Customer Reviews

Gentlemen Prefer Blondes [VHS]

5 star:		(70)
4 star:		(18)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

While it will never compete with the likes of SINGIN' IN THE RAIN, GIGI, or MEET ME IN ST. LOUIS, this 1953 confection is nonetheless a real charmer. Based on a popular Broadway show which was itself based on the famous novel by Anita Loos, GENTLEMEN PREFER BLONDES tells the story of two cabaret performers--blonde bombshell Loreli Lee, who is determined to marry for money, and brunette beauty Dorothy Shaw, who prefers to marry for love. When Loreli's engagement to a millionaire's son goes awry, the two set sail for Europe, and comic complications ensue. The story is traditional fluff, pure and simple, and there is nothing in the least innovative or unexpected about the film as a whole--but it is all extremely, extremely well done.

The score is bright, including such tunes as the famous "Diamonds Are A Girl's Best Friend"--and all the musical numbers are cleverly staged and filmed. The overall look of the film is also eye popping: the ladies are dressed to perfection and the color cinematography is truly joyous. The script is full of comfortable wit, director Hawks keeps it moving at a nice clip, and the cast includes such enjoyable performers as Charles Coburn, Tommy Noonan, Norma Varden, and George Winslow. But what really makes the film memorable are Marilyn Monroe and Jane Russell, who simply sparkle with star quality and play their with roles in a twinkle-in-the-eye style.

Monroe and Russell have remarkable chemistry on screen, and although neither were really singers they each had enjoyable and very distinctive singing voices; their performances are so pleasantly amusing that you can't help but smile. Both also had a way with comedy, with Monroe offering her quintessential 'not so dumb blonde' and Russell matching her all the way as the wise-to-you brunette determined to keep Monroe out of trouble. And so well do they work together it is hard to pick a favorite between the two. Call it fluff, froth, foolish--but even jeweler Harry Winston couldn't refuse this good time, even at the risk of a diamond or two. Thoroughly enjoyable for any one still capable of a smile.

A kiss on the hand
May be quite continental,
But diamonds are a girl's best friend.

A kiss may be grand
But it won't pay the rental
On your humble flat
Or help you at the automat.

Men grow cold
As girls grow old,
And we all lose our charms in the end.

But square-cut or pear-shaped,
These rocks don't loose their shape.
Diamonds are a girl's best friend.

Tiffany's!
Cartier!
Black Starr!
Frost Gorham!
Talk to me Harry Winston.
Tell me all about it!

There may come a time
When a lass needs a lawyer,
But diamonds are a girl's best friend.

There may come a time
When a hard-boiled employer
Thinks you're awful nice,
But get that ice or else no dice.

He's your guy
When stocks are high,
But beware when they start to descend.

It's then that those louses
Go back to their spouses.
Diamonds are a girl's best friend.

Gentlemen Prefer Blondes gave Marilyn Monroe and Jane Russell the perfect opportunity to showcase their numerous talents. They sing beautiful numbers including "(We're Just) Two Little Girls From Little Rock;" "Bye Bye Baby;" "Ain't There Anyone Here For Love" and "Diamonds Are A Girl's Best Friend." When Marilyn and Jane dance to some of these numbers their beauty and talent strike the viewer as incredible. Tommy Noonan turns in a strong and convincing performance as Gus Esmond, the American man who wants to marry Lorelei, who is played by Marilyn Monroe. Charles Coburn and Norma Varden perform as Sir Francis 'Piggy' Beekman and Lady Beekman, super rich people who got their wealth from diamond mining in South Africa. The crisp, clear color reflects the hard work to restore this movie and the sound is excellent, too! Jule Styne and Leo Robin provide wonderful music and lyrics for the classic songs in this picture.

The film starts as Lorelei and her girlfriend Dorothy Shaw embark on a ship for France. Although Dorothy plans to chaperone Lorelei, Lorelei has different plans and soon Dorothy's quest for a man distracts her from overseeing Lorelei anyway. The ship carries a male Olympic relay team and they certainly attract Dorothy's attention. A cast of characters are also on board, the most notable of which are Sir Beekman, who longs for an affair with a younger woman. His wife, Lady Beekman, travels with him. These characters all together on the same ship prove to be the ultimate formula for high jinks on both the high seas and overseas! Lorelei and Dorothy proceed to sink their claws into rich men for their money. However, unbeknownst to Lorelei, her fiancé's father, Mr. Esmond, Sr., employs a detective onboard. The detective, Ernie Malone, must follow Lorelei and find evidence that she will be unfaithful to her fiancé Gus Esmond. Mr. Esmond, Sr. can then destroy all plans for the wedding of Lorelei and Gus. Gus's father believes that such a marriage would be unsuitable for his son.

The scenes in Paris offer stunning backdrops and a wonderful idea of what Paris looked like in the early 1950s. After a few ups and downs Lorelei and Dorothy unexpectedly appear to be in a lot of financial trouble and they get jobs in a show to make money. Lorelei performs the unforgettable song and dance number "Diamond's Are A Girl's Best Friend" with male back up dancers. However, things become even more complicated when Lorelei stands accused of stealing a tiara that belonged to Lady Beekman. Actually, Sir Beekman gave the tiara to Lorelei in a weak moment because he found her to be beautiful--too bad he never told Lady Beekman! Lorelei and Dorothy sing the beautiful number "When Love Goes Wrong (Nothing Goes Right)." The cops begin to nip at their heels and Lorelei--or someone quite like her--appears in court because Lady Beekman wants her tiara returned to her. The ensuing court scene boasts a comedic, campy quality to it. Awesome!

Do things work themselves out at the end of this picture? Well, folks, there are no spoilers here--watch this movie and see for yourselves!

Marilyn Monroe fans will thrill to this great picture and Jane Russell fans will enjoy it just as much. People who enjoy musical comedies will also like this picture.

I tend to go for films with weightier themes than this one, generally, but "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes" is so frothy, lovely, fun, and lively that it's impossible not to enjoy. I also tend to not go for musicals, but a couple of the numbers here are inventively staged and played out with enough charm that even an old grouch like me can appreciate them. And there's just enough of it all to go around for 92 minutes. Kewl.

Having said all that, let me state the obvious: This is all about Marilyn Monroe. Young folks who have only seen brief shots of her as a Hollywood icon would do well to see this movie, so they can get an idea of what all the hubbub has been about in the decades since her tragic death that ended her tragic life. Rarely has an actress lit up the screen so completely; the estimable Jane Russell is a sad dog by comparison, although she is fine and lovely here in her own right.

Marilyn is just so right on, so cuddly and cute, curvaceously sexy yet sweet, evilly money-hungry but apparently from such innocent motives, that one (at least this male) can't help but adore her. She presents herself here as the alpha woman-child, and the typical heterosexual male cannot resist and literally has to tear his eyes away from her to see if anything else is going on. I never liked her overly mobile upper lip, but such was her magic that even that affectation is made lovely.

Yes, the entertainment world lost one of the most special ladies in its history when Marilyn passed on. This film is literally the only time I've ever looked at extras and thought how wonderful it would have been to just share the set with the star for a day. "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes" is the dictionary definition of lightweight Hollywood musical, in which the leading ladies and their verve carries the day all by themselves. With Marilyn, it is enough.

By the time Gentlemen Prefer Blondes was released in 1953, Marilyn Monroe had already made quite a name for herself with memorable small roles in such films as All About Eve; co-starring roles in such great little comedies as We're Not Married, As Young as You Feel, and Monkey Business; and impressive leading roles in the dramatic thrillers Don't Bother to Knock and Niagara. It conjunction with her prominent role in How to Marry a Millionaire, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes made 1953 the year of Marilyn Monroe and established her as a full-fledged movie star. I love this film for more reasons than I count. For starters, it was the first Marilyn film I ever saw, giving birth to my obsession with The Goddess. More importantly, this film is Marilyn's first musical, and she and her voice acquit themselves very well indeed. The cast is terrific, the humor is genuine and abundant, and Marilyn absolutely steals the show from her brunette counterpart Jane Russell (even though Russell was paid far, far more than Marilyn for her role in the film).

Lorelei Lee (Marilyn) and Dorothy Shaw (Jane Russell) are just two little girls from Little Rock, entertainers and best of friends. Lorelei is obsessed with finding a rich husband, and she definitely has Gus Esmond (Tommy Noonan) eating out of her hands; the only problem is that Gus' rich father doesn't approve of her. Thus are plans made for Lorelei to sail to France, where she and Gus will be married after he arrives a short while later. Gus' dad sends a private detective by the name of Ernie Malone (Elliott Reid) along on the journey to spy on Lorelei, and he of course ends up falling in love with Dorothy. Lorelei works her magic on Sir Francis "Piggy" Beekman (played brilliantly by beloved character actor Charles Coburn) leading Esmond (via Malone's report) to call off the wedding and cut Lorelei off financially, and Dorothy and Malone have a falling out once his real identity is discovered. Stuck in Paris without money or a place to stay, Lorelei and Dorothy go back to entertaining, but their troubles don't end there. Things get pretty wild toward the end, but naturally all the major players are reunited in the end.

Marilyn is divine as the blonde, acquisitive Lorelei Lee, and it could be said that she was never lovelier than she was in this movie. This "dumb blonde" could be smart when she needed to be, and she dispenses some unforgettable advice and classic lines here. She worries about Dorothy because, unlike her, Dorothy only seems to fall for poor men, and Lorelei tells her that she wants her "to be happy - and stop having fun." Her attempts to set Dorothy up with a rich man on the ship backfire when her chosen Mr. Right ends up being a little boy, but Mr. Henry Spofford III (George Winslow) adds some unforgettable laughs to the mix. Perhaps my favorite line from the film comes when Lorelei is trying to talk "Piggy" into giving her his wife's tiara: "It's a terrible thing to be lonesome, especially in the middle of a crowd." That line has always stuck with me because it really applies so well to Marilyn's own personal life.

Gentlemen Prefer Blondes boasts of a number of great songs, barreling right out of the gates with Marilyn and Russell singing A Little Girl From Little Rock. Bye Bye Baby is an impressive and rather elaborate number, Russell's performance of the song Ain't There Anyone Here for Love to the backdrop of the U.S. Olympic team is quite memorable, and the Monroe-Russell number When Love Goes Wrong, Nothing Goes Right is fantastic and really shows Monroe's comfort level with her singing and dancing. All of these pale to the really big number, though. Perhaps only the skirt blowing scene from The Seven Year Itch is more famous than Monroe's knockout performance of the song Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend.

I don't consider Gentlemen Prefer Blondes to be Marilyn's best movie, but I would recommend it as the starting point to those yet to glimpse the power and beauty of the Goddess. If you want to understand the Marilyn phenomenon, this is where you want to begin because Marilyn is simply mesmerizing from the first frame to the last here. It's actually quite difficult to take your eyes off of Marilyn long enough to fully appreciate this movie for its own sake, so I recommend multiple viewings.

World weary after watching Ted Koppel's reading of the names of all the U. S. soldiers who have died in Iraq-- at least those we have the names of-- I needed a little Christmas in May and found it by watching again this little cotton candy movie. Based on the work by Anita Loos, directed by Howard Hawks and starring Mariyn Monroe and Jane Russell, GENTLEMAN PREFER BLONDES was just what the doctor ordered. With great musical numbers, hooty costumes-- particularly those of Ms. Russell-- and a plot as silly and inane as is humanly possible-- can anyone be so dumb as to think that a diamond tiara goes around her neck-- the film will convince you, if only temporarily, that the world is not going to hell tomorrow in a wheelbarrow. It's interesting to see how much movies got away with in the oppressive 50's as evidenced in the quite sexy number with Ms. Russell and the scantily clad males from the U. S. Olympic Team, her fellow travelers on the boat trip to Paris.

Ms. Russell is no slouch as a comedic actress and gets off some good one-liners here. And Ms. Monroe, though often imitated, will never be equalled for what she was, the epitome of the blonde bombshell. This movie is now over 50 years old and will remain a classic.

Arguably, along with the 'Seven Year Itch', this lighthearted 50's musical comedy is the most definitive 'Marilyn' film. In particular for her memorable 'Diamonds are a Girls Best Friend' number, so adorable in its (and her)innocent mocking self parody and brought to life again several decades later in Madonna's, 80's' Material Girl' Video.
This pairing of 'Monroe' and 'Russell' as two voluptuous show girls from 'Little Rock'" in search of fun and a man or two on their way to Paris aboard a cruise ship, is pure Hollywood sugar coated entertainment and escapism.
Marilyne is just so funny and cute as the wide eyed, but gold digging, 'Lorelei', the supposed 'Dumb Blonde' who knows what she wants however, and why. In suitable contrast Jane Russell plays 'Dorothy' the more serious, switched on and streetwise Brunette. Who on the other hand, lets her heart(rather than her bank acccount)rule her head when it comes to men and plays a kind of big sister role to her more naive, but materialistic focused compatriot.
Though it may be said that for the most part 'Russell' is somewhat eclipsed by the 'platinum' ultra luminous presence of the 'eternal woman-child' Ms Monroe. She undoubtedly brings a lot of energy to the role, and the camaraderie and chemistry they deliver as a pair contribute much to the films charm and success.
There are several very entertaining 'showgirl' type musical numbers throughout. But I confess I enjoy Marilyn's ditzy remarks, balanced by a her cunningly disguised 'knowingness' the most. Sooo cute when she refers to the ship's portals as 'round windows' and innocently tries on a diamond tiara around her neck. Then, at the end justifies and explains her money driven ways to her finance's contemtuous Father,in the most surprisingly clever way. Pure 'Marilyn' in all her pure, unique celluloid magic!

If you are a Marilyn Monroe fan or not this is a great movie! It's one of my all time favorites.

Marilyn is Lorelie Lee a naive blonde who loves men...as long as they are rich, because her first love is the diamond in any form she can get her hands on it! She works with her bestfriend Dorothy ( Jane Russell) as a top musical act and has sung and danced her way into the heart of a young millionaire. On his dime the two girls are on their way to Paris though he can't join them on the cruise. But his even richer daddy thinks that Lorelie is just a money grubber and is determined to prove it.

Dorothy can't find the right man to love, but it's not for lack of trying. Even with the olympic team on board she falls for the wrong guy: the private investigator sent to spy on Lorelie. She'll go through most anything to save her friend from her own stupidity though.

Monroe's classic "Diamonds are a Girl's Bestfriend" is a highlight of this movie in the Diamond Collection. But my favorite is Russell's "Anyone Here for Love". This movie is a gem for anyone who loves the older musicals!

Howard Hawks was a true magician since it was hard - and it would be today, too - to avoid of being vulgar, offensive or morbid while telling the story of two women who are in love with men: one because she loves rich men and one because she loves handsome and sinewy men.
However this movie isn't just a proof of the ability of one of Hollywood's most celebrated directors: this is the triumph of Marilyn Monroe and Jane Russell since they appear as beautiful women and skilled actresses, furthermore they are supported by a good cast of characters - first of all Charles Coburn and Elliott Reid. Overall this is a milestone of the american cinema in the 50's.
This DVD edition presents restored tracks both in audio than video. The audio is clear and brilliant - in my opionion this is one of the best track realized from a movie of the 50's - while the video presents vigorous colors and sharp detail.

Yup, it`s her film and she shines all through it. As a musical production it isn`t up to much compared what they did over at Metro. But the performances survive and Marilyn`s "Diamond`s are a Girl`s Best Friend" is an eternal showstupper - just as Gene Kelly`s Singin`in the Rain, Judy`s Over The Rainbow or Julie Andrews`The Sound of Music are all magic moments in the history of the movie musicals.

Jane Russell does hold her own and Charles Coburn is a delight as well.

November 1 2005:

Since 20th Century-Fox has NEVER released this film on DVD, I have to enclose another jewel:

"I WAS AN ADVENTURESS" 1940 - a comedy-drama - starring Vera Zorina, Erich Von Stroheim, Peter Lorre and Richard Greene - is great entertainment with Vera working as decoy for Lorre and Von Stroheim as a Countess Tanya Vronsky.

She lures rich bachelors of money and jewelry and the film(a remake of a 1938-film)is full of excellent 1-liners and the performances ARE ALL FIRST RATE!!!

Please - release this on dvd:-))))

Marilyn Monroe & Jane Russell work astonishingly well together in this movie. They have great chemistry! Gentlemen Prefer Blondes is very lush, glamorous, colorful & glitzy. Russell is so witty & almost steals Monroe's thunder. The costumes are gorgeous, the acting is comedic & the scenery is just beautiful. The best part is obviously when Marilyn performs "Diamonds are a girl's bestfriend" & what a great performer she is! Russell is more than impressive with her performance of "Ain't there anyone hear for love". One of the most jaw dropping scenes is when the girl's sashay in to the cruise ship ballroom for dinner wearing stunning bright orange(monroe) & sequined black(russell) dresses. These two are a knock out! Old Hollywood at it's very best!