Gentlemen Prefer Blondes
by Charles Lederer (screen play), Joseph Fields (based on the musical comedy by), and Anita Loos (based on the musical comedy by)
Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation
Sarah: Am I the only one who gets a little zing! of excitement with the production company logo and music at the start of a movie? I think it’s a leftover reaction from going to a movie as a kid – which was a Big Deal of excitement.
Carrie S: Clothes!
Elyse: My fashion goals are to have a cape like Dorothy’s.
Carrie S: Three minutes in and I’m already in love with Jane Russell.
Sarah: What lipstick is Jane wearing in the opening sequence? I love it.
Ah, vintage movie credits. I can have a shower in the time it takes to get through them.
Elyse: Is “those girls couldn’t drown” a boob joke?
Carrie S: I feel like we need to discuss the flesh colored swim trunks but word fail me.
Elyse: Holy skin colored swim trunks. I love how the ship conveniently has a gymnastics studio next to the pool. Also what the fuck is the Australian crawl?
Sarah: Carrie, I agree. There is absolutely no subtext to men in flesh colored swim trunks dancing, wrestling, and swinging on a pole. Nope.
RHG: Fuckboy Gus looks like Charles Boyle from Brooklyn 99 and that’s a substitution that’s going to keep me ENDLESSLY entertained for a while. All weekend, probably.
Sarah: Ok, when Junior Esmond walks through the backstage area on the way to Lorelei’s dressing room, he looks at all the women, and looks utterly confused what he’s doing there.
Elyse: I love Dorothy. LOVE her.
RHG: Jane Russell is the best, hands down. I want to get drunk with Dorothy and talk shit. Or with Jane. Both of ‘em.
Sarah: I love Dorothy’s confident sexuality.
RHG: RUNNING, why? “Sure it keeps you healthy, but at what cost?”
I deeply appreciate this workout scene. My face and Dorothy’s face are the same face and we would absolutely be best friends for ever. “I like a beautiful hunk of man.”
Sarah: “Nobody chaperones the chaperone.” And a thousand historical romances were born.
“Dibs on the shot putter.” Again, a thousand romances were born. Probably contemporary but I can be flexible.
Carrie S: When Lorelei and Dorothy walk into the dining room together there’s no lesbian subtext all. Nope. Not a bit.
Sarah: The choreography is something else – I don’t think their rib cages moved at all.
RHG: It’s nice to see actual dancing after that abhorrent remake of Dirty Dancing the other night with low energy, lackluster, barely dirty dancing.
Carrie S: I can’t figure out why I so very much want Lorelei to have love and riches even though she has the morals of a boa constrictor.
Sarah: Lorelei threatening to have her meals in her room so the head waiter has to give back his bribes – ma’am. I am so impressed.
Carrie S: Lorelei’s grand dismissal of annoying men is my everything.
Elyse: “The human ferret” is my new favorite insult.
Sarah: “Did you ever hear of a rich pole vaulter?” A thousand romances born? Well, maybe not a thousand. Maybe a six.
RHG: Oh, he’s good. Malone is VERY good at his job.
Ah! Elliot Reid reminds me of Christian Borle, especially in “My line? My most effective one is to tell a girl she has hair like a torch at midnight, lips like a red couch in an ivory palace that I’m lonely and starved for affection. Then, I generally burst into tears. It seldom works.”
Sarah: “You might be interested in my tiara.” I’m going to say that randomly, when I have a tiara in my bag. Which means I need to get a tiara to keep in my bag.
RHG: I’m going to start carrying around a tiara. Just in case. You never know when you might have a tiara emergency. “I just love finding new places to wear diamonds!” LOL.
Carrie S: OMG Lorelei is a terrible person. Blackmailing a dude to get a tiara is low, honey.
Sarah: Who packs a tiara in a leather briefcase without padding?
Elyse: Life goals: Needing 4 bellboys to unload my taxi…Except it would be all yarn and books, probably.
Carrie S: THAT SHADE OF BLUE THO. WE ARE NOT WORTHY.
Sarah: And Carrie, that cobalt dress…we are indeed not worthy.
Elyse: This movie is pure clothes pr0n. Except the cone bras. Those are a little scary.
RHG: The costumes in this are STUNNING. OMG.
Sarah: The fact that I’m really enjoying this movie and that it’s a musical is surprising.
Elyse: Where do these women buy their lipstick?! It survives kissing…getting knocked in the pool…like a million cocktails…
Sarah: Dorothy is making me rethink pantsuits.
Dorothy has a pink lipstick now – and I don’t wear pink but I like it. I need makeup lessons from whomever chose her cosmetics.
RHG: THAT IS A VERY LARGE LISTENING DEVICE. “If you’ve nothing more to say, pray, scat.” BRUTAL.
Sarah: Malone would make a terrible paparazzi. And I defined about sixteen abdominal muscles cringing at Piggy’s tales of Africa. Good grief.
Carrie S: I’m disappointed by the wedding dresses. I thought they’d be more outrageous.
Sarah: I was not expecting tea length wedding dresses and lace.
Elyse: I don’t understand why the chandelier is made of women. Or the candelabra. HAVE THEY BEEN CURSED?!
Carre S: I love the female friendship and I love the tenacity with which the women go after what they want from life. It was a lot of fun! Also we have to provide a gif of Monroe smacking guys with her fan and saying “No, no no no no no” cause that’s the best.
Elyse: I adore the fact that Dorothy and Lorelei support each other unwaveringly. They may not always agree with each other, but they love and protect each other. I will watch/read that story always.
Sarah: I love that Lorelei and Dorothy’s friendship is immutable. They both know each other’s flaws and habits, but they defend one another and protect each other. And they’re honest about the circumstances they’re in, and don’t condemn each other for doing what they want, and going after what they want. I love that about this movie.
I also love their exchange:
“It’s just not fair.”
“Of course it’s not.”
They’re going to help each other and look after each other because nothing is fair.
RHG: That was charming and adorable, and I feel like Marilyn Monroe was a much better actress than a lot of people give her credit for. Sure, lot of people can do the breathy, “Oh my, isn’t that interesting?” thing, but to do it with enough layers, and being able to let the camera see the machinations behind it all? Noice. Pity that most people now seem to see just the hair and the boobs and the legs.
Elyse: “Really, then why are you wearing that hat?” I LOVE DOROTHY.
“You hold your breath till I call.” I LOVE HER EVEN MORE
RHG: Dorothy and I would TOTALLY be BFFs. We’d be salt-mates. It would be amazing.
Sarah: It’s hard to grade this because through my present-day lenses (all four of them) there are some cringe-tastic moments. I’m generally not a fan of musicals. (WHY. WHY DO YOU BURST INTO SONG AND DON’T KNOW YOU ARE SINGING WHY.)
It’s not perfection but it’s very close. B+
RHG: I’d agree on the B+ grade…although, thinking back to the dude workout song, that pushes it up to an A- for me. I do love me a beautiful hunk of man.
Elyse: This was super fun. I liked the romance but I loved the female friendship and the clothes were AMAZING. I agree with B+/A-.
Did you watch Gentlemen Prefer Blondes along with us? Do you have a favorite costume? Are you more of a Dorothy or a Lorelei?
“Im not marrying your son for his money, I’m marrying him for YOUR money.”
Best line. Sharpest pragmatism, expressed with the bambi eyes and the innocent little girl’s voice.
Oh yes, Marilyn never got the credit she deserved for being a clever actress who played clever characters.
That said, I prefer Dorothy, because sarcasm.
Maybe a lot of people can do a breathy ‘oh my isn’t that interesting” but I’m definitely not one of them. I’m no Lorelei, but I love watching her do her thing, and I would like all of her clothes please – except the wedding dress.
Dorothy, all the way. Although Lorelei is quite possibly my favorite role of Monroe’s. Such a good movie.
@Sarah, this is a little off topic but your dislike of musicals makes me SO SAD (my previous career path was researching musical theater, so I take it a little personally, haha). Have you ever seen “A Musical” from SOMETHING ROTTEN? It discusses musicals at a meta level (musical comedies LOVE being self-referential) and pokes fun at it (“people just stop talking and start singing? well that is the *sings* stupidest thing that I’ve ever heard”) and just revels in the “because we can” attitude of spectacle. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jnvF6A2DCAE
I’m also trying to resist the urge to keep poking at the complaint about “bursting into song” (does it bother you less in something like a Disney movie like Little Mermaid or Lion King where it’s already got an unrealistic medium AND unrealistic situation? what about in sung-through musical genres like the typical opera, say Marriage of Figaro [some operas do have dialogue; even something as iconic as Carmen was written with dialogue in between]) so uh time to leave the Internet 🙂
I’ve seen this movie at least 20 times (along with Some Like It Hot & How to Marry A Millionaire). People get distracted by the breathy voice & Bambi eyes & boobs & don’t realize there was a really really smart brain under all that platinum hair. But, I think I’m a Dorothy, sarcastic & pragmatic.
I highly recommend reading the book & its sequel (did you know there is a sequel?), But Gentlemen Marry Brunettes.
@Nataka– One of my all-time favorite movie lines! Marilyn was incredible. I think it’s actually a testament to what a good actress she was that she’s so often discounted: she convinced people that she actually was that character, at which point they assumed she wasn’t really acting at all. That a character who could come off as one-note as Lorelei has so many layers of warmth and vulnerability and ambition and naïveté and smarts says everything about Marilyn’s abilities.
And I can’t forget Jane in my love for Marilyn! I remember watching this movie for the first time with my mom on Turner Classics when I was about 13. I wanted so much to grow up to be half the absolute queen that Dorothy is.
This movie definitely has flaws, but it’s such a camp classic, with two absolute powerhouse female leads. Between that and the good memories of repeated rewatches with Mom, I will always love it.
@Cat C: I’m another person who will swear “I hate musicals,” and then I contradict myself by listing Gene Wilder’s Willy Wonka among my favorite movies and heavily musical episodes of South Park and Spongebob as the best things I’ve ever seen on TV. It’s not a realism issue for me (I say “Oh god, they’re gonna sing now” during animated Disney movies about talking animals just the same as I do with live-action productions — with exceptions I’ll note in a minute.) It’s a matter of EARNESTNESS. I am totally on board with the Siamese cat song in Lady and the Tramp and the chef in The Little Mermaid singing about butchering fish. I will sing songs like that myself, out loud, around other people, with total abandon (that’s a whole string if words that runs counter to my very existence, yet at times I am compelled) because they’re not meant to be taken seriously.
But I CRINGE IN MY SOUL when someone is supposed to be having an emotion but it turns into a freaking song-and-dance routine. There’s a narrative buildup to that moment, and then I’m cheated out of the emotional payoff because prancing and twirling and vocal stylings and the limitations of songwriting are suddenly more important. It makes me angry, to be honest. Either I’m emotionally manipulated and then betrayed, or I go in knowing that will be the case, refuse to care about anything that happens, and am just a completely cynical bitch about the whole thing.
So for me, musical FUN is fine, but cramming music and choreography where an emotional climax should be is bad storytelling and fills me with rage.
The banter, my god, THE BANTER. You don’t get quality banter like this anymore. Having been the Dorothy in every friendship of my life, she has a very special place in my heart.
And this: 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?. Mike drop on the look Gus’s father’s face when he realizes he’s not the smartest person in the room.
As for musicals. Love them. Love everything about them. And I never underestimate a song’s ability to convey an emotion in a way that is so much more impactful than just saying “I love you” or “I’m happy” or “I’m hurt”.
I made my girls watch this movie several times when they were small (in the 80s). To the point that one of them asked to watch it at a slumber party. Because I thought it has some good life lessons and is female supportive in its own weird way.
I love Lorelei but would be Dorothy.
And, if you have never read it, the book is even better. I read it out loud to my mom when I was in college and we both laughed so hard. Anita Loos was a genius!
@Ren thank you for putting into words exactly what bothers me. I don’t mind the self-referential self-aware musicals, but the earnestness always bugged me.
Yes. Exactly that. The earnestness and the imo often unsuccessful transfer of narrative tension from dialogue to song and dance doesn’t always work for me. There are a handful that work – for example, one of my favorite musical songs is “Sit Down, You’re Rocking the Boat,” from Guys and Dolls. The storytelling-as-song works in the context (mission meeting where worship/singing would happen) and as a narrative method, and it’s inherently self-aware. But like Ren, I’m also aware that my dislike of musicals is often inconsistent, too.
Oh that’s so funny, I can’t abide it when people talk about their feelings, much less if they do it earnestly, and there is dramatic tension. I am all about it being conveyed in musical cues. If I don’t like the music, it doesn’t work, of course, but I would be so much happier if people only ever expressed emotions through dance/music/art.
It’s also ok to write them down. But no talking!
To follow what Cat C wrote, I saw Something Rotten, with a friend who doesn’t like musicals, who went because we were in NY and Broadway was a must-do and as a favor to me, and she laughed so much during “A musical” that she would have rolled on the floor if we hadn’t been on the front row on the balcony and rolling there would have been dangerous. Meta on musicals, meta on Shakespeare, and who mentioned Christian Borle ? My God he was awesome in that.
This has been one of my favorite movies since high school. Back then (you know, last century), I of course wanted to be Lorelei. As I’ve grown, well, wiser, I’m proud to be a Dorothy. But to the clothes, yes, Yes, YES!
Dorothy, all the way! What a friend to have.
I am generally not a musical person, but I *love* opera and operetta. I’m not going to pull an entire paragraph out of a blog I wrote about it (ha), but I’ll just say—I think Ren nailed at least some of it. Whatever suspension of disbelief in place that allows me to jump merrily into even the most absurd opera, it is rarely present for musicals (but, as with Ren and Sarah, it’s inconsistent). I mean, I even get embarrassed when a lot of singing and dancing happens, because *people will see them.* Plus the dance routine totally gets in the way of everyone who is just trying to live their life. I wince every time I watch what’s-her-name spinning through Central Park in Enchanted.
But, on the flip side, I used to have opera students wandering around my college singing arias, and that never bothered me at all. And I’ve enjoyed My Fair Lady (only when on stage, though), and love Into the Woods—but Into the Woods kind of revels in its dark absurdity, and I think that’s one of the reasons I enjoy it so.
Also I should finally watch this movie. Hah.
How have I never seen this movie before? Loved the relationship between Lorelei and Dorothy and also the banter between Dorothy and the detective (and also Dorothy’s imitation of Lorelei at the police court.) I think that the fact that we like and root for Lorelei says a lot about Marilyn Monroe’s acting abilities…that character could be so repugnant, but she really makes us believe that, as Dorothy says, she would never do anything “really wrong” (and that someone like Dorothy would genuinely like her.)
Holy hannah, how did they get away with that gym number? (Did you catch the shot of the Greek warrior in the wall decoration with his sword “appropriately” positioned?) Not to mention the bondage chandelier…
I always look up background to the movies after I watch them…my two favorite items this time were that a) Jane Russell wasn’t originally supposed to fall into the pool during the gym dance number, but the director liked it when he saw it in the dailies and b) Jane Russell and Marilyn Monroe apparently got along really well on set and were very friendly to each other. Knowing how badly Marilyn was treated by a lot of men in the movie industry, it made me feel good to know that she had a female ally (and also, I wondered if that’s one reason their friendship felt so real on film.)
I’ve never seen this movie before, but it was wonderful. Loved the friendship, and the clothes were just fabulous.
So many good lines, but the conversation between Lorelei and Gus’s father was great.
I love this movie.
I like musicals in general, but this is one of my favorites. So many good scenes and lines. The lyrics for the songs are perfect. It’s just fun.
I didn’t understand what the big deal was about Marilyn Monroe from seeing her in photos, but then when I saw her in movies such as this, and how to Marry a Millionaire, I got it. She’s fabulous, and so is Jane Russell!
I didn’t watch this with you, but now I need to see if it’s on Netflix.
I grew up listening to the albums of Broadway musicals so have no trouble watching them. My father also liked opera, which can be glorious but even more unreal. But even in opera there are ones like Carmen, where I find the characters very realistic, or Tosca, which is filled with emotionally real moments expressed in song. My heart breaks for her when she sings about living for love and art and doesn’t know why such terrible things are happening to her and those she loves. Or when Scarpia, the villain, sings of his evil designs on Tosca in a church with the choir in the background — powerful stuff made even more powerful by the music. And for a great example from a musical, YouTube John Raitt (Bonnie Raitt’s father) singing the soliloquy from Carousel. The emotions would not be half as powerful if only spoken.
I haven’t seen the movie for a while, but I can also recommend the book. One of my favorite quotes was when Lorelei says Dr. Freud advised her to “get lots of sleep and cultivate a few inhibitions”.
And Jane Russell wasn’t that far off from her character. Later in life, she was active in church-sponsored charities and a minister commented on it perhaps being inappropriate for her – considering her image – to be involved and she responded, “well, reverend, Christians got tits too”.
So many things I could say, but RHG wins the day with her Parks & Rec reference. “Jogging is the worst, Chris. Sure it keeps you healthy, but at what cost?”
This is on my wishlist because I have never seen it, and I feel like I need to. I love musicals. 🙂
Okay sort of off-topic, but Australian crawl is an old term for what is now the freestyle. It was not invented in Australia (I think) but Australians basically made it popular, so the name