Monroe at her worst is the best thing in this pathetic movie. She handles her musical numbers very well, but the songs, aside from 'Heart belongs to Daddy' have lyrics that are laughable, not funny, but sophmoric. The movie tries so hard to be good-- even bringing in cameos by Crosby and Kelly badly written, and one by Uncle Milty at his obnoxious worst. The picture was so dull that Monroe shines.

Let's Make Love, 1960 * * Verdict: mostly boring. On the positive side: opens with an interesting, imaginative introduction of the main character. The first half of the film is quite tedious and boring. Things improve a little in the second half with pace and dialogue improving and appearances by Milton Berle, Bing Crosby and Gene Kelly, playing themselves in the film, as they give advice to help our French main character learn comedy, dance and singing.The story concerns a French billionaire, who learns a stage play will be made, one which makes fun of him. He visits a rehearsal of the play and is mistaken as an actor. He decides to take advantage of this and accepts an offer to be in the play, to try to save his reputation from being tarnished. Along the way, he falls for a young female actress (Marilyn Monroe), also rehearsing for the play.For those familiar with Marilyn Monroes's films of the 50's, she was a bit overweight here. In her case, that does not detract much from her overall beauty, sensuousness and charm. As a lead character, Marilyn Monroe does not have much of a role to play here, the same old boring sex siren, this time in a stage theater setting.The Frenchmen Yves Montand, is the acting highlight, to help brighten up an otherwise mostly dull film. He has some moments of genuine charm and humor. A paycheck for Marilyn Monroe, but a waste of her comedic and dramatic talents as a film actress. She would next go on to "The Misfits", a dark and sad film and after that, was filming another comedy, "Something's Got To Give", when she was fired from the studio, hired back and shortly later, died alone, tragically at home.

I can see why this is a bit of an underrated film, but it does have some good routines and songs, and a good performance from Marilyn Monroe, in her penultimate film before her tragic death. Basically French billionaire Jean-Marc Clement (BAFTA nominated Yves Montand, who at the time was really with Monroe) has learnt he is being satirised in a Broadway show. At the theatre where it is happening, he sees Amanda Dell (Monroe) rehearsing the song "My Heart Belongs To Daddy" (the first song), and not knowing his real identity, the director casts Clement to play the role (of himself). Clement, posing as Alexander Dumas, he takes part to see more of Amanda, and goes through some auditions, along with singing, dancing and joke lessons, with the help of It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World's Milton Berle, singer Bing Crosby and Singin' in the Rain's Gene Kelly. Obviously Amanda in the end does discover Jean'Marc's real identity, but she can't resist him and his charm, so thank goodness there is a happy ending. Also starring Pillow Talk's Tony Randall as Howard Alexander Coffman, Frankie Vaughan as Tony Danton, My Fair Lady's Wilfrid Hyde-White as George Welch/John Wales, David Burns as Oliver Burton, Michael David as Dave Kerry, Mara Lynn as Lily Nyles, Dennis King Jr. as Abe Miller and Joe Besser as Charlie Lamont. The highlights for me are obviously the first song, the title song, and ultimately, both Montand and Monroe's performances, definitely worth watching. It was nominated the Oscar Best Music for Lionel Newman and Earle Hagen, it was nominated the BAFTA for Best Film from any Source, and it was nominated the Golden Globe for Best Motion Picture - Musical. Marilyn Monroe was number 39 on The 100 Greatest Movie Stars, she was number 6 on 100 Years, 100 Stars - Women, she was number 3 on The 100 Greatest Sex Symbols (she could have been number 1), and she was number 11 on The 100 Greatest Pop Culture Icons, and the film was number 1000 on The 100 Greatest Musicals. Good!

"I hope you can kiss better than you can sing." When I heard this line from the film regarding Yves Montand, I had to laugh, as in real life Montand sold a bazillion records over his long career.In LET'S MAKE LOVE he plays a mega-millionaire who tries to pretend to be a stage actor--paying the likes of Milton Berle, Gene Kelly and Bing Crosby to give him lessons on comedy, dance and singing. So why would a rich guy like this go to all this trouble? Well, when the industrialist (Montand) hears that an off Broadway play will be lampooning him (as well as others), he's curious and sneaks in to watch rehearsals. There he sees sexy Marilyn Monroe and is so struck by her he doesn't tell anyone who he really is. And, in a strange twist, the producer decides to hire him to play himself--not realizing Montand really is the millionaire! He decides to go with it and says nothing to the company, as he plans on staying with the production and wooing Marilyn. The trouble is that he's NOT a professional and so he hires the best people to train him--and that's where Berle, Kelly and Crosby come into the film.This story idea is actually reminiscent of a great old film, THE DEVIL AND MISS JONES--where a rich department store owner decides to pose an a regular employee in order to spy on "rabble-rousers" in the company. Though the stories differ quite a bit, both certainly have similarities. Bkoganbing's review indicates that LET'S MAKE LOVE is very, very similar to 1937's ON THE AVENUE, though I can't really say since I haven't yet seen this film.The problems with the film are abundant even though I still think it earns a 7. That's because the plot is so very likable you can ignore the ridiculousness of the plot (it really is tough to believe) as well as that many of the song and dance numbers don't seem all that great. While Miss Monroe has a HUGE cult-like following, I don't think her singing and dancing were all that great--but she was nice to look at and did a better job at acting. Overall, it's a nice little romance and worth a look.FYI--Casting Montand is an interesting choice to play a nice industrialist, as he was a member of the Communist party in France up until 1968!