Few Marilyn Monroe films carry as complex a backstory as Let’s Make Love, her 1960 musical comedy with Yves Montand. Today, the movie is often overshadowed by Some Like It Hot and The Misfits, but Getty Images houses a trove of candid behind-the-scenes photos that capture Monroe at work during a production that was fraught with tension, rewrites, studio pressure, and a very public off-screen affair.
A Contractual Obligation She Tried to Avoid
Marilyn Monroe in a scene from her 1960 film 'Let's Make Love'Donaldson Collection/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images
According to Turner Classic Movies and Monroe biographer Sarah Churchwell, Let’s Make Love was a project Monroe reluctantly agreed to make because 20th Century Fox insisted she fulfill her revised contract. She and then-husband playwright Arthur Miller selected it as “the least objectionable” of the studio’s available scripts — hardly a ringing endorsement.
Originally written as The Billionaire and intended for Gregory Peck, the role cycled through multiple uninterested leading men before Fox hired French star Montand, making his first American film and still learning English.
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Monroe and Miller pushed for her role to be expanded, but the rewrites — many of them done resentfully by Miller, who felt the film pulled him away from The Misfits — only added strain to their marriage.
Two Stars Under Strain — and Growing Closer
Marilyn Monroe whispering to co-star Yves Montand during the filming of 'Let's Make Love'John Bryson/Getty Images
Production began in January 1960, but it didn’t take long for the emotional weight of the film to show.
TCM notes that both Monroe and Montand struggled:
Montand battled the language barrier and an “inadequate script.”Monroe, who was already under immense personal and professional pressure, found the film emotionally taxing and difficult to get through.RELATED: Gordon Lightfoot’s Haunting Tribute: How ‘The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald’ Became His Finest Work
Director George Cukor later said that Monroe arrived each day “in agony of struggle…just to get there.” Meanwhile, Churchwell writes that her absences and anxiety deepened as the shoot went on.
Montand, facing his own frustrations, formed a close bond with Monroe. With their spouses — Miller and Simone Signoret — frequently away for work, the two actors began an affair that became international news, ultimately contributing to the end of Monroe’s marriage in 1961.
Marilyn Monroe (R), her third husband US playwright Arthur Miller (L), her co-star French actor-singer Yves Montand (2nd-R) and his wife French actress Simone Signoret (2nd L) talk together on January 23, 1960, in HollywoodAFP via Getty Images
Monroe Still Delivered One of Her Best Musical Numbers
Despite the turmoil, Monroe delivered moments of undeniable star power on set — many of which appear in the Getty archive.
TCM highlights her “sizzling” performance of “My Heart Belongs to Daddy,” calling it one of her best musical numbers since “Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend.” Those sequences, along with rehearsal moments and candid snapshots, show Monroe at her most electric.
Marilyn Monroe receiving make-up and hair preparation on the set of movie 'Let's Make Love,' 1960John Bryson/Getty Images
Montand, meanwhile, masked his musical talent to play a stiff tycoon, while legends Milton Berle, Gene Kelly, and Bing Crosby appeared as themselves to help his character learn how to tell jokes, dance, and sing.
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A Hollywood Release Overshadowed by Real Life
Marilyn Monroe on the set of 'Let's Make Love,' directed by George CukorSunset Boulevard/Corbis via Getty Images
Let’s Make Love opened to mixed reviews. Critics found the script thin but praised the star pairing and Monroe’s performance. Variety wrote that Monroe “is a delight” and that Montand delivered a “sock performance, full of heart and humour.”
But the film never reached the box office heights Fox hoped for — its modest success overshadowed by months of tabloid coverage about the Monroe–Montand affair.
Still, the film earned an Oscar nomination for Best Scoring and remains a fascinating snapshot of Monroe’s late-career period, positioned between two of her most iconic performances. It was her second-to-last film before she died of an overdose in 1962.
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