Let's Make It Legal

With daughter Barbara (Bates) and son-in-law Jerry (Robert Wagner) observing, almost-divorced Hugh (MacDonald Carey) has wife Miriam (Claudette Colbert) almost convinced he’s quit gambling when the phone rings, leaving a path for back-in-town ex-beau Victor (Zachary Scott), in Let’s Make It Legal, 1951.

Nearly-divorced hotel exec Hugh (MacDonald Carey) with daughter Barbara (Bates) who hopes he’ll reconcile with her mom, visited by Marilyn Monroe (swim-suited in her first scene) then her husband Jerry (Robert Wagner), his employee, shooting on location at the Hotel Miramar, Santa Monica, in Let’s Make It Legal, 1951.

First scene for improbably handsome Robert (“R-J”) Wagner as Jerry, spouse of drowsy Barbara (Bates) who, we learn, is more comfortable than he about living with her mother (Claudette Colbert as Miriam), whose divorce is about to become official, and whose gardener (Jim Hayward) just tangled with her husband, early in Let’s Make It Legal, 1951.