Showgirls Lorelei Lee and Dorothy Shaw travel to Paris, pursued by a private detective hired by the suspicious father of Lorelei's fiancé, as well as a rich, enamored old man and many other ... Read allShowgirls Lorelei Lee and Dorothy Shaw travel to Paris, pursued by a private detective hired by the suspicious father of Lorelei's fiancé, as well as a rich, enamored old man and many other doting admirers.Showgirls Lorelei Lee and Dorothy Shaw travel to Paris, pursued by a private detective hired by the suspicious father of Lorelei's fiancé, as well as a rich, enamored old man and many other doting admirers.
- Director
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- Awards
- 1 win & 1 nomination total
- Wedding Guest
- (uncredited)
- Captain of Waiters
- (uncredited)
- Ship Passenger
- (uncredited)
- Courtroom Spectator
- (uncredited)
- Small Role
- (uncredited)
- Chorus Girl
- (uncredited)
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Featured reviews
Two things were done for the film, most of the Jule Styne-Leo Robin score was scrapped and two numbers written by Hoagy Carmichael and Harold Adamson were added. Retained from the original score was Bye Bye Baby, Two Little Girls from Little Rock and the famous theme of goldiggers everywhere, Diamonds are a Girl's Best Friend.
The second thing was to update the story from when it was originally written during the Roaring Twenties to the current Fifties. Still the two basic characters of Russell and Monroe remained the same. Both would like husbands, but Russell wants to marry for love, money would be nice though, but Monroe it's strictly mercenary.
The two men they have an eye on are millionaire son Tommy Noonan for Monroe and Russell has her eye on Elliott Reid. Monroe's mercenary ways nearly sink the two of them, but it all kind of works out in the end.
Lorelei Lee was Marilyn's breakout role as well. No big male star names are opposite here, she's only in a friendly competition with fellow sex symbol Jane Russell. Russell's contribution to the film is too often overlooked with Marilyn's legend looming over all. She more than holds her own against Marilyn and in fact unlike in some of her films, there was no friction at all with the two women.
I can see why Howard Hawks was attracted to this film. The women he has in his films are tough minded and more than capable of dealing in a man's world. That Jane and Marilyn are in abundance and boy do those women have a lot of abundance.
And in all the right places too.
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!
Fox knew what to do with the two lovelies when they cast them as the gold diggers aboard a ship bound for France with nothing on their minds but the pursuit of men with money. Jane has a wonderful song-and-dance routine with Olympic hopefuls in "Ain't There Anyone Here For Love?" and Marilyn gets to do a now-classic routine with "Diamonds Are A Girl's Best Friend". Charles Coburn has some amusing moments as an old-timer with a yen for Marilyn who has a yen for his wife's tiara. "I just love finding new places to wear diamonds", she says in that sweetly innocent Monroe voice. And Russell tops everything off with an imitation of Monroe in a courtroom that's guaranteed to draw chuckles.
It's all done up in vivid technicolor. The girls wear eye-popping costumes and look ultra glamorous together (exact opposites), and the songs aren't bad either. Pure escapist entertainment of the '50s kind with enough humorous moments to keep you entertained by the silly shenanigans. Fans of Monroe and Russell will love this one.
One of the funniest moments: Monroe stuck in a ship's porthole while a little boy holds a blanket around her as she makes small talk with Charles Coburn.
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
Did you know
- TriviaMarilyn Monroe reportedly suggested the line "I can be smart when it's important, but most men don't like it."
- GoofsIn the "Ain't There Anyone Here for Love" number, just before Dorothy falls into the pool (which was unplanned), it is clear that one of the divers slips before his takeoff, and his legs smash rather heavily into her head.
- Quotes
Lorelei Lee: Don't you know that a man being rich is like a girl being pretty? You wouldn't marry a girl just because she's pretty, but my goodness, doesn't it help?
- ConnectionsFeatured in Marilyn (1963)
- SoundtracksOverture
(1949) (uncredited)
Music by Jule Styne
Lyrics by Leo Robin
Performed by the 20th Century-Fox Studio Orchestra and Chorus Conducted by Lionel Newman
Details
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- Country of origin
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- Also known as
- Los caballeros las prefieren rubias
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- See more company credits at IMDbPro
Box office
- Budget
- $2,260,000 (estimated)
- Gross worldwide
- $24,143
- Runtime1 hour 31 minutes
- Aspect ratio
- 1.37 : 1