How to Marry a Millionaire (1953)
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How to Marry a Millionaire Movie Review
How to Marry a Millionaire is a 1953 screwball comedy film directed by Jean Negulesco and starring Marilyn Monroe, Betty Grable and Lauren Bacall. It’s a fun, but slight picture.
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“Men aren’t attentive to girls who wear glasses“
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Three women set out to find eligible millionaires to marry, but find true love in the process. This movie pretty much functions as a screwball comedy in the vein of those 30s films that I love so much. However, the problem is that it never reached the quality of those pictures as the overall plot is much weaker here.
The story is so thin and it was just an excuse to have all these famous actresses appear together in a big movie, but the issue was that they weren’t incorporated quite as neatly as they should have. In fact, their dynamic together felt either rushed or muted. I expected more. The story had potential and it’s not all that dated in my opinion, but the film never went in any edgy or more interesting territory with these gold diggers falling in love in that disappoint third act.
Marilyn Monroe was surprisingly sidelined here with the other two women getting larger roles. She was typically charming and funny, but I wanted more screen time for her character. Betty Grable is also very entertaining and Lauren Bacall is excellent in the biggest and best written role of the bunch. The men are all fine, but not particularly memorable, though it was nice seeing William Powell at an older age.
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How to Marry a Millionaire is well made technically speaking. The orchestra that appears at the beginning and ending of the picture was fine, but obviously those sections were too long and just meant to pad the runtime to a more significant length. The directing and editing should have been much better, but the acting is strong across the board and the dialogue is phenomenal. There are some humorous moments to be had here with the line about Bogart being absolutely hilarious, but for the most part the movie ended up being just charming instead of a true riot.
How to Marry a Millionaire is a fun, but slight 50s screwball comedy that featured a great premise, but lackluster execution. Marilyn Monroe, Betty Grable and Lauren Bacall were all excellent here, but they should have included more scenes with the three of them together. The movie benefits from strong dialogue throughout and some wonderful humorous moments, but its thin plot and a lack of truly memorable scenarios were its biggest weaknesses.
My Rating – 3.5
This is the fifth film in my th3ee series where I will cover one film per decade that is having an anniversary this year, from 1913 to 2013. Next up is the year 1963 where I chose Hud. Keep an eye on that one as well.
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