Rating: 
Summary: A KISS ON THE HAND.....
Review: An absolute gaudy delight. This wonderful glittering gem of a movie is a Technicolor showcase for the eye-filling talents of Jane Russell and Marilyn Monroe as showgirls on the prowl aboard a luxury liner and later in Paris. Based on Anita Loos' story and play, the two ladies work well together and each have showstopping musical numbers---Marilyn's "Diamonds Are A Girl's Best Friend" which is now legendary, and Russell's "Ain't There Anyone Here for Love" done around the ship's pool with the "Olympic Drill Team" as background eye candy. They're working out on various equipment and clad in tight flesh colored skimpy shorts that give added lustre to the phrase "Beefcake". How this got past the censors is anybody's guess since it's so homoerotic. Maybe they were too busy keeping an eye on Jane. Anyway, you can't go wrong with this classic. There's not a dull moment to be found. Charles Coburn is a delight as an old rapscallion Monroe takes a liking to because of his diamond mine and a tiara that belongs to his wife that she cons him out of. He's so smitten with her that he's utterly charming. Monroe and Russell are a formidable duo and the film is completely delightful from start to finish. The costumes by Travilla are stunning as well. A must for Monroe and Russell fans. They should have been teamed again. And it's gorgeous on DVD.
Rating:
Summary: The film that made Marilyn a bonafide superstar
Review: 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.
Rating: 
Summary: Classic Marilyn
Review: I thought that this was a good movie because it was very funny and well casted. For example Ms. Lee (Monroe) gets stuck in a porthole window. The casts singing, acting and dancing were great.
The only was that this movie was not good was that the characters were way too stereotypical. You could pretty much tell what was going to happen next. But overall this was a good classic Marilyn Monroe movie.
Rating:
Summary: Marilyn Monroe sparkles brighter than any diamond!
Review: .
"Gentlemen Prefer Blondes" is a Technicolor extravaganza that's chock-a-block full of great music, costumes, comedy, and of course, Marilyn Monroe in the absolute best screen role of her career! This film is a classic of it's genre. It hails from a time when Hollywood made musicals that were entertaining and fun, and didn't rely on special effects or violence to draw an audience. If you can only have one Marilyn Monroe movie in your collection, this is the film to have! Marilyn Monroe positively shimmers and shines brighter than any diamond in her starring role as Lorelie Lee. The Technicolor film process, painstakingly restored on the DVD version of the film, reveals Marilyn in a breathtaking rainbow of colors that never existed in real life. She looks positively spectacular in this film! Marilyn's signature number "Diamonds are a Girl's Best Friend" is a hallucinatory delight of vivid pinks and reds. The colors alone make the number memorable, but then on top of all that, there's Marilyn! She stands surrounded by a chorus line of tuxedo-clad gay men, all of whom obviously adore and worship her. And then there are the chandeliers... made up of women in bondage, strapped upside-down and spinning around. It's bizarre and fabulous all at the same time! Who came up with something like this? Marilyn sings in her sensual, whispery-yet-husky voice, and pulchritudinously fills out every inch of her hot-pink satin gown, while dripping with diamonds from arms, neck, and ears. Yet her fabulous face, surrounded by all these diamonds, still sparkles more brightly than anything Harry Winston ever mounted in a gold or platinum setting. Oh, Jane Russell is good too. (To paraphrase a line in the film.) Her best moments are during her production number of "Ain't There Anyone Here for Love?", in which she's surrounded by dozens of nearly-nude, well-built, hairy-chested male dancers (supposedly the Olympic team), as they flex, pose, strut, and unintentionally flash body parts generally unseen on the movie screens of America in the 1950's! (...) Russell also has a number in which she dresses up like Marilyn (and looks like a giant drag queen) and performs a reprise of MM's "Diamonds are a Girl's Best Friend" number. This scene helps us understand that what Marilyn made look so easy on the screen hasn't been successfully duplicated or imitated by anyone since. She simply cannot be imitated! I strongly recommend this film to anyone who wants to experience the absolute best of the old-Hollywood musicals. It's definitely the best example of it's genre. It's positively brilliant! It's actually two films in one: it's a comedy, with perfect timing and great dialog; and it's a musical, with spectacular production numbers and memorable music! (...)
Rating:
Summary: Everyone prefers a Blonde, really
Review: In death, as in life, the legend of Marilyn Monroe endures as one of the most instantly recognisable images of popular culture. She is an Icon, representing numerous things to us all - sex appeal, classic Hollywood, frailty, tragedy, and womanhood - and it is in 'Gentlemen Prefer Blondes', her first major motion picture, that we see the beginnings of the legacy that she would grow to leave behind. Put simply, this is Monroe's finest comedy hour. She plays the idiotic-yet-sharp Lorelei Lee, a gold-digging man-crazed showgirl in love with a wealthy heir. En route to Paris, where she will meet her beloved, she and her friend & partner, Dorothy Shaw (Jane Russell) run into an Olympic team of men, fall in and out of love, commit grant larceny and run afoul of the law. The scene is set for possibly one of Hollywood's greatest ever musical comedies. Monroe is all curves and wide-eyed innocence, but it's in her private exchanges with Russell, her fiancee's meddling father, and one very unlucky Maitre' D., that we see her genius ability to play it smart, whilst retaining all of her doe-eyed sex-appeal. Jane Russell's character Dorothy is the opposite of Monroe's Lorelei, hunting for a poor-but-sensitive man in a sea of wealthy diamond miners and sleazy private detectives. Russell is the perfect foil to Monroe, both visually and vocally - her raven-haired, scarlet-lipped and deep-voiced Dorothy is the polar opposite of the pink and fluffy Lorelei, and the pair have wonderful on-screen chemistry - the scene where they attempt to steal a camera film from the hapless Ernie Malone (Elliot Reed) is sure proof of this - and the reprise of 'Diamonds are a Girl's Best Friend', sung by Russell in Monroe drag - is a wonderful illustration of the powerful contrast between these two actresses. Monroe and Russell play their parts with conviction and gusto - they look like they're having a blast. We can't help but love them. The score of the movie also deserves a special mention, as it's as important as any of the players. Songs like 'Bye Bye Baby' and 'Two Little Girls from Little Rock' more than hold their own against the show's more famous tunes - 'Diamonds' and 'Ain't there anyone here for Love?'. Howard Hawkes' direction, too, is worthy of a mention, his cameras are unobtrusive and unpretentious - he allows the starlets free reign of the screen, and it pays off with dividends. Never has glamour been more palpable. The supporting cast (Elliot Reed, Charles Coburn and Tommy Noonan) give decent performances, but this is Monroe and Russell's show anyway, and one frankly doesn't care who the leading men are - Marilyn and Jane could dance on a screen with Casanova and we'd still only have eyes for them. All in all, 'Gentlemen' is the feel-good kind of musical that you'll remember always. It's simple, flashy, funny, and completely entertaining. I can't recommend it highly enough.
Rating:
Summary: Superb production.
Review: Even tough I'm a huge music and film lover. Marilyn Monroe never called my attention and the first time that I saw one of her movies was in 2002 when I saw "How to marry a millionaire" and found it very good and funny. So from that point I started to buy some of her movies. From all her movies my favorites are "How to marry a millionaire" and "Gentlemen prefer blondes".
This movie is fresh and funny. You may think that films from the 50's are boring and well sometimes they are but this movie has that classic effect that makes it remain "young".
The story is about two hot dancers (Marilyn Monroe and Jane Russell) that are searching love and money and well Marilyn is desperated also for diamonds.
So on one trip to France by ship they get involved in some problems with men and a diamond tiara.
The movie contains several musical numbers including the classic song "Diamonds are a girl's best friend".
Rating:
Summary: The Brunette also Shines!!
Review: This was the film that catapulted Marilyn Monroe to fame and top stardom, and she looks just great and is very good as gold (or better say "diamond") digging Lorelei Lee, especially in the now classic "Diamonds are a girl's best friend" number, but Jane Russell is just equally excellent as Marilyn Monroe's down-to-earth, warm and sincere pal, Dorothy. Russell shines all the way, in excellent musical numbers with Monroe, as well as by herself, like in the sexy "Ain't There Anyone Here for Love", sung on a gym onboard a Cruise, surrounded by the american olympic men (drill) team, exercising as she sings. In fact, the most hilarious sequence in the movie, which made me laugh really loud, was the courtroom scene, where Russell (with a blonde wig) impersonated her friend Lorelei, with truly exhilarating results!
Rating:
Summary: Superb production.
Review: Even tough I'm a huge music and film lover. Marilyn Monroe never called my attention and the first time that I saw one of her movies was in 2002 when I saw "How to marry a millionaire" and found it very good and funny. So from that point I started to buy some of her movies. From all her movies my favorites are "How to marry a millionaire" and "Gentlemen prefer blondes".
This movie is fresh and funny. You may think that films from the 50's are boring and well sometimes they are but this movie has that classic effect that makes it remain "young".
The story is about two hot dancers (Marilyn Monroe and Jane Russell) that are searching love and money and well Marilyn is desperated also for diamonds.
So on one trip to France by ship they get involved in some problems with men and a diamond tiara.
The movie contains several musical numbers including the classic song "Diamonds are a girl's best friend".
Rating:
Summary: That's Entertainment!
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: Fav
Review: This is my favorite of Marilyn's films. I don't love it just for marilyn as Im a bigger Jane Russell fan and originally got into this film because Jane is in it. But I also like marilyn and find this one of my personal favorites she did. It is a fun film with dazzling cinematography. I love the songs and the whole feel of the film. A MUST buy for any fan of Marilyn or Jane.
|
