"Look at Roosevelt, look at Churchill, look at old fella what's his name in The African Queen."

With hits like Niagara (1953) and Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953), Marilyn Monroe stepped into the big time of movies when she costarred with Betty Grable and Lauren Bacall in How to Marry a Millionaire (1953).

Actually she wasn’t the costar on the set, she was the star. Publicity men and news photographers would gather around Marilyn any time they were on the set. This didn’t sit well with the veteran actors at first, but they eventually took her under their wing and became like older sisters to Marilyn.

Besides catapulting Marilyn to the top of Fox’s box office attractions, and marking the beginning of the end of the acting career of Betty Grable, this was the first movie shot in CinemaScope. The studios were all developing new widescreen techniques to make their pictures seem bigger. The aspect ratios on CinemaScope and Vistavision and all the other widescreen forms made scenery such as mountains look majestic. Here it just makes Marilyn Monroe, Lauren Bacall and Betty Grable look bigger. That might not be a bad thing.

Bacall plays divorcee Schatze, who decides she will do it different this time around by marrying a wealthy man. She and her two friends, Loco and Pola, played by Grable and Monroe respectively, take up residence in a New York penthouse apartment. The apartment they are renting belongs to man who is in trouble with the IRS and has to flee for Europe.

So Schatze gets a deal on the place, but things don’t go well for the trio at the beginning. The wealthy bachelors aren’t flocking to their place and the bills are piling up. To raise money, Schatze decides to sell some of the furniture in the apartment.

The apartment becomes bare, but a man comes inside. Tom Brookman helps Loco bring in groceries one night. Tom has it bad for Schatze, but she thinks he is just another low-life, like her first husband. He tries to get her to go out with him, but she never returns his calls.

The trio takes a night out on the town and find three wealthy men. They don’t exactly like the men, but they are rich and that is all the girls are looking for. Schatze is with widower J.D. Hanley, played by William Powell, who happens to be much older than Schatze.

Loco becomes acquainted with a businessman with a bad temper. He takes her for a weekend to his cabin in Maine. She finds out he is married and wants to leave, but he ends up coming down with the measles. She helps take care of him and in the process meets a park ranger, Eben, who she falls in love with.

Pola ends up with an Arab oilman who is actually a speculator. She is nearsighted and refuses to wear her glasses in front of men. Monroe hated this part of the character, but director Jean Negulesco said audiences would feel more sympathy with her character if she bumped into things. He was right and audiences found her charming to go along with her beauty.

Pola ends up misreading an airport sign and gets on the wrong plane. She is supposed to be going to Baltimore to meet the speculator so they can go off and be married. Instead she ends up on a plane to Kansas City and meets a man who also wears glasses and says she looks great with glasses on. With this infusion of confidence she becomes interested in the man.

The three gather once more when Schatze announces she is going to wed J.D. despite the age difference. At the wedding it is revealed that the younger Tom might be a better match for Schatze. J.D. respectfully bows out to Tom and Schatze marries him despite her better judgment.

The final scene occurs at a hamburger stand where it is learned that Tom is actually a very wealthy man. Schatze and her friends can’t believe it. They faint and the movie fades to black.

Writer Nunnally Johnson was capable of providing some funny stuff. There are flashes here, but nothing gut busting. The real reason to watch this movie is the three women who star in it.