SnoopyStyle Billionaire Jean-Marc Clement (Yves Montand) is the result of a family fortune cultivated over generations. His PR guy Alexander Coffman (Tony Randall) tells him about an unflattering portrayal of him in a Broadway start-up and he decides to go see for himself. He is taken with leading lady Amanda Dell (Marilyn Monroe) as she performs a sexy number. When he's mistaken for an actor auditioning for the role of Clement, he decides to take the part as Alexandre Dumas while trying to woo the beauty.This is the second to last movie for Monroe and the first American movie for veteran French actor Yves Montand. Her husband Arthur Miller expanded her role to basically a co-lead of the movie. She still has that magnetic stardom but the movie lacks the ability to make something iconic. It's a little sloppy. Montand is playing a stiff billionaire and his heavy French accent doesn't help. Just as the movie seems to be stalling, Milton Berle comes in to inject a bit of humor like the story. It works best when Montand is actually funny. The problem is that his character is not suppose to be that good and he's restricted by this character flaw. Essentially, he is acting with both hands tied behind his back. He manages to throw in a few funny lines but this movie needs more. All the cameos are a fun idea but the execution is less humorous than expected. In general, this is less than expected.

schell-7 Marilyn lights up every scene in which she's not engulfed by the large frame of Montand. She's no less captivating in "Let's Make Love" then she is in "Gentlemen Marry Blondes" when she descends an artificial staircase buttressed by two other leggy actresses who can't for a moment take our gaze away from Marilyn.Nevertheless, the film feels awkward and slow, with a jolting, herky-jerky movement from from one scene to the next. Part of the unease is due to the feminist responses--some, like Gloria Steinem's, in book-length form--that attempt to portray Marilyn as a victim, created and manipulated by the machinery and machinations of a patriarchal Hollywood system. No matter than the autonomous energy and power that Marilyn radiates in every scene give the lie to the notion that she was used and abused as a puppet responding to the strings of her male masters. There was only one Marilyn--whether seen as the essence of glamour and sexiness--or the big screen's brightest female comedienne.It's Marilyn who has power over us, demanding and commanding our gaze, more than any of her "handlers" had control of her. But her talent is based on far more than looks and choreography. The sound of her voice is at one moment "breathy" and the next (especially during her singing) full of ringing overtones, like the 1000 bells that Frank Capra attributed to the speaking voice of Jean Arthur. So enough of the feminist criticisms of this film for enacting the "entrapment" of Marilyn that she was alleged to experience off-screen. Her free spirit resists containment, despite the many attempts of academic minds to wrap their book covers around it.The failures of the film are not the fault of Montand, who can't help it if his large physical size accompanied by undeniable talent, charm and grace, are simply not "right" for the part he's been asked to play. Of the male co-stars originally proposed for the role--Gregory Peck, Gary Cooper, James Stewart, Cary Grant, Rock Hudson--Stewart is the one for whom the only objection might be his age. An extraordinary (if underrated) actor--with unlimited range--by 1960 Stewart was no longer George Bailey (from "It's a Wonderful Life") or even Scottie (from "Vertigo"). But the major problem with the film is it's sheer scale. The producers seemed so enamored of the period's technology--super-Cinemascope plus high-fidelity, multi-track film--that neglected more important elements like story, character development and a film score.On my television screen, the blown-up images threaten to crop out Tony Randall's image in every scene. Like the story, Hollywood's cutting-edge technology creates images that are to simply overblown, or inflated, to create any "suspension of disbelief" experienced by the viewer. Even the length of the project--2 hours--is twice, maybe 4 times, the time needed to tell and "sell" this one-idea story, which could have easily been done in a 30-minute sit-com.Nevertheless, all of the reported off-screen problems-- with writers, directors, stars, labor strikes, make-up artists and costume designers--would have meant nothing to anybody--if the picture and been an instant commercial success. Advice: don't read anything more about this movie. Instead, just watch the film. Or just watch Marilyn.(Addendum: Today the words "make love" have acquired a much more specific meaning--practically a euphemism for "the act itself"--than was the case in 1960. Up until 1968 "making love" referred to nothing more than cuddling and kissing. So lighten up and enjoy the vital, unique talent of the screen's inimitable siren, Marilyn.)

williwaw Marilyn Monroe was at the top of the Hollywood star ladder as the Star of Stars when assigned this movie by her home studio 20th. Marilyn Monroe had just had the smash hit of her career with Some Like It Hot (A United Artists film) and 20th wanted to cash in on the MM popularity. Marilyn Monroe had been announced for another UA film John Huston's masterpiece The Misfits co starring Clark Gable and 20th insisted on a Monroe film before MM was allowed to do another film outside 20th. (between 1956 to 1960 while having the greatest star in Hollywood under contract 20th Century Fox did not cast MM in a movie however the very shrewd MM had a play or pay contract and when the studio announced her for Wild River and The Blue Angel but those deals did not materialize MM demanded and got her salary for those films!) Much has been written about this film and when it was released I was disappointed, having seen it recently on the Fox Movie Channel, I now find Lets Make Love charming and Ms Monroe enchanting. George Cukor among the "Approved Directors" on MM's short list ( others were Wilder, Huston, Hitchcock, Wyler, et al) was said to be a director aware of the nuances of a female star's personas ( Hepburn, Garbo, Crawford, Leigh, Holiday, Loren all raved over Cukor.Marilyn Monroe looks stupendous in this movie,and is given fine support by a cast of professional's such as Wilfrid Hyde White, Tony Randall and cameos by Milton Berle and Bing Crosby. Yves Montand, who had a legendary fling during the filming of the movie with MM, is fine as The Billionaire.

Spikeopath Poor romantic comedy that was subsequently talked down by director George Cukor and its two main stars, Yves-Montand and Marilyn Monroe. The latter only doing the film due to contractual commitments to 20th Century Fox. There were also problems with the affair that Montand & Monroe were having since both parties will still married to Simone Signoret and Arthur Miller respectively. Perhaps because they were trying not to show their feelings on screen explains why the coupling comes off as bland and listless? Monroe at least captivates and looks very well here, but Montand is dull as dish water and it's hard to believe that Monroe in character or in real life could go for such dullness.The plot is unadventurous and it's tough enough to swallow without Cukor forcing in lame humour, lead weight dialogue and sub-par music numbers. A spark of hope that we might get a good movie arrives early with Marilyn's entrance, resplendent in figure hugging costume and warbling "My Heart Belongs to Daddy", but it's a false dawn and only serves to remind us why we loved her in the first place, and, that she deserved better than this. Montand's role had been touted to a number of high profile American actors, notably Cary Grant, James Stewart, Rock Hudson and Gregory Peck, the latter of which did get the gig but quickly got out of it upon viewing the script. Peck is also credited with a humorous and most fitting quote about the finished movie. He wryly observed that the end result "About as funny as pushing Grandma down the stairs in a wheelchair." Now where's Tomy Udo when you need him most eh? He could have pushed this movie down the stairs with Grandma too.The film is also guilty of other things. It's at least 30 minutes too long and Tony Randall is badly underused as Coffman, PR aid to Clement (Montand). While cameos by Gene Kelly, Bing Crosby & Milton Berle, as pleasant as they are, just smacks of film makers trying to dress up a dogs dinner. There's some enjoyment to be had in Wilfred Hyde-White's sarcastic support turn, while some value can be got from the De Luxe Color/CinemaScope production. But really they are thin excuses from which to use in recommending this to anyone but the hardiest of Monroe completists. 3/10