Let's Make Love (1960)
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Film:
DVD:

Written by Norman Krasna
Directed by George Cukor
Starring Marilyn Monroe, Ives Montand, Tony Randall, Frankie Vaughan

Features:

• stills gallery
  
• theatrical trailer
  
• restoration comparison
  
• English and French language tracks
  
• English and Spanish subtitles
  

Rating: NR

Anamorphic: Yes.

My Advice: Skip it.

Billionaire Jean Marc Clement has heard that there's a new theatre production in the works, this one making fun of him. Investigating at the theatre, he lands the role playing himself, but no one knows it's really him. Falling instantly in love at first sight with his co-star, Marilyn, the rest of the movie follows their romance as the rich boy pretends to be poor and is educated in love by a host of cameo stars.

While there are things to like about this film, there are also a few oddities and problems that interrupt enjoyment of the movie. Let's Make Love is ostensibly another star vehicle for Marilyn Monroe, but the plot is really about Montand as Clement; he's in every scene just about, but she has comparatively little screen time.

Another problem is the complete lack of on-screen spark between Montand and Monroe. I never thought I would see a love scene involving Marilyn Monroe that was as passionless as these were, especially given that the stars were involved in an off-screen love affair during the filming. But the romance just doesn't fly on film. Montand's best scene takes place when he is separated from Monroe, doing a kind of performance art/mime-like piece onstage. Given that this film is Marilyn's next-to-last film, her marriage with Arthur Miller in serious trouble (especially considering her fling with Montand), perhaps she is just ready for a break. It is, however, a nice change from her typical "dumb blonde" roles and that squeaky voice they expect her to adopt.

Perhaps paradoxically for a film, the stage feel never succeeds. The film scenes of the theatre lack any kind of creative energy or interest; they come across as a bunch of scenes shot in the back of a theatre with people standing around, not as a company of artists creating something they're passionate about. For a good look at theatre life, see such films as A Midwinter's Tale (aka In The Bleak Midwinter) and Peter's Friends.

The musical numbers are also rather...odd, as if the transition from 1940s glamour and beatnik cool to the later hippy aesthetic left everyone confused. The famous Cole Porter tune "My Heart Belongs to Daddy" is featured in the beginning of this movie, but the number itself is just a weird montage of Marilyn in a sweater and tights in a crush of men. It lacks sense, meaning, and context.

Other than the problems between Montand and Monroe, the acting is solid enough. The cameos are really the best part of this film, including such luminaries as Bing Crosby, Gene Kelly, and Milton Berle, who all lend their talents to making Clement more of a Romeo. Tony Randall is also quite good and believable as Clement's weary personal assistant; too bad his part rather disappears halfway through the film, leaving him just hanging about in shots and not saying anything.

The features are also a bit lackluster, containing essentially only the trailer and a stills gallery. The gallery is nice enough, but how about an interview with any surviving actors? What is it really like to perform with Ms. Monroe? And how about more information about the travails of making stage acting work in film? Or a discussion of Marilyn's most famous songs and her voice? The mediocre extras, however, perfectly suit the rather mediocre and uninspired film.

All in all, Let's Make Love will interest Marilyn completists and those viewers passionate about off-Broadway films, but there's little else here for the rest of us. It's worth a viewing just to see the cameos, but other than that, I'd say to skip it. If you just need a Marilyn fix, get Bus Stop or Gentlemen Prefer Blondes instead.