stage production or a play!”. No, its not. I read on Wikipedia that they shot this 6 minute sequence with a real orchestra just so the audience can go “ooooo, ahhhhh” at CinemaScope’s new four-track magnetic stereophonic sound system and widescreen visuals. Kind of a let down to know that but whatever. Oh, and a little fact for you; this movie was the first to be photographed in CinemaScope wide-screen process!

The opening credits have silk and diamond jewelry in the background. It’s a wonderful sight and makes me what to marry a millionaire too!
We see some lovely, classic shots of New York to a song about the magical city. I loved this part because New York is my favourite city ever, I hope to live there at some point in my life! And dress up like Marilyn Monroe!

I adore Marilyn Monroe’s character in this movie. In fact, I love all three of the female roles! Marilyn Monroe plays Pola, Betty Grable plays Loco and Lauren Bacall plays Schatze. They’re all models, Pola and Loco are classic, dumb blond models whereas Schatze is a model with fantastic brains. Pola is ‘blind as a bat’ but hates wearing her glasses as she doesn’t think men will find her attractive if she wore them. By the way, they are the most fabulous pair of glasses I’ve ever seen! They look kind of like Dame Edna Everage’s glasses but more tamed and just fabulous! Wish I could have a pair like them but I don’t think I could pull them off. Anyways, the on-going joke with Pola is that she can hardly see without her glasses and therefore bumps into things all the time and misreads everything. It sounds a bit lame in writing but Monroe has such perfect comical timing that its actually kind of funny. Loco is another ‘dumb blond’ with a very warm heart but she’s different from other models as she loves to eat! She uses her looks to get men to buy her things, especially food. Schatze is the one that plans the whole ‘marry a millionaire’ plot and coaches the girls on what to do. It’s a perfect little group!

The clothes! My God, the clothes are beyond stunning! The first thing we see Loco wearing is this gorgeous blue dress and then we have all of Pola’s dresses which are all divine and some of Schatze’s dresses are really beautiful too. Makes me wish we still lived in that era and could wear such beautiful, feminine clothes. You couldn’t get away with that now-a-days, everyone would constantly ask you what special event you were going to, not just going to get the bread and paper. Ooooh, and my favourite dress of the whole movie has to be the iconic, gorgeous pink dress Pola wears for the dinner! Its beyond stunning and I completely fell in love with it! Its…just…gorgeous! I’m in love! Oh, and another thing, there is so much fur in this movie! If you’re all ‘FUR IS MURDER’ and throwing paint at people wearing fur, don’t watch this film. It will only make you mad.

I enjoyed the ‘Schatze thinks Brookman is a gas pump jockey when he’s actually a millionaire’ plot point. She judges men by their appearance and because Brookman doesn’t wear typical millionaire clothes, she rejects him every time he calls her. Its kind of predictable that she would eventually fall for him, thinking he’s poor and then be incredibly happy when she finds out his a millionaire. Its predictable but still nice to watch.

The girls find their millionaires but they’re all very different; Schatze finds the perfect millionaire, Loco finds the millionaire who hates his wife and all the women in his house and Pola finds a ‘millionaire’ who’s lost an eye. These men all lead to some love. Schatze does fall for her millionaire to some degree as he’s just so lovely, Loco’s millionaire is already married but has a driver who she falls for and Pola is on a plane [the wrong one, mind you!] to see her ‘millionaire’ and meets a man she falls in love with. Its all very sweet. For Pola and Loco, it’s the classic ‘money isn’t everything’ approach as the men they love aren’t exactly rolling in the money but they’re happy none-the-less.

There’s a great scene where we see what the three ladies are dreaming about. Schatze is dreaming about cattle, oil and buying loads of diamonds. Pola is dreaming of flying on a private jet to Arabia and then their people giving her jewels. Loco, on the other hand, dreams of a hotdog. I have to admit, its not that great of a joke but I did find myself giggling slightly.

There is one scene I didn’t quite understand. Brookman asks to be see a designer’s collection via live models. I don’t know why but he does, I just completely lost the part where he explained why but whatever. Pola, Loco and Schatze are some of the models and they go and strut their stuff. There is one thing I found very interesting which was that the models were not stick thin like today’s models! It was a nice relief and, once again, made me wish we were back in the 1950s.

Monroe looks stunning in the plane scene. You think now where people go on airplanes in their pajamas. Monroe [as Pola] looks so sophisticated, like she’s about to meet the president. Anyways, it’s a sweet scene because she meets the guy the three ladies are renting the apartment from [not knowing that he is, though]. She’s reading a book upside down because she hasn’t got her glasses on but wants to appear like she’s smart enough to read a book. He tells her its upside down and they talk about their eye sight and glasses and how Pola doesn’t like to wear them because she thinks she looks ugly in them. The renter guy tells her to put them on so he can judge it. She does and he declares that she’s even more beautiful with the glasses on. To be honest, Monroe would look stunning even if you smothered her face with poo.

Loco’s millionaire doesn’t want to be seen with Loco as he’s married. They take the George Washington Bridge so no one he knows will see him. However, as soon as he gets onto the bridge, he’s escorted by police bikes who direct him to a group of press. A man says that he [and Loco] are the 50 millionth car to go across the bridge and they get their photos taken by the paparazzi. Its funnier than I’ve written it, trust me.

This movie has one of the best endings ever! Its revealed that Brookman is a millionaire though no one believes him. He pays for the check [they’re having dinner at a ‘greasy spoon’] and pays with a $1000 bill. We see a close-up of the bill and we hear people collapsing. We then see that the three women have fainted as we only see the men in the shot. They raise their beers and make a toast to their wives.

There’s a few more notes I made but these were the ones I could be bothered to type at 2.23am. Lovely movie, I would definitely watch it again. If not for the storyline, then for the clothes!!!

40/212 [OMG 40! How insane!]

Kate
xoxo