My father adored Marilyn and said that when this film came out, apart from her, it was trash. Looking at it over 50 years later, I agree with him.
She is divine as ever but the rest to me looks very sad: ill-acted uninteresting characters stumbling through a disjointed and utterly trivial plot to lively but nothing special song and dance with comedy routines that make one cringe. Have I missed anything?
This film does have its good moments.
"My Heart Belongs To Daddy" is a great number.
The cameo appearances by Crosby, Gene Kelly and Milton Berle are a treasure.
I quite agree with Conta. Marilyn is probably better known for 'My Heart Belongs To Daddy' than Mary Martin. She made it a signature song. The writer's strike didn't help, and VP of MM Productions Arthur Miller was a wrench in the whole working mess.
shareSeeing it now for first time during MM marathon on her b-day.
Yes there's the baby tummy seen in Daddy number and all the mentioned things.
But the musical tone in beginning stage set scenes brought to mind early Fosse routines. See th goofing on contemporary celebs names of the moment, like Elvis, and "Bring on the Cliburns" as part of the behind stage prep work. Lifting the curtain wasn't all that common then.
As a study of the period there's nothing that bad about mixing theater and film.
Buying comedy jokes to fit in and be fresh is a clever device. "New is easy, funny is hard". "I ghost the ghost!" in reference to joke writing.
Certainly worth taking in this one if a film fan. There's enough here the way there can be in some period movies. Watching the take-offs on a Sinatra, Martin singer style "Crazy Eyes" is an example. I mean this is just 1960 but it does have elements of European street filming techniques mixed with Hollywood.
There's even a touch of what Sweet Charity and Chorus Line might have picked up on the way the cast moves around on rehersal stage, the informality. It's the things like that saving the effort from just being a typical wash out. Course there's MM too.
I always had a soft spot for MM in this film. (I, too, saw it in 1960) Although her role is kind of insignificant, she is so charming. There's patchy editing and a few grim close-ups of a tired Monroe, but she and Montand do have a certain appeal together, I think.
As a movie it's not much, but for MM fans there are pleasures to be found.
but she and Montand do have a certain appeal together, I think.
It picks up considerably in the last 20 minutes when the focus is MM/Montand, and what a pity the entire movie wasn't like the final scenes in Montand's office. I can't help being charmed by her here. It's a natural, sweet performance.
shareby Charlot47 » Mon May 19 2014 04:11:01
IMDb member since November 2009
My father adored Marilyn and said that when this film came out, apart from her, it was trash. Looking at it over 50 years later, I agree with him.
She is divine as ever but the rest to me looks very sad: ill-acted uninteresting characters stumbling through a disjointed and utterly trivial plot to lively but nothing special song and dance with comedy routines that make one cringe. Have I missed anything?
Wow, you are too harsh on the 2 sexiest actors of all time. I am part French and have this sweet movie in my closet in VHS somewhere but never got around to watch it, I finally watched it last night. MM was so sweet, so beautiful, Yves Montand was such a heart throb, I never even paid attention, the few movies of him, he was already 65 or so (Jean de Florette). He was so tall, 6ft2, ruggedly handsome, they made a charming couple, now I I must find out why IMDB said their illfated affair was tragic!. It sure was a somewhat silly movie but entertaining nevertheless, a great way to pass an idle Sunday afternoon. I remember Howard Hughes comment regarding Anna Nicole Smith, who so much wanted to be MM, he said Anna could never be MM. MM was charming, all natural feminine body, she could dance and sang in the sweetest breathingly sexy voice.
shareAs a red-white-and-blue-blooded heterosexual American male, I can safely say that the likes of William Shatner, Tom Cruise, Cary Grant, and Gary Cooper are good looking actors, regardless of their nationalities (Canadian, US, UK, what not).
Having said that, Yves Montaind was one of the ugliest human beings I'd ever seen in my entire life. A big exaggerated nose combined with a sloping brow and what I would characterize as almost a neanderthal like facial geometry.
If you're a lady and like that sort of big tall and gruesome kind, then more power to you.
Hey, I'm a fat bald guy. Maybe someone could invent a time machine and take me back to hook up with Marilyn in that film.
a red-white-and-blue-blooded heterosexual American male, I can safely say that the likes of William Shatner, Tom Cruise, Cary Grant, and Gary Cooper are good looking actors, regardless of their nationalities (Canadian, US, UK, what not).
Having said that, Yves Montaind was one of the ugliest human beings I'd ever seen in my entire life. A big exaggerated nose combined with a sloping brow and what I would characterize as almost a neanderthal like facial geometry.
Or perhaps this is just mere envy, as a fat baldie who would stand no chance with a MM. Yves Montand has been so often described as one of the most charming and among the sexiest artists of his time and his well-garnished record and string of lovers (not so nice from Simone Signoret's POV though), which includes Marilyn, of course, whom he had seduced during LML filming, Edith Piaf and other extremely seducing and lovely women, speaks so much for itself that your attempt to deny his obvious attributes as an attractive man from women's POV is rather pitiful. I''m a heterosexual male, I've seen Yves Montand at a solo concert in my home town, and I can certify that even in his 70s, this tall, slim and almost feline showman was a wonder to see, sheer elegance and romanticism and yes, in a very French way, notwithstanding your bigoted, chauvinistic posture.
I'm afraid your real problem with Yves Montand is his not being an Anglo-Saxon, which is a must for you for any man's worth to win MM's heart (and all the rest). Too bad for you, she listened to her female instinct and Montand won!