The dialogue!

Man: Do you remember me?
Marilyn: Why yes, you're one of the Olympic athletes!
Man: One of them? Sister, I'm the only four-letter member of the team.
Marilyn: I would think you'd be ashamed to admit it! No, don't say another word!

Old Lady: You'll find that I mean business!
Jane Russell: Really? Then why do you wear that hat?

Jane: I like men who can run faster than me.

Little Rich Boy: I'll help you because first of all, I'm too young to be arrested and second, you've got animal magnetism.

Marilyn: It's men like you who have made me the way I am. If you loved me at all, you'd feel sorry for the terrible troubles I've been through and not hold them against me. Don't say another word!

The images!

Marilyn stripping off a man's wet pants against his wishes.

Marilyn stuck in a porthole and a boy gives her a blanket to disguise the fact, as if she'd be standing on a chair for the ocean view with (professed) laryngitis! Her enchanted millionaire friend doesn't suspect a thing.

Pierre, the cab driver, blowing a kiss to the poster of Marilyn and Jane as showgirls, who receives a blown kiss from Marilyn's fiancée who thought it was meant for him.

Jane falling accidentally into the pool after singing to athletes who dove over her as she crouched.

Marilyn and Jane singing many sexy numbers, including Diamonds Are A Girl's Best Friend, Two Little Girls From Little Rock, Ain't There Anybody Here For Love?, Bye Bye Baby and When Love Goes Wrong.


The review:

Shame on me for not having seen this earlier to include in my tribute to Marilyn. It is one of her wittier movies as she plays Lorelei Lee, a luminous blonde who is thrilled to marry a nerdy millionaire (Tommy Noonan, A Star Is Born) and they plan a wedding in France, but his father won't allow them to sail together on a luxury cruise. This opens the door for shenanigans with her friend Dorothy Shaw (Jane Russell, The Outlaw) along for the fun, starting when Lorelei discovers a frisky, old millionaire who owns a diamond mine (Charles Coburn, The Lady Eve). The young detective (Elliot Reed, The Absent-Minded Professor) hired by the nerd's father to watch Lorelei, take pictures and tape her, nevertheless falls for Dorothy and she for him, but he'll have to change his ways for her.

Lorelei with her obsession with diamonds certainly gets herself in hot water when she asks the old, married millionaire for his wife's diamond tiara and he can't say no to her, but cannot later admit to his wife that he gave it to her. Are Lorelei's flirting days over? Will her fiancée forgive her? To add to her troubles, the tiara is stolen from her!

Marilyn has never looked lovelier and her catchy lines throughout show her to have some intelligence when she needs to use it. Jane was loads of sassy fun, too, but in an understated way until she broke loose in the courtroom with a raunchy, hilarious rendition of Diamonds Are A Girl's Best Friend! I was delighted with this extravagant musical comedy from 1953, based on a hit Broadway play and watched it twice in a row.

Howard Hawks (Rio Bravo) directed this 91 minute, Technicolor classic with patience and supreme professionalism as always. Charles Lederer brought it to the screen from the novel by Anita Loos and Joseph Field's play. It might amuse you that Marilyn didn't sing the high notes, but the International Movie Data Base can't decide who did! Hoagy Carmichael, Jule Styne and Harold Adamson collaborated on the charming songs.

You'll love Gentlemen Prefer Blondes easily if you've enjoyed other Monroe or Russell films or classic romantic comedies. I must confess I wondered what Jane thought of the title until I noticed she made a sequel a couple years later, Gentlemen Marry Brunettes.:-)

My Tribute To Marilyn:
http://www.epinions.com/content_2857279620



Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: DVD