Main Cast: Jane Russell, Marilyn Monroe, Charles Coburn, Elliott Reid, Tommy Noonan
Release Year: 1953
Country: US
Run Time: 91 minutes
Plot
Second-billed Marilyn Monroe is the blonde in question in this second film version of Gentlemen Prefer Blondes: Miss Lorelei Lee, whose philosophy is "diamonds are a girl's best friend." Together with her best human friend Dorothy (top-billed Jane Russell), showgirl Lorelei embarks upon a boat trip to Paris, where she intends to marry millionaire Gus Esmond (Tommy Noonan). En route, the girls are bedeviled by private detective Malone (Elliot Reid), hired by Esmond's father (Taylor Holmes) to make certain that Lorelei isn't just another gold-digger. When Dorothy falls in love with the poverty-stricken Malone, Lorelei decides to find her pal a wealthier potential husband, and that's how she gets mixed up with flirtatious diamond merchant Sir Francis Beekman (Charles Coburn) and precocious youngster Henry Spofford III (George "Foghorn" Winslow). Most of the Leo Robin-Jule Styne songs from the Broadway show remain intact, including Marilyn Monroe's rendition of "Diamonds are a Girl's Best Friend," a production number later imitated by pop icon Madonna. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Review
On the surface, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes is a brassy, garish, colorful musical comedy featuring two rather lightweight actresses, Marilyn Monroe and Jane Russell. Ultimately, however, director Howard Hawks uses the nature of the material and the glossy stars to an interesting, paradoxical effect. The film lacks strong masculine characters and any sort of traditional morality; it's dominated by the superficial. The two main characters are sex symbols who, in true Hawksian fashion, have their sex-appeal turned on its head. Monroe's first starring success came the year before, in Niagara, and she had also shown a flair for comedy in Hawks' Monkey Business; but Gentlemen was the first time she proved that she could truly charm an audience, something which she continued to do through 1959's Some Like It Hot. ~ Brendon Hanley, All Movie Guide
Lyle Wheeler - Art Director, Joseph C. Wright - Art Director, Jack Cole - Choreography, William Travilla - Costume Designer, Paul Helmick - First Assistant Director, Howard Hawks - Director, Hugh S. Fowler - Editor, Lionel Newman - Composer (Music Score), Leo Robin - Composer (Music Score), Jule Styne - Composer (Music Score), Earle Hagen - Musical Arrangement, Lionel Newman - Musical Direction/Supervision, Ben Nye, Sr. - Makeup, Harry J. Wild - Cinematographer, Sol C. Siegel - Producer, Claude E. Carpenter - Set Designer, Ray Kellogg - Special Effects, Roger Heman - Sound/Sound Designer, E. Clayton Ward - Sound/Sound Designer, Charles Lederer - Screenwriter, Joseph Fields - From Musical by, Anita Loos - Play Author, Oliver Smith - Play Author, Joseph Fields - Play Author, Herman Levin - Play Author
