How to Marry a Millionaire Film Critique

Film Critique/ Analysis #9

Michael Atkinson

Cinema 28

We All Would Like Wealth

In a very classic Hollywood film, Jean Negulesco directs How to Marry a Millionaire (1953). In this film, three young women conspire to marry three rich men so that they won’t ever have to work another day in their life. The women decide to rely on their good-looks and charm in order to entice men into marrying them. 

The film was full of an unrealistic plot where things like that just don’t happen. Literally, as soon as the women moved into their regal apartment, an older gentleman invites them to a party where each woman finds a man who is deemed worthy of marriage for their wealth. The dialogue is supposed to be comedic and yes, at times, it was a bit funny because the poor girls were so ditzy, it was hard not to chuckle at their bumbling selves. However, most of the comedic efforts made just fell flat. It really became hard to believe exactly what was happening and oftentimes the film felt more like a stage play. For instance: one of the three women goes up to Maine to spend a weekend in a lodge with a man she would like to marry. There she is upset when she finds out the lodge is not in fact a lodge but a cabin and she makes herself so that she gives herself measles. I, for one, cannot even fathom how that is possible, and so I went along with it. Then, showing no signs or symptoms, she is supposedly supposed to be running a fever, sweating, have a rash, etc. And not one of those things is shown, she merely acts it and they talk about it - more or less, exactly like in a play on stage.

It was not the acting that made this film hard to watch. Marylyn Monroe played a perfect character, along with Betty Grable and Lauren Bacall. All three of these beautiful ladies were exceptional, playing their character extraordinarily and adding their own charm to each of the personalities. The acting was by far the best point of the film. Other than the acting, the scene cut way too quickly, feeling like nothing every got taken care of. The audience wants to see what is going to happen between certain characters but then we are ripped away and brought somewhere else to look in on a different character. Cutting the scene too early does not allow for the tension to set in and does not give us a chance to bond with the characters. 

In the end, it seems everything is solved too quickly as the three woman learn that the “marrying type” of men don’t always have money. It is a bit of an old saying but one that still holds true to today. But in all, this is a film from the 1950s, filmed during the Golden Age of Hollywood and obviously all done in a studio, never on locations. The film does have an all-star cast of beautiful icons and so, I guess we can let some of these faults slide.