How to Marry a Millionaire is a 1953 American romantic comedy film directed by Jean Negulesco and written and produced by Nunnally Johnson.

The screenplay was based on the plays The Greeks Had a Word for It (1930) by Zoe Akins and Loco (1946) by Dale Eunson and Katherine Albert.

[citation needed] It stars Betty Grable, Marilyn Monroe, and Lauren Bacall as three fashionable Manhattan models, along with William Powell, David Wayne, Rory Calhoun, and Cameron Mitchell as their wealthy marks.

[citation needed] Resourceful Schatze Page, spunky Loco Dempsey, and ditzy Pola Debevoise are three women on a mission: each wants to marry a millionaire.

Tom shows interest in Schatze but she dismisses him, stating that "The first rule is, gentlemen callers have got to wear a necktie" and, instead, sets her sights on the charming, classy, rich widower J.D.

On the plane, she encounters the mysterious Freddie Denmark again, having unknowingly met him when he entered his apartment to retrieve his tax documents as proof that his crooked accountant stole his money and left him in trouble with the IRS.

[6] Between scenes, the cinematography has some iconic color views of mid-20th century New York City: Rockefeller Center, Central Park, the United Nations Building, and Brooklyn Bridge in the opening sequence following the credits.

Other iconic views include the Empire State Building, the lights of Times Square at night and the George Washington Bridge.

A song extolling the virtues of New York follows the Gershwin-like music used for the title credits, after an elaborate five-minute pre-credit sequence showcasing a 70-piece orchestra conducted by Alfred Newman before the curtain goes up.

The film's theatrical version begins with a nearly six-minute overture of Newman's symphonic piece "Street Scene", which he wrote in the style of George Gershwin.

The New York Times's Bosley Crowther wrote "the substance is still insufficient for the vast spread of screen which CinemaScope throws across the front of the theatre, and the impression it leaves is that of nonsense from a few people in a great big hall.

In 2007, Nicole Kidman bought the rights to How to Marry a Millionaire under her production company Blossom Films, intending to produce and possibly star in a remake.