Two weeks ago I watched How to Marry A Millionaire and decided that weekend I would watch Marilyn Monroe movies for the summer, similar to how I watched Paul Newman movies last summer.

How to Marry A Millionaire stars Marilyn, Lauren Bacall, and Betty Grable and was considered a screwball comedy.

It was released in 1953.

It follows the story of Schatze Page (Lauren), Loco Dempsey (Betty), and Pola Debevoise (Marilyn) who are all looking for ways to marry a rich man and live the high life.

Or at least that’s the goal when the movie starts.

As we progress into the movie, we see the goals of the women begin to shift based on the men who they end up meeting along the way.

Each woman works on snagging a rich man and to do that they need a home base, so Schatze finds a home to rent from a man who is out of the country. She’ll need money to pay for the rental, though, so she begins to sell off the fancy furniture in the home, even though it isn’t hers.

Eventually, she and the other women will meet men who they decide they can snag and marry. Schatze meets William Powell, one of my favorite “classic Hollywood” actors. He’s 30 years older than her and a widower. More importantly, he’s rich.

She sets out to make him her own, but there’s a man named Tom who is trying to get her attention. She wants nothing to do with Tom, though, since he’s poor and won’t support her high-end needs.

Marilyn’’s character meets a wealthy businessman who is also a crook and she’s about to run off with him when she gets on the wrong plane and meets the man who owns the apartment on the plane. The apartment owner, it turns out, is trying to escape the IRS.

Betty’s character meets a married man and thinks she’s on her way to a Elk’s Club meeting in Maine, but has actually been invited to his personal lodge. She tries to leave when she realizes what is going on, but comes down with the mumps and is quarantined. While there, and after the man she came with becomes ill himself, she meets a poor but charming forest ranger and has to decide if she wants to pursue love or money.

Betty was supposed to be the star of the film, according to some articles, but, of course, Marilyn ended up with top billing.

According to the blog, Classic Movie Hub, Fox created the movie using anamorphic lenses developed by Henri Chretien in France. These lenses “expanded the audience’s peripheral vision by creating a panoramic, curved screen triple the size of a conventional screen,” according to the blog. This was in an effort to combat the rise of televisions in the American home.

Fox had two things to compete with television with this movie – Marilyn and these new lenses. They made a movie called The Robe first with the technology, however, because they felt that movie would appeal more to a wider audience and was more family-friendly.

The Robe was about a Roman centurion who commanded the unit responsible for the crucifixion of Christ.

(I think it is interesting that the woman in this photo by Lauren’s name looks nothing like her.)

Marilyn originally wanted Betty’s role since that role had more “snappy lines.” Playing Pola would mean playing a nearsighted woman who felt insecure wearing her glasses and often slammed into walls when she took her glasses off. Marilyn wasn’t confident in her comedic skills and wanted to back out, but the director convinced her to continue and she managed to pull it off amazingly well.

Lauren Bacall was already a well-known actress at this point and I felt she really held the group together.

In some ways I felt Marilyn did overshadow the others with her performance and not just because of her beauty. She pulled off the quirky-plus-innocent role well.

I felt like Lauren was out of place in a comedy but that’s probably because I am used to watching her in Noir-type films with Humphrey Bogart (who she later married).

Betty impressed me with her comedic skills and matched Marilyn’s quirkiness. I guess Lauren was more of the “straight-man” in the trio.

I loved William Powell in this. None of the other men really stood out to me, but that may be because William was so sweet and doted on Lauren’s character even though he really should have known she was a gold digger. And because I have a soft spot for him after watching him in the Thin Man movies.

I won’t share the ending of the movie, but I will say that the women redeemed themselves from their selfishness as the movie progressed.

As for stories from the set, the Classic Movie Hub blog relayed that Lauren and Betty were annoyed that Marilyn was late on set a lot and there were other minor snits between the three women.

From the blog: “When the three female stars assembled on the soundstage for the first time, the press awaited a mushroom cloud of conflict and cattiness or, at least, Grable’s bitter resentment of Monroe. However, Grable immediately embraced Monroe and ceremoniously told her, “Honey, I’ve had mine. Go get yours. It’s your turn now.” In response to Bacall grumbling about Monroe’s tardiness, Grable said, “Honey, give it to her. Let’s listen to records until she gets here. It’s her time now. Let her have fun.” Before long, Bacall found herself also feeling protective of Monroe.

I think this is my first time watching a movie with Marilyn all the way through. I enjoyed it and am looking forward the other films, though I know at least a couple of them are much darker than this one.

The next movies I plan to watch and when I plan to write about them are:

June 22: Gentlemen Prefer Blonds

June 29: Some Like It Hot

July 6: Niagra

July 13: The Seven Year Itch

July 20: Monkey Business (because it’s Marilyn and Cary together)

July 27: All About Eve

August 3: The Misfits