Le milliardaire

This is by no means a great film, but I was pleasantly surprised in the end. Montand and Monroe both do good jobs. Tony Randall is always enjoyable, and Milton Berle has a great time teaching Montand how to be funny, the best comic moment of the film. Having just seen Montand in The Wages of Fear, one of the most intense movies ever made, it was interesting to see him goofing off and having a good time. This role takes him back to some of the songs he sang early in his career, not long after Edith Piaf discovered him. I only wish he had been able to sing more in the movie. I'm not a big fan of Monroe - her dumb-blonde routine generally irritates me - but she seems more vulnerable in this film, more pleasant to watch. She particularly impressed me in the musical numbers. Unfortunately, the costume designer did a lousy job - everything seems too big on her, or just tacky. Compare these costumes to those of Bardot in Une Parisenne, made around the same time period. There are ways and then there are ways to show off a body like that of Bardot or Monroe. All in all, this is a light piece of fluff, with some humorous moments, some sappy moments, some good musical numbers, some bad writing, some good cameos by Berle, Bing, and Gene Kelly, a silly storyline, Yves Montand, Monroe, and a good dose of fun.

Without what we know about her now, this movie wouldn't be worth the time it took to watch it. However, now we know about what was going on while the movie was being shot, you can see the attraction between her and Msieu Montand, whose wife took him back afterwards. It's funny, since I've seen him in a French movie, where HIS wife was unfaithful and how he copes with that. What goes around comes around, I suppose.

Montand has to act silly, which must have been as painful for him as it was for his character, a multi-billionaire trying to win Miss Musical Star, Marilyn. Watching the male singer in this movie was funny, as it reminds you of the 40s and the Dean Martin style crooners. Watching Bing Crosby and Milton Berl teach Yves how to sing and be funny was a hoot!!! "Don't 'bubba-boo-boo', or you'll get arrested," Bing suggests. Watching Milton berl walk on his ankles wasn't all that funny, but this was the 60s after all.

I liked the musical numbers, and watching Yves' face do all its rubbery wrinkling numbers. He may have been a great actor because he could put on so many different expressions, but his best movie was the one where he's trying to run for office in a crooked Banana Republic (sorta like our present government), a Cost-Grava film.

See this one just to remind you of how beautiful, how vulnerable, Marilyn was: 2 years from her suicide????!!!! She really had some nice moves, and a great figure when a tummy wasn't considered obscene (in our day of anorexic sexy?? stars).

I read the comments in Imdb, and was prepared to dislike this film. And, parts of it were not very good. However, ... Marilyn Monroe had such magic. It wasn't that she was the best actress around, or the best singer, because she wasn't. But, ... Wow, she just electrifies the screen. So much more than a pretty face. Okay, enough slobbering over Marilyn. The rest of the film is quite forgettable. Yves Montand was adequate. Tony Randall did just fine. The cameos by Milton Berle, Bing Crosby, and Gene Kelly were OK. But Marilyn...

Okay, I'm one of the biggest and most loyal Marilyn fans, but this movie sucks. Her character is at times cute but not nearly as cute/lovable as her other "dumb blonde" roles such as The Girl in "The Seven Year Itch." I do not like Yves Montand or his character - sorry to go with stereotypes, but he is the "Dirty Frenchman," spying on her, finding out her address and personal information, twisting things to get her affection, being cloyingly (and not convincingly) sweet to "win" her...And as far as theplay that was going on...okay, though I loved the number, what does "My Heart Belongs to Daddy" have to do with the play's supposed point? And if you'll notice, Yves is not very good at anything, even after all those people try to help him sing, but funny, etc. Yet they keep him on the play when Amanda's boyfriend is doing all the rehearsing for the Jean-Marc character. So does he have teh part or not? And if not, why is her still there?! Nothing in this movie fits with what it's supposed to be doing! I've read that Marilyn did not like this role, and neither did I. She may "have a heart of gold," and all those other cliches, but the character is just dumb (despite her going to night school - she should get her money back). Like I said, I love Marilyn but...even she saw how absurd this film was! If you're interested in Marilyn's best "dumb blonde" characters, I suggest you go see "The Seven Year Itch," "Some Like It Hot," or "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes" with its superb "Diamonds Are A Girl's Best Friend" song (though her character in this movie is not really dumb...go see it, you'll know what I mean.)

I was pretty unimpressed with this movie, to be frank. There was something about every aspect of it that didn't quite add up and you're left with an essentially dull film, which you're not really too concerned about by the end. I am a huge fan of Marilyn but I don't feel she was at all her best in this picture, and I don't think that's entirely her fault - the film around her is incredibly flimsy. The dialogue is often wooden and unconvincing, and Montand's character and his storyline are just totally unbelievable - nothing of what he says or what he does was convincing to me and this really brought the film down very hard and very quickly. The musical numbers are pretty standard fair and were nothing Marilyn hadn't done before. The film didn't make me laugh and I didn't care what happened to the characters. If anything I was only sad the talented Marilyn Monroe was a part of the film - as her portfolio shows she was deserving of far higher quality films than this. I can't recommend the film as it's not really worth your time and you probably won't enjoy it - if you just want to see all of Monroe's film's than see it, but otherwise don't bother.