Dorothy Jenkins was the costume designer for Let’s Make Love. It has been said that they were not the most flattering costumes Marilyn had to wear in her films. Marilyn in fact dislike her designs so much that she didn’t want Jenkins to design her costumes for The Misfits as originally planned, instead Jean Louis took over the task.
Let’s Make Love is a 1960 American musical comedy film made by 20th Century Fox in DeLuxe Color and CinemaScope. Directed by George Cukor and produced by Jerry Wald from a screenplay by Norman Krasna, Hal Kanter, and Arthur Miller, the film stars Marilyn Monroe, Yves Montand, and Tony Randall. It would be Monroe’s last musical film performance.
From the beginning issues arose with the film. Monroe, although enthusiastic about Montand, did not want to make the film and the original screenwriter had reservations about the cast. Despite being offered the role and having found success with his one-man show, Montand did not speak English. This led to enormous stress as he worked to understand the lines he was speaking through translation. Monroe, at this point in her career, had developed a reputation (beyond Hollywood) for oftentimes being late to set, forgetting her lines, and deferring to her coach over the director. However, some reports state that this was not true during the filming of Let’s Make Love, although she and Cukor did not have the best relationship. Neither star was satisfied with the script and production was shut down for over a month by two Hollywood strikes: first by the Screen Actors Guild and then the Writers Guild of America.
Monroe and Montand were said to have bonded over the difficulties each was experiencing with the film, and when both Miller and Signoret departed during production for other commitments rumors about an affair between the two were rampant. Gossip columns at the time made note of frequent sightings of the two together alone. This led to greater publicity for the film, with Fox manipulating the affair to its advantage. In August 1960, shortly before the release of the film, Monroe and Montand were featured on the cover of Life magazine in a sensual pose taken from the film. Their affair ended when filming ended, with Montand returning to France.
Not long before she died in 1962, Monroe commented that the role of Amanda was the worst in her career. In her opinion, there was “no role... that you had to wrack your brain... there was nothing there with the writing” and that it had “been part of an old contract.” Arthur Miller was also critical of the film, stating that despite his efforts to improve the script it was “like putting plaster on a peg leg.” During an interview with David Letterman in 1988, Montand acknowledged his difficulties with the script and his problem speaking English, but said it was an honor to work alongside Marilyn Monroe.
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