Let’s Make Love (1960)

• Year: 1960
• Released: 08 Sep 1960
• Country: United States
• Adwords: Nominated for 1 Oscar. 6 nominations total
• IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0054022/
• Rotten Tomatoes: https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/lets_make_love
• Available in: 720p, 1080p,
• Language: English, French, German, Chinese, Italian, Arabic
• MPA Rating: Not Rated
• Genre: Comedy, Musical, Romance
• Runtime: 119 min
• Writer: Norman Krasna, Hal Kanter, Arthur Miller
• Director: George Cukor
• Cast: Marilyn Monroe, Yves Montand, Tony Randall
• Keywords: musical,

	6.4/10
	69% – Critics
	60% – Audience

Let’s Make Love Storyline

New York-based French billionaire Jean-Marc Clément VII has been able to build on the fortunes of the first six Jean-Marc Cléments before him, in the process being known, in his excessive leisure, more for being a love ’em-and-leave ’em playboy than a businessman. Alexander Kaufman, his head publicist, learns that Clément is one of the many well-known personalities being satirized in an off-Broadway musical, “Let’s Make Love,” currently in production, they who will skewer his playboy status. After Clément and Kaufman discuss what they should do, including the option to shut down the show regardless of the fact that Clément truly doesn’t mind being portrayed in a satirical way, they decide the best first measure of defense is to make a surprise appearance at a rehearsal just to show that he is a good sport, and thus may be less of a target. Clément and Kaufman’s appearance at the rehearsal coincides with the auditions for the relatively minor roles of the many celebrities being satirized. As no one recognizes him but thinks he looks like Clément, Clément decides to play along and accepts the role of Clément if only because he is captivated by one of the featured performers, Amanda Dell. The more that Clément spends with Amanda, the more that he truly does fall in love with her, true love which is a first in his life, and wants to marry her. Clément has many obstacles to overcome for Amanda to feel the same about him. First, he seems to be competing for her affections with the man who is her leading man, Tony Danton. Second, he doesn’t want to look foolish in front of her, which he may be asked to do in portraying himself in the show. Third, he doesn’t seem to be the type of man personality-wise to whom she would be attracted. As such, he decides to hire only the best to teach him to be the man he believes to who she would be attracted, teachers whom may only able to do so much in this situation. And fourth and arguably most difficult, she has a generally poor opinion about “Clément” from what she knows about him through general publicity and as he is portrayed in the show.

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Let’s Make Love Movie Reviews

An Outstanding Performance by Marilyn Monroe

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.

Hard to believe but still worth watching

“I hope you can kiss better than you can sing.” When I heard this line from the film regarding Yves Montand, I had to laugh, as in real life Montand sold a bazillion records over his long career.

In LET’S MAKE LOVE he plays a mega-millionaire who tries to pretend to be a stage actor–paying the likes of Milton Berle, Gene Kelly and Bing Crosby to give him lessons on comedy, dance and singing. So why would a rich guy like this go to all this trouble? Well, when the industrialist (Montand) hears that an off Broadway play will be lampooning him (as well as others), he’s curious and sneaks in to watch rehearsals. There he sees sexy Marilyn Monroe and is so struck by her he doesn’t tell anyone who he really is. And, in a strange twist, the producer decides to hire him to play himself–not realizing Montand really is the millionaire! He decides to go with it and says nothing to the company, as he plans on staying with the production and wooing Marilyn. The trouble is that he’s NOT a professional and so he hires the best people to train him–and that’s where Berle, Kelly and Crosby come into the film.

This story idea is actually reminiscent of a great old film, THE DEVIL AND MISS JONES–where a rich department store owner decides to pose an a regular employee in order to spy on “rabble-rousers” in the company. Though the stories differ quite a bit, both certainly have similarities. Bkoganbing’s review indicates that LET’S MAKE LOVE is very, very similar to 1937’s ON THE AVENUE, though I can’t really say since I haven’t yet seen this film.

The problems with the film are abundant even though I still think it earns a 7. That’s because the plot is so very likable you can ignore the ridiculousness of the plot (it really is tough to believe) as well as that many of the song and dance numbers don’t seem all that great. While Miss Monroe has a HUGE cult-like following, I don’t think her singing and dancing were all that great–but she was nice to look at and did a better job at acting. Overall, it’s a nice little romance and worth a look.

FYI–Casting Montand is an interesting choice to play a nice industrialist, as he was a member of the Communist party in France up until 1968!

Yearning for love

‘Lets Make Love’ could have been at least good. It should have been at least good. Marilyn Monroe was capable of giving good performances, evident in ‘Some Like it Hot’, ‘Gentlemen Prefer Blondes’ and ‘The Misfits’ in particular. Cameos from legends such as Bing Crosby and Gene Kelly promised such a lot, being fond of both of them. As did having George Cukor as a director, a vast majority of the time he was a more than reliable director and his best work are classics.

It really pains and infuriates me to say that ‘Lets Make Love’ doesn’t do either of them justice, with only Monroe coming off reasonably and even she did much better. Cukor is especially wronged. While it is not a terrible film, it is not hard to see why critics generally didn’t care for it and why it has evoked such mixed reactions here. Even Monroe didn’t think of it that highly herself. As far as her films go, ‘Lets Make Love’ is a contender for her worst, yes liked it even less than ‘Bus Stop’.

The production values, starting with the good things, are quite gorgeous, with the photography particularly dazzling. Monroe has seen better days physically, but her charm, sensuality and magnetic presence that she always had are far from lost here.

“My Heart Belongs to Daddy” is absolutely sublime, very heartfelt and a high point of Monroe’s career. Wilfred Hyde-White and Frankie Vaughn fare the best of the rest of the cast by far (giving the only good performances), both deserved more to do but their likeability shines through.

Which cannot be said for everybody else. The waste of Crosby, Kelly and Milton Berle (who is not funny here) is criminal and Yves Montand (who apparently wasn’t the first choice, that was Gregory Peck who was wise to not go further) is terrible. No charisma or personality here and his comic timing is as leaden as a deflated balloon. His chemistry with Monroe is non-existent practically, it actually looks as though they hated each other rather than being the romantically involved couple they were behind the scenes. Was in disbelief that Cukor was the director as one would not have guessed, calling his direction uninspired is being far too kind. It actually came over more like he didn’t know what to do with it or want to do it, so much the amount of indifference that the whole of ‘Lets Make Love’ reeks of.

Other than “My Heart Belongs to Daddy”, the songs are forgettable at best and even quite weak with the lyrics especially being laughable. The script is all soapy, vapid melodrama, uneasily balanced with flabby attempts at comedy. Rather than baring any signs of sharp needed (nowhere near present) in the more satirical moments. The story is like one severely soggy and under-poprtioned triple, what there is has nothing to it.

All in all, disappointing. 4/10