“How to Marry a Millionaire” is a film showcasing three A-list actresses: Lauren Bacall, Betty Grable, and Marilyn Monroe. These names are instantly recognizable to anyone who is aware of 1940s and 50s culture. Lauren Bacall made many film noirs with her husband, Humphrey Bogart, Betty Grable was a beloved pin-up girl during World War II, and Marilyn Monroe was a blonde bombshell with a famous figure. How many films have you seen with these actresses? Each of these ladies was a huge film star during the Golden Era of Hollywood.
The three worked together on a 20th Century Fox movie in 1953 called “How to Marry a Millionaire,” a very entertaining movie with some fascinating attributes. It starts with an onscreen performance of Alfred Newman’s Gershwin-inspired “Street Scene” by the 20th Century Fox Orchestra, conducted dramatically by Newman himself. The film features amazing costumes for all three actresses, showcasing the finest 1950s couture against the backdrop of location footage from New York. In addition, it’s a chance to re-discover these multi-faceted actresses in a meaningful story.
A Story of 3 Women
Three beautiful young models pool their funds to rent a deluxe New York apartment, fully equipped with glamorous furnishings. The ladies are Schatze Page (Bacall), Loco Dempsey (Grable), and Pola Debevoise (Monroe). Schatze, the brains behind the operation, was briefly married to a no-good “gas pump jockey,” but she plans to follow her head now, not her heart. Loco is a fun-loving girl who’s a sucker for a handsome face and is just as impressed by a hamburger as a mink coat. Pola is a beautiful blonde who is “blind as a bat” but refuses to wear glasses around any man, since she thinks it will turn him off. Schatze figures that you have to set the right kind of trap if you want to snare a millionaire, and only one of the three girls has to marry a wealthy man for them all to be set, at least temporarily. In the meantime, they sell the expensive furniture to pay the rent month after month.Loco brings men home with her from the store night after night. The first prospect she brings is Tom Brookman (Cameron Mitchell), a handsome but casually dressed young man who takes an immediate liking to Schatze. She pegs him as another gas pump jockey and rejects his frequent invitations in pursuit of wealthier suitors, but he is persistent. After a long three months, Loco brings home a distinguished middle-aged gentleman, J. D. Hanley (William Powell), whom she met in the mink department. Hanley, a Texas millionaire, invites the three ladies to an oilman convention. Afterward, Schatze pairs up with the widowed Hanley, Pola goes out with young, big-talking oil magnate Stewart (Alexander D’Arcy), and Loco ends up with a married businessman named Waldo Brewster (Fred Clark).
Get Rich Quick, the Hard Way
The three girls have their get-rich-quick scheme all planned out. Although they are looking for a fast road to riches, they aren’t taking a path of easy virtue. Schatze has strict rules for her proposition. The idea isn’t just to catch a wealthy man—the idea is to marry him. It would be much easier to find a married millionaire who wants a mistress or a single tycoon who wants a playmate instead of a wife. It’s a greater challenge to persuade a rich man to pop the question to an enterprising model. However, Schatze’s goal isn’t just to find a wealthy man who will keep her, at any cost. Her goal is to find a man who will give her the respect, courtesy, and financial support which her first husband, an abusive bum, didn’t. This can only be achieved through marriage. As she explains to the other girls, “If you don’t marry him, you haven’t caught him, he’s caught you.”
In the early 1930s, this film would have been about three gold diggers who are looking to trap a wealthy man without marrying him. It probably would have been called, “How to Catch a Millionaire,” and the three girls might have been sleazy chorus dancers instead of respectably costumed models. The character of Schatze probably would have been a bitter divorcee who was so soured on married life that she had decided the entire institute of marriage is slavery for women. She would convince her two friends that the only way for women to get ahead in the 20th century is to enslave men as they have long enslaved women. The only way to do this, of course, would be to make men support them without the restrictive bonds of marriage, according to these liberated women. One of the other girls would probably have parents with an abusive relationship, and the other would have a history of unsuccessful romances. In the end, the three girls would doubtless end up falling in love with nice guys and getting married, but the problematic messages would remain.
What’s the difference between the existing film and how it might have been made in the early 1930s? Content standards for films were very different in the early 1950s than they had been two decades earlier. In 1930-1934, Hollywood was in what is now called its Pre-Code Era. With the advent of sound in the late 1920s, the film industry discovered the power of risqué dialogue in making movies dirtier and more daring than they’d ever dreamed possible. Naturally, censor boards and concerned citizens across the country were not happy with these new standards, or lack thereof.
In 1930, the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors Association, Hollywood’s public relations organization, headed by Will Hays, adopted the Motion Picture Production Code. Something had to be done to get film content under control, and the Code’s thorough yet flexible guidelines for making movies acceptable for everyone seemed ideal. The poor system set up for enforcing the Code made it totally ineffective for the first four years. Thankfully, in July 1934, the Production Code Administration was formed with Joseph I. Breen as its administrator. Under his watchful eye, the Code was properly enforced for twenty years, and movies were appropriate for all ages.
Something Different
Marilyn Monroe is one of the most famous actresses of all time, and her image is still frequently perpetuated. She is best remembered for her sensational movies, in which she wore scandalous costumes and did risqué stunts. “How to Marry a Millionaire” is a refreshingly decent film of hers. Although her famous figure is beautifully flattered in her glamorous costumes, her body isn’t flaunted as in her later films. Pola starts as her typical shallow character, content to marry any wealthy man, but she later displays a deeper side. As she confronts her fear that men won’t admire her if they see her wearing glasses, she reveals a vulnerability and a strong desire to be loved. I think Marilyn tapped into her own feelings of insecurity to make her performance during her interactions with David Wayne very believable.Lauren Bacall is best remembered for her marriage to and films with Humphrey Bogart. However, her talent and career extended far beyond the four 1940s crime mysteries they made together. This movie gives her a chance to shine in her own right. Although there is a large cast, Schatze is the most developed character. It really is her story, since she must discover that her theories about love, marriage, and finances are easy to preach but hard to practice. In the role, Bacall gets to show off her comedic timing as well as her dramatic abilities.
Betty Grable’s character, Loco, is the simplest girl, so she is much less dedicated to the pursuit of riches than her two friends. Although she doesn’t sing and dance in this movie, as a model she gets to show off her “million-dollar legs,” which were famously insured by Lloyd’s of London.
If you want to see Bacall without Bogie, Grable as a model, and Monroe beautifully dressed, enjoy this fun yet poignant story from the era when Hollywood knew how to make their stars look glamorous.
