Customer Reviews

Ladies Of The Chorus [PAL, Region 2, Import]

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Filmed very early in her career Marilyn shines and saves what would have been an otherwise mediocre and very predictable little film.Her unique luminosity and talents gives a good glimpse of the diamond in the rough that would later become highly polished and shine.Her singing is very good and her dancing and acting oozes with class and sensuality.This rare and hard to find little gem is a MUST for Marilyn Monroe fans and collectors.

that separates Ladies from all the rest. Marilyn's top billing for the first time. It didn't lead immediately to stardom however. She still had some slim supporting roles ahead of her. She also never appeared in a Columbia production again. She could really sing, dance & act but got little chance to do any of those, save a few choice roles later, that showed how good an actress she was becoming. Glimpses really. The plot is pretty typical: Chorus girl falls for a rich guy. Fears abound that she won't fit his society friends & family. Adele Jergens, only nine years older than Marilyn in reality, played her mother. A bit of a streach & kind of a slap to the career, but Ms Jergens handled the role very welll. Hey, a job is a job. Interesting to see Marilyn very early in a relatively big part.

Before she became one of the top money-makers for Twentieth Century-Fox, Marilyn Monroe was under contract to Columbia, where she starred in LADIES OF THE CHORUS, a brisk programmer alongside B-movie bombshell Adele Jergens.

A typical backstage musical of the period, LADIES OF THE CHORUS stars Monroe as Peggy Martin, a promising young showgirl who performs with her mother Mae (Adele Jergens) in a a chorus line. Thanks to a blonde wig and lots of foundation, ageing Mae can still get away with playing the glamorous chorine, but realises that Peggy will soon take over the star spot in the revue. When a backstage admirer (Rand Brooks) threatens to take Peggy out of the act altogether by marrying her, Mae--still nursing her own broken heart from a similar romance in her past, which ended after her prospective in-laws denounced the union--vows to ensure that Peggy's decision won't come at the cost of her own showbiz career...

Although it's standard stuff, LADIES OF THE CHORUS is a great treat for fans of Marilyn. She performs her sizzling "Every Baby Needs a Da-Da-Daddy" and "Can't You See I Love You?". B-movie livewire Adele Jergens is a hoot playing the over-the-hill Mae.

A fun title for Monroe completists.

"LADIES OF THE CHORUS" was Monroe's only film at Columbia.

Too bad. She really proved her metale here. She could dance, act and most of all, sing. Her voice blew me away. I always loved her films
at 20th Century Fox. but this one, is exceptional as well.

Of her films at FOX, I really loved these: Don't Bother to Knock;
Niagra, How to Marry a Millionare(with David Wayne), Gentlemen prefer
Blondes and Seven Year Itch, also No Business Like Show Business.

After "Itch", she started to go down hill. Being an alcoholic and
deeply depressed, along with a drug habit, unfortunately, she never
survived Hollywood in the early 60's - which is a shame, as I believe
Monroe could have shone them all that she was more than a "pretty face".

But her all around best was "SOME LIKE IT HOT", with Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis. With these two guys, Monroe was dazzling white as a performer and comedian. May God be with her.

Very interesting movie - strange that it has not been on dvd in the USA where
Marilyn Monroe is the biggest movie star ever.
Here she is under contract at COLUMBIA in 1948 and Harry Cohn did not know how to use her. He makes a sort of blonde Rita Hayworth out of her, who was the biggest Star Columbia Pictures ever had. It seems that Monroe and the Chorus Girls even wear Hayworth's old dresses from "Down to Earth" an "Cover Girl". To bad he did not see Marilyn's Star potential which clearly shows
alreday in her singing numbers. She sings well and looks lovely. Cohn did
not renew her contract, so she left and became the biggest movie star ever at
20th Century Fox. Poor Cohn, Rita Hayworth left one year later to marry prince Ali Khan, so he had no female Star left.