How To Marry A Millionaire (1953) is a Comedy/Drama/Romance film starring Marilyn Monroe as Pola Debevoise, Betty Garble as Loco Dempsey, and Lauren Bacall as Schatze Page. It begins with Schatze Page in her new apartment that she will be sharing with the other two girls. They decide to go on a search to marry a millionaire, as the movie suggests, and find love in the process. The sets, costumes, and acting is excellent.The set designs are elegant and lovely. The apartment has a nice brick wall outside with a table set up for drinking, mostly, of course. The New York scenery in the background is perfect and may make you wish that was the view from your living room. The walls are light purple will large paintings, golden candles, white chairs, and the piano is golden with engraved designs around it making it the perfect 1950s bachelorette pad.While on their search, the girls are dressed to impress. Loco's blonde and braided up-do is stunning with her all pink sparkly dress and matching clutch, and long earrings. Schatze is wearing a loose green dress with dark brown fur at the top and stunning pearl bracelets. Marilyn's platinum blonde hair is styled into a gorgeous bob. Her dress is dark pink with a diagonal strap covered in sparkles and it is paired with her signature red lips and a dark pink sparkling clutch. There are many costume changes throughout the film and they are all stunning.The acting is great. Marilyn is sweet and she has a soft voice which is nice to listen to and she draws attention with her appearance and performance as well. The other two stars are stunning as well. Lauren Bacall is sophisticated and serious about her addiction to shopping. Betty is great at portraying her character Loco as a spoiled girl who knows how to play with an manipulate others.I would recommend this film to anyone who likes old movies or movies about materialistic women. If you enjoyed Breakfast at Tiffany's or Gentlemen Like Blondes because of the lead actresses and their characters than you should definitely watch this 90-minute film.This film is spectacular and the ending is superb. It has funny moments, romantic moments, and sad moments as well. The twists and turns of the film are both well performed and well written. The directors and editors all put a lot of work into this film and did an excellent job creating a timeless film with perfect costumes and design sets and great acting. The only reason that I didn't give this film a 10 is that there are a few unfunny and boring moments, but for the most part it is a solid comedy. It also goes over the theme of materialism and whether or not money equals happiness.

Copyright 4 November 1953 by 20th Century-Fox Film Corp. New York opening simultaneously at the Globe and Loew's State: 10 November 1953. U.S. release: November 1953. London opening at Odeon Marble Arch. U.K. release: March 1954. Australian release: 21 January 1954. Sydney opening at the Plaza (ran 12 weeks at this 1,500 seat cinema, four sessions a day). 8,607 feet. 96 minutes.SYNOPSIS: Three attractive but impoverished gold-diggers set out to trap millionaire husbands. Two of them succeed, but more through good luck than calculated design.NOTES: "Loco" opened on Broadway at the Biltmore on 16 October 1946 and closed after only 37 performances due to extremely unfavorable reviews. Jean Parker (in her Broadway debut) played the model with a heart of gold and Jay Fassett the philandering businessman. These roles were played in the movie by Betty Grable and Fred Clark. The play was produced and directed by Jed Harris. On the other hand, "The Greeks Had a Word for It" was a reasonable success. The play opened on Broadway at the Harris on 25 September 1930 and ran 224 performances. Dorothy Hall, Muriel Kirkland and Verree Teasdale played the three gold-diggers, opposite Hardie Albright, Frederic Worlock and Ernest Glendinning. The play was produced and directed by William Harris, Jr. In 1932 producer Sam Goldwyn changed the title slightly to "The Greeks Had a Word for Them" and starred Ina Claire, Joan Blondell and Madge Evans in a movie directed by Lowell Sherman from a screenplay by Sidney Howard, no less. (Betty Grable had a minor role as a showgirl). This theme was then used countless times in the 30s, 40s and early 50s, most notably in the Gold-Digger series of musicals produced at Warner Brothers, Andrew Stone's "The Bachelor's Daughters" and in such Fox variations as "Three Blind Mice", "Moon Over Miami: and "Three Little Girls In Blue". Both Le Maire and Travilla were nominated for an Academy Award for Best Color Costumes, but lost out to Le Maire's own "The Robe" in which he collaborated with Emile Santiago. Fox's second CinemaScope feature. Negative cost: $2.5 million. Initial domestic rental gross: $7.3 million. U.K. rentals: $2.5 million. Australia: $1.7 million. Fox's top-grossing release worldwide for 1954. The title, "How To Marry a Millionaire" was purchased from Doris Lilly, author of a real-life guide to this subject, for the incredible sum of $50,000. Marilyn Monroe, Best Actress — Photoplay Gold Medal Award.COMMENT: "How To Marry a Millionaire" shows its age, but still holds up rather well. Naturally, it bends over backwards to embrace the novelty of CinemaScope. After a curtain-raiser with the 20th Century-Fox Symphony Orchestra designed to show off the process' stereophonic sound, CinemaScope takes us on a travelogue excursion to New York City. We also see and hear airplane propellers in close-up, we thrill to an airport landing, we travel by car across George Washington Bridge, by train to Maine, and share a buggy ride in the high snow country. There's also a fashion show. I mean when you have three lookers like Monroe, Grable and Bacall, why waste them? A pity though that there's so much dull talk and that Fox resisted what must have been an obvious temptation to turn the movie into a musical. Many musical opportunities are passed up. Maybe it was thought the picture already had enough going for it, though one could question that assumption. Aside from his spacious use of CinemaScope, with characters often neatly lined up across the whole expanse of the screen, Negulesco's direction is pretty routine. Although it's full of inside jokes, the script is not as clever or witty as Johnson and Negulesco obviously think it is. It's also hard to credit such plot devices as cold Bacall falling for a gauche, charmless eccentric like Cameron Mitchell — and preferring him to William Powell (whom it's always a pleasure to see, even when cast in such a thankless role as here). Mr. Calhoun is also a waste of time, but Bacall, Wayne, MM and Grable are a delight. Of course we see less of MM than her top billing gives us a right to expect. Stunningly costumed throughout, she plays with considerable flair and finesse, and displays a naive charm that is quite appealing. (Unlike some of MM's other directors, Negulesco permitted MM's dramatic coach, Natasha Lytess, to actually coach her on the set.)The color photography of course, as in all early CinemaScope productions, is quite grainy, but that technical deficiency is partly redeemed by that great Fox sound recording - best in the industry!

Stop me if you've heard this one: a troupe of materialistic society women use their looks and charm for the sake of seducing and securing rich husbands. No, it's not Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (though it was released in the same year for extra confusion), though How to Marry a Millionaire can't help but suffer the comparison. Still, it's a charmingly frothy affair, enjoyable and even somewhat clever at times, though utterly forgettable in the end. No singing here, sadly, though we do open with a bemusing six minute orchestral overture, long enough to leave you worrying Netflix has uploaded the wrong film by accident. There's a similarly long interlude of fashion modelling mid-film, leaving the distinct impression of director Jean Legulesco either offering surrogate culture for those who wouldn't be exposed to the symphony or haute couture otherwise, or stalling to pad out the slight hour and a half runtime. For the most part, proceedings otherwise are breezy but thoroughly standard hijinx of mistaken identity and dramatic irony, inevitably tsk-tsk-ing at both the patriarchal boorishness of traditional courtship and the leading ladies' materialism in favour of true love, but with only the gentlest, most congenial of critiques. Lauren Bacall, amiably out of place, out-acts the rest of the cast by head and shoulders, but still gamely commits to the silliness, albeit imbuing her husband-hunter with steely resolve and a noir jargon-spouting mouth that would make Bogey blink. Marilyn Monroe cements her Marilyn Monroe archetype here, but impresses more with her short-sighted slapstick than her usual demure cooing. Betty Grable's addition may come across as a carbon copy of Monroe's, but Grable's sharp tongue and charm steal many of the film's best punchlines, even when awash in a subplot in a strangely Arctic, mountainous Maine. Finally, the legendarily charismatic William Powell makes a welcome appearance as probably the only wholly decent rich bachelor in Hollywood history, while Cameron Mitchell exudes excellent rustic charm as the secret millionaire constantly dismissed due to his blue-collar mannerisms. How to Marry a Millionaire is a delightful comedic aperitif, and full of treats aplenty thanks to Legulesco's winning cast. Still, it's hard not to recommend the film's 1953 musical doppelgänger by comparison - sharper, snappier, more glamorous, and with tunes, to boot. Alas - fun as it is, the film's tagline may as well have been 'How to Compete Against Howard Hawks'. -7/10

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.)