Les hommes préfèrent les blondes

Classic musical comedy directed by the great Howard Hawks and starring Marilyn Monroe and Jane Russell. Marilyn's determined to marry a rich heir but his father has hired a private detective to prove the beautiful blonde's just after his money. Jane tries to protect Marilyn and keep her out of trouble while the two travel to Paris.

Marilyn's pitch-perfect as the gold-digging Lorelei Lee. She played the 'dumb blonde' better than anybody in movie history. It's impossible not to like her, even when she's doing things you might not agree with. Jane's never been better than here playing Marilyn's sassy man-crazy best friend. Charles Coburn is the horny owner of a diamond mine. Child actor George Winslow steals every scene he's in. Tommy Noonan is fun as Marilyn's fiancé. Elliott Reid is the weakest part of the cast as the private detective who falls for Jane. He's just so stiff and corny that I couldn't see what a great dish like Jane Russell could see in him. He looks like a Fed.

Lots of great lines and scenes. Possibly the best thing about the movie is just how gorgeous it looks. I'm not just talking about the leading ladies, who are both stunning. The Technicolor just pops off the screen. One of my favorite movies of all time. It'll make you smile from start to finish. Colorful, funny, sexy, with enjoyable performances and wonderful songs. Includes one of Marilyn's defining moments - "Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend." An absolute must-see classic.

Marilyn needs no introduction. Suffice it to say that she is perfect in what is probably the best of her "dumb blonde gold digger" roles, looks great, (As if it were possible for her to look less), has plenty of great and funny quotes, and sings the most famous of the Jule Styne-Leo Robin songs wonderfully. But let's not forget the brunette in the picture, Jane Russell, who has plenty of talent, comic timing, and yes, sex appeal herself. Her performance has a great sense of irony, she makes a great foil for Marilyn (Although it certainly is obvious that she really likes the girl), and gets ample oppurtunity to show off her own vocal chops in such songs as the low-key, showstopping duet "When Love Goes Wrong" and the somewhat kitschy "Ain't There Anyone Here For Love," sung while she wanders through a sea of Olympic atheletes wearing nothing but flesh-colored swimming trunks as they lift weights, etc., and then finishes off with a dunk in the pool that wasn't planned but was kept in the film upon viewing the rushes of the sequence. She herself is really great in both. And just how she manages to do a dead-on impersonation of Marilyn in a hilarious courtroom scene, then launch into a take-no-prisoners reprise of "Diamonds Are A Girl's Best Friend" while still keeping her blond wig and hat squarely on her head, I'll never know.

With such as these to hold out attention, the rest of the film doesn't seem like much, with the usual humdrum romantic plotline, the uninteresting supporting cast, and everything. But it's still a great musical comedy, based on the Broadway show that was in turn based on the famous Anita Loos novel. Howard Hawks' direction, while not as inspired as his "Bringing Up Baby" or "His Girl Friday" work, is lively, the costumes are great, the songs (Those that were retained from Broadway and those added for the film) are all great, and the script, while probably not including much of the wicked satire that the novel is praised for, (Unless I missed it), is funny enough. I should also mention the many classic shots of Marilyn and Jane walking side by side. What a contrast! Marilyn gives it all she's got, and Jane is so low-key about the whole thing she's reviting. What a great team these two ladies were! And, all things considered, what a great movie!

Marilyn's "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes" was one of the classic musicals of the 1950's... She comes into it looking like a winner, and leaves as one… The picture has been set fully by the tone of her personality… Her personality infuses every corner of the film as if she has even picked the scenery to work for her…

The movie rises above its pretext, its story, its existence as a musical, even its music, and becomes at its best a magic work, yet it is a light-hearted satire of the old adage that when a woman goes bad, men go right after her…

The film crowned Monroe in her position as the nation's new 'Love Goddess' with the promise of many sparkling hits to come, and Jane Russell's career continued, with less fanfare, but very successfully for several more years…

The story was simple: Dorothy (Jane Russell) and Lorelei (Marilyn Monroe) work together as entertainers and are also good friends… Lorelei's millionaire fiancé Gus Esmond (Tommy Noonan) sends the girls to France, but his father (Taylor Holmes) hires a private detective, Malone (Elliott Reid) on the same boat to spy on her during the trip… When the three meet, Dorothy falls for Malone, much to the chagrin of Lorelei, who cannot understand Dorothy's indifference to men with money…

On board, the girls get into trouble when they meet an old playboy Francis Beckman (Charles Coburn), a diamond merchant

Anyone who's ever written off Marilyn Monroe as "just" a dumb blonde are directed to this film immediately. Yes, at first glance, Lorelei Lee is a brainless piece of fluff, given to such malapropisms as "Pardon me, please, is this the boat to Europe, France?" But upon closer inspection, this girl is no dummy. Rather remarkably for the chauvinist times, Lorelei and Dorothy (played by the incredibly underrated Jane Russell) do things on their own terms, and when Lorelei "plays dumb," it's because she knows that's what men expect--and she uses it to her advantage. But enough of the heavy analysing; above all, "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes" is FUN! It's clearly of the Fox, rather than the MGM, school of musicals--MGM made the "art" musicals ("An American in Paris," "Singin' in the Rain"), while Fox made the "vulgar" ones ("There's No Business Like Show Business"). From the opening number ("Two Little Girls from Little Rock"), we know we're in for a visually opulent, noveau riche zircon of entertainment--witness the gaudy black, red and blue color scheme. Lorelei and Dorothy's costumes are at the extreme end of 50's fashion; designer Travilla will never go down as a contemporary of Dior or Balenciaga, but as a precursor to Bob Mackie. And yet, this is still a very funny (and essentially very warm) movie. There are few screen friendships as believable and as lovable as Lorelei and Dorothy's--maybe only Lucy and Ethel's on the small screen really surpasses it. "Let's get this straight," Dorothy warns, "nobody ever talks about Lorelei except ME." And Lorelei returns the compliment: "Dorothy is the best, loyalest friend a girl could ever have." Pretty heartwarming stuff! In a nutshell, Lorelei and Dorothy are nightclub entertainers who head for Paris when Lorelei's romance with millionaire Mr. Esmond (Tommy Noonan) flounders due to his father's interference. Shipboard, Dorothy is romanced by Malone (Elliot Reid), who, unbeknowst to the girls, is a private detective hired by Esmond to keep an eye out for potential scandal. Meanwhile, Lorelei meets Lord Beekman, aka "Piggy" (Charles Coburn), probably the dirtiest dirty old man in the history of film. Piggy just happens to own the 2nd largest diamond mine in South Africa, and soon enough, Lorelei is coveting the gorgeous diamond tiara owned by Piggy's wife, Lady Beekman (Norma Varden). Various mixups and mayhem ensues, with Lorelei and Dorothy eventually stranded in Paris. And that's where Marilyn Monroe gives her penultimate performance: the legendary "Diamonds are a Girl's Best Friend" sequence. Even today, after scores of parodies and tributes, this number captivates. Not since Rita Hayworth's "Put the Blame on Mame" in "Gilda" was there such an intoxicatingly sexy marriage between star, song and persona. In this number, Marilyn is by turns playful, alluring, seductive and charming, but NEVER conniving or hard-edged. And therein lies her appeal: even when proclaiming "I prefer a man who lives and gives expensive jewels!", Marilyn is never anything less than adorable. She's not a gum-snapping, man-eating golddigger; she wants pretty things, and knows how to get them--but not at the expense of being nice. She may peruse passenger lists with single-minded focus ("Any man with '...and valet' after his name is definitely worthwhile"), but she's still a likable character WITH a motivation behind her actions--which always remain entirely innocent. Special note must be made here, too, of Jane Russell's contributions to this film (not the least of which is her seen-to-be-believed solo, "Ain't There Anyone Here for Love," in which she's surrounded by posterior-pumping beefcake). It would've been very easy for Russell to either throw the film entirely to Monroe, or push too hard for her own spotlight at the expense of onscreen warmth and camraederie. Wisely, Russell does neither. She simply turns in a snappy, effortless comic performance that more than holds its own, and projects a marvelous sense of sisterhood in her scenes with Monroe. This is a small comic, musical gem; the sum is greater than its parts (the songs themselves are weak; the comedy is sometimes obvious), but you cannot deny its sheer entertainment value. This is a perfect example of star power (Monroe's AND Russell's) turning a rhinestone into a diamond.

I think some people are too harsh on this movie. No, it doesn't saying anything revelatory about the human condition but that's not its intent. It is very good escapist fare. Monroe and Russell keep us enthralled with their glamor, song and dance numbers, and the occasional sharp one-liner. The plot is perfunctory. While Monroe is obviously the one most associated with the film in the public's consciousness, I personally think Russell is just as good if not better (I'm not saying that because I'm a brunet as well!) A question many Monroe fans ask is whether at this point onward in her career Monroe was playing Lorelei or whether in real life she 'was' Lorelei? Whatever the case, I recommend this movie if one is in the mood for glitzy glamorous Hollywood spectacle, 7/10.