Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953)

Gentlemen Prefer Blondes
Directed by Howard Hawks
Written by Charles Lederer based on the musical comedy by Joseph Fields and Anita Loos
1953/USA
Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation
First viewing/Amazon Instant
#277of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die

[box] 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.  – Lyrics by Leo Robin [/box]

This brightly colored musical looks more like something Frank Tashlin might have directed than anything by Howard Hawks.

Lorelei Lee (Marilyn Monroe) makes no secret of the fact that she is looking for a mate who will give her diamonds .  Best friend Dorothy Shaw tries to keep her grounded with little success.  Lorelei has found an ideal candidate in nebbish Gus Esmond Jr. Unfortunately, Esmond Sr. does not approve.  So Lorelei decides to go to Paris in the hopes that absence will make Gus’s heart grow strong enough to overcome the objections.  Dorothy is not about to leave Lorelei to her own devices.

Our heroines end up on a cruise ship where Dorothy, who is not so mercenary as Lorelei, collects quite a number of admirers from the U.S. Olympic Team.  After she find out they are in training, Ernie Malone steps in to fill the vacuum. Secretly, Ernie is a private detective who has been hired by Gus’s father to dig up dirt on Lorelei.  This is almost too easy to do as Lorelei is soon flirting with spritely Sr. Francis “Piggy” Beekman (Charles Coburn), the owner of a diamond mine.  Complications and hilarity ensue.

While Russell and Coburn are very good, Monroe is the real reason to watch this film.  I have seen her in several supporting roles to this date but this is the movie where her dumb-blonde sex-pot persona and talents as a comedienne emerge in full force. The plot betrays its theatrical origins with the characters bursting into song at a moment’s notice but lots of the numbers are enjoyable.  “Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend” is iconic.

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