Le milliardaire

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).

This has got to be one of the dullest films MARILYN MONROE ever did--and equally dull is her leading man, the French accented YVES MONTAND who must have left his heart and his talents in France for the duration of filming.

He's simply bland with a capital B and very unfunny. And when MILTON BERLE, GENE KELLY and BING CROSBY attempt to give him pointers on how to be an entertainer, they're impatience with him is understandable. Whatever magic Montand had in his homeland is obscured here by a witless script and poor direction from George Cukor, who even manages to make Marilyn look less than believable as a wistful showgirl.

The faults extend to the songs to. The only reasonably good one is "My Heart Belongs to Daddy" done in a rather coy and simpering style by Monroe but nevertheless, it's the only high point in the whole show. Everything else is better left unmentioned.

Summing up: A waste of two stars who, incidentally, have no chemistry together, at least on screen. Off is another matter.

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.)

This film begins with a French billionaire named "Jean-Marc Clement" (Yves Montand) being informed that a small theater is hosting a play which makes fun of him. Naturally, being somewhat curious he goes to a rehearsal to see for himself. But as it so happens, while there he is accidently mistaken for an actor wanting to play the part and since he seems so natural for the role he is hired immediately. At first he has no inclination to accept the offer but upon seeing the lead actress named "Amanda Dell" (Marilyn Monroe) he begrudgingly acquiesces in order to get to know her better. And during this process he also gets to know himself better too. Now rather than reveal any more I will just say that, even though the film centers around the character played by Yves Montand, the main attraction was clearly Marilyn Monroe who performed in an outstanding manner. Unfortunately, not only did none of the other actors perform up to her level but the plot lacked the humor necessary for a comedy of this type as well. That being said, while I enjoyed this film for the most part, I have to rate it as just slightly above average.

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.