06.21.05
Movie Review: How to Marry a Millionaire (1953)

By my count this is the fifth film version of Zoe Atkins play about a trio of gold digging pals, The Greeks Had a Word For It- it had previously been filmed in 1932 under the slightly more refined title The Greeks Had a Word for Them, which was then remade as Three Blind Mice, Moon Over Miami and Three Little Girls in Blue.

This version stars ascending blonde Marilyn Monroe, descending blonde Betty Grable, and Lauren Bacall as the wisecracking brunette in the middle. In the play and 1932 film, the girls had no visable means of support except the wealthy men in their lives. This version has us believe that they are department store models who have pooled their savings for a 1-year sublet on a ritzy apartment which they shall use to lure rich husbands. The all endure a variety of mishaps before living happily ever after. Lauren Bacall gets the biggest laugh-out-loud line after Grable and Monroe have disappeared without paying the rent. A friend asks “They just ran off, didn’t they even write?” “How can they?” growls Bacall “They’re illiterate.”

This might be the ladies version of the 60’s Rat Pack movies- some of the scenes have an improvised feel to them, and it’s loaded with in-jokes (usually at the expense of Grable’s and Bacall’s real-life husbands Harry James and Humphrey Bogart).