Yves Montand is a billionaire industrialist who gets wind of an off-Broadway revue satirising him but when he’s mistaken for an actor auditioning to play him onstage, he goes along with it because he falls hard for Marilyn Monroe, the show’s star. The stars may have taken the title literally, but even for them, as with everyone else concerned, this was a most unhappy affair. Monroe was treated disdainfully by director George Cukor, who had no real interest in improving veteran humorist Norman Krasna’s leaden screenplay, which Monroe’s husband playwright Arthur Miller tried and failed to improve and Hal Kanter also made unsuccessful additions. Miller abandoned the production to sojourn in Ireland with director John Huston to write The Misfits, which was the opportunity Monroe and Montand sought to consummate a love affair played out on film. Her appearance, costuming and makeup are quite weird and couldn’t have been what she wanted. The only good scene is the very first one with Monroe – her entrance down a fireman’s pole singing My Heart Belongs to Daddy. And it’s stunning. It was put together by choreographer Jack Cole, a personal friend. Everything else can be blamed on Cukor. The song and dance sequences simply fall flat and the jokes don’t work. Getting Montand tutoring from stars Milton Berle, Bing Crosby and Gene Kelly heightens the delusion especially since his lack of conviction can largely be attributed to the fact that he didn’t speak English. No other big star would appear with Monroe, put off both by her reputation and the fact that her role was expanded at their expense. Cukor refused to do any reshoots and it was Monroe’s last musical comedy appearance and her penultimate performance. Tony Randall plays Montand’s right-hand man, not for the first or last time in a romantic comedy. There is British interest in seeing Frankie Vaughan, a music hall and recording star, who is Monroe’s co-star and lover until she falls for the down-on-his-luck Montand in disguise. Monroe’s final, disastrous filming experience was also courtesy of Cukor, on Something’s Got To Give, and his treatment of the fragile actress was toxic, changing the script each day and faking it by putting in the wrong coloured pages in her copy. When he had her sacked, Dean Martin walked off the production because he had persuaded her to do it on the basis of the original screenplay, which they both loved. When Cukor discussed her with Gavin Lambert, he said “I think she was quite mad.” Male stars were wary of him because of his very ‘out’ homosexuality which was allegedly what made Gable get him taken off Gone With the Wind. Maybe. He may have been on to something.
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