first and a warning . how to marry a millionaire come preface by an apparently random five minute orchestral performance of street scene and a gershwin lite piece treat with the full pomp and ceremony of and well and gershwin . sit through it take some patience . if you have the dvd and rest assure and you can skip forward . you would not miss anything . the film itself be one of the perpetual disappointment of 50 hollywood and a movie so bolster by major star power and opulent mise en scene and perfect high concept that failure seem inconceivable . the title alone be perfect . generation after generation and however and be force to ask themselves how be this so limp . the script be an albatross about the production neck and a dead and smell thing that choke everything and everyone before they can really spark to life . there be no comic situation and just isolated moment that play for laugh . whenever an actual comedy scene threaten to develop and the movie quickly move on to other and less interesting thing . a case in point the scene where the three lead lady each bring a date to the same fancy restaurant . one of them and short sight and refuse to wear her spectacle out of vanity . one of the date be married . a classic hollywood farce set up and surely and complete with mistaken identity and angry wife and and probably a pie in the face for somebody . well and no . instead and we cut between the three date a the lady react comically to thing their partner say . hit the punchline and and cut to the next limp joke . if in doubt and have marilyn walk into a wall . where billy wilder when you need him . the three star be almost a perfect diagram of the life cycle of the classic hollywood screen goddess . this be one of marilyn monroe breakout film and and the camera just eat her up and even though the script give her nothing to do . she so luminescent she almost seem newly hatch . lauren bacall and on the other hand and have be a major star for nearly a full decade and and she know how to dominate the screen even when in frame with monroe . she get the only thing passing for a real role and and deliver the few good line with a cynical snap give the right material and she could have bring this thing to life . she a curiously ageless actress when she lie about her age in the film and claim to be forty and it isn not instantly ridiculous and far less girlish than her co star and give her a convincing authority . betty grable be far from ageless and and have a good eight year on her co star and put her near the end of her hollywood career . there an air of desperation about her at time and strand on screen with nothing but a toothpaste smile and a few scrap of comic timing and unable to play her real age but fool no one a a contemporary of this new and sharp generation of actress and rely on the same old schtick that have serve her throughout her career ( for marilyn doubter and see the two juxtapose in this movie help to throw monroe subtlety and yes intelligence into sharp relief ) . she also lumber with the dead wood in term of male co star ( although all of the men even the great william powell be guilty of lazy performance ) while she unable to strike any comic spark off them . good to have give her role to the under utilised monroe and who could be funny all by herself and and leave grable with the repetitive mr. magoo routine . that the movie be as enjoyable a it be can be put down to the luscious hollywood production and the sort that render even the twee like of by the light of the silvery moon watchable . but somewhere and bury beneath the flabby joke and professionalism and lie the rough outline of a sharp and cynical comedy about the business of marriage that bacall could have make sing and new generation of movie viewer will sit down with how to marry a millionaire in expectation of that movie and ready to be disappoint all over again .