How to Marry a Millionaire
Short description
Three New York fashion models who share a flat decide that marriage to a wealthy man is the surest route to the life they want. Schatze, Pola and Loco pool their money, rent an expensive apartment in a fashionable part of the city and set about meeting rich bachelors. The plan proves harder to carry out than they expected: the rent eats through their savings, suitable millionaires are scarce, and the men who do enter their lives turn out to be considerably less wealthy than advertised. Each woman eventually has to weigh money against love.
Betty Grable, Lauren Bacall and Marilyn Monroe play the three friends, with David Wayne, Rory Calhoun and Cameron Mitchell among the men they meet. Jean Negulesco directed the film for 20th Century Fox from a screenplay by Nunnally Johnson, who also produced; it was the fourth of the eight features Negulesco directed listed in the records, arriving between Road House and Titanic.
The film runs 96 minutes and was released in November 1953. Its ratings are consistent across sources: 6.8 out of 10 on IMDb from around 27,000 votes and the same score on TMDB from several hundred votes, while a critics' rating of 7 out of 10 from 27 reviews places professional assessments close to the audience response.
What's left behind the scenes
- The film's box office success contributed to the popularity of CinemaScope (a cinematic technology that used an anamorphic lens to create widescreen films) and brought closer the beginning of the widescreen era.
- When Marilyn Monroe, in the role of Paula, demonstrates a red swimsuit, the description of her outfit includes the words “A girl’s best friend is, of course, diamonds.” Monroe’s character performed a song with that title in the comedy “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes” (Howard Hawks, 1953).
- One of the first films with a soundtrack recorded in “stereo” format.
- According to Lauren Bacall, it was difficult to work with Marilyn Monroe due to her dependence on her acting coach, Natasha Lytess. At the end of each take, Lytess would stand behind director Jean Negulesco, and when Monroe looked to her for approval, Lytess would either nod or shake her head negatively, in which case Monroe would insist on shooting another take. The same scene was often shot with 15 or even more takes. The actors involved in the project also noticed the nature of the relationship between Monroe and Lytess, and believed that Monroe was unduly relying on the opinion of Lytess, who simply 'fed' on the actress's insecurity.
- At the height of filming, Betty Grable (playing Loco Dempsey) had to leave the set to return home, where her daughter had an accident. The next day, Marilyn Monroe called to inquire about the child's health. Years later, Grable recounted that Monroe was the only one who showed such sensitivity.
Auditions in India
Casting calls in USA
Castingi w Polsce
Кастинги в Україні
