Let's Make Love (1960)

Highly Overrated But Still Good

As Good As It Gets

It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

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.

It's hard to believe George Cukor forced Marilyn Monroe to fall for the charmless cad Yves Montand in the last 30 seconds, when she had a fine relationship with Frankie Vaughn for the first two hours. And this may be the unfunniest Milton Berle ever was (and I recently saw his turn as a used-car salesman on The Lucy Show, so that's saying something). Crosby and Kelly do decent parodies of themselves. Wilfrid Hyde White is as impeccable as ever, and Tony Randall was wasted. Even the prologue detailing the five generations of ancestors and how they amassed a billion dollars through period-looking artwork using Montand's face is tedious.

*Spoiler/plot- Let's Make Love, 1960. A French handsome eligible billionaire is tired of women chasing him for his money. He finds a small New York stage play that is making a satire involving him. He shows up to stop the public embarrassment of the shows opening. He falls in love with the lead struggling actress. He tries to win the love of a stage actress by pretending to be another starving New Your actor in the same stage play.*Special Stars- Marilyn Monroe, Yves Montand, Tony Randal, Frankie Vaughan, Wilfrid Hyde-White.*Theme- People from different backgrounds can find common matters to make a relationship.*Trivia/location/goofs- Musical. Script written by Monroe's new husband, Arthur Miller. Lead male role re-cast over six times but finally accepted by M. Monroe's final approval.*Emotion- An entertaining musical film combined with Marilyn Monroe and several great catchy song numbers. A time capsule of the late 50's and so a bit of history for the viewer.*Based On- "Mr. Monroe's" Arthur Miller script.

Wealthy Jean-Marc Clement (Yves Montand) discovers that he is going to be satirized in a play so he pays a visit to rehearsals. However, he is mistaken for an actor and asked to join the troupe. He does so under the alias of Alexander Dumas so that he can get close to the leading lady, Amanda (Marilyn Monroe). But she already has a boyfriend in the leading man, Tony Danton (Frankie Vaughan). Can Jean-Marc get his girl....? Yves Montand is good, apart from his terrible "cock-a-doodle-doo" impressions - truly awful - and there is a very obvious scene which he is given towards the end - you can just imagine the director saying "Give the French guy a mime to do". Milton Berle appears as himself and is both funny and annoying. Bing Crosby appears as himself and is totally pointless and "past it" and Marilyn Monroe shows that she could actually be quite good in certain roles. She seems to have thankfully dropped the baby-talk.Back to the story - it's complete unbelievable garbage. It's not very funny and poor old Frankie Vaughan is treated appallingly as Marilyn's love interest. In the real world, no way would the story pan out how it does. I must also mention the music numbers - they are awful. Despite a few hopeful moments in the opening number "My Heart Belongs to Daddy" (a desperately transparent attempt to emulate the success of "Diamonds Are A Girl's Best Friend"), it's ultimately disappointing. As is the film.