"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!
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!