Our Smart Bitches Movie Matinee pick this month is Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, the classic featuring Jane Russell, Marilyn Monroe, and some seriously iconic song and dance numbers.
There’s a lot to examine in this film, too, especially if you’ve been listening to the You Must Remember This podcast series on “Dead Blondes.” The Marilyn Monroe section takes up three episodes, and they touch on this film briefly.
I’ve seen this movie once, a long time ago, and I’m really looking forward to watching it again. Here’s the plot synopsis:
Lorelei Lee (Marilyn Monroe) is a beautiful showgirl engaged to be married to the wealthy Gus Esmond (Tommy Noonan), much to the disapproval of Gus’ rich father, Esmond Sr., who thinks that Lorelei is just after his money. When Lorelei goes on a cruise accompanied only by her best friend, Dorothy Shaw (Jane Russell), Esmond Sr. hires Ernie Malone (Elliott Reid), a private detective, to follow her and report any questionable behavior that would disqualify her from the marriage.
Gentleman Prefer Blondes is available for streaming on Netflix and STARZ on Amazon. You can also find it for around $3-4 to rent and $10 to buy digitally on iTunes, Google:Play, and Amazon, and the DVD can be found at your local library, or cheaply online in new and used condition from Amazon or Alibris.
We’ll be discussing the film on Sunday, May 28th, and we hope you’ll join the conversation with us then!
You should add the 1939 version of “The Women.” It is a million times better than the one they did a few years ago. There are NO men in it, and it’s all about men. I highly recommend it for any number of reasons.
I love this movie-especially the relationship between the female leads. Oh and the musical numbers are fabulous!
I love this movie!
Also, @Diane, I once impulse-bought very expensive nail polish solely because it was “Jungle Red.”
My two most favorite Marilyn Monroe pictures are this one and “Some Like it Hot”. MM is beautiful in both but looking at them now I’m struck by how “fat” MM was according to current standards. Rosalind Russell also. They have hips, they have breasts and they’re soft and squeezable looking.
That fantastic dress MM wears when she sings I Want to Be Loved by You in SLIH leaves you sure she’s not wearing anything under it–no bra, no girdle, nothing but her. Needless to say today they’d send MM off to lose 30 lbs. I don’t think anyone at the time would agree! How have our ideals of female sexuality changed.
I think I’ve seen this three times this year. Love everything about it, but especially the when Lorelei proves just how not dumb a blonde she is by tying Gus’s father into an eopic logic knot.
So I guess this is the best time as any to say that I have finally jumped on the You Must Remember This Podcast bandwagon, and what a good bandwagon to be on. A belated thank you goes out to the commenters who I kept seeing recommend this. And I’ve been recommending the Women on previous posts. And also, my sleep addled brain briefly thought you were going to discuss How to Marry a Millionaire which is the one with Marilyn Monroe, Lauren Bacall, and Betty Grable which I have seen and gives some of the best lines to Grable imo, and not Gentlemen Prefer Blondes which I have not seen. It’s funny how brains can do that. I’ve also saw mom do it with Doris Day movies once. And btw, Gentlemen is a book as well, written, I think, by a woman who was a screen writer on the Women along with other films.
This is one of my all time favorite movies.
I LOVE this movie!! Jane Russell is at her most beautiful, wisecracking best-and of course MM is perfection. I love every single song in this musical, in fact I tried to buy the soundtrack a few months ago, but couldn’t find it.
@StefanieMagura-You are so right, this was written by Anita Loos-who had an incredibly interesting life and career-I loved her autobiography A Girl Like I.
Looking forward to this!
Yay! This is one of my favorite movies. Love both lead actresses and their friendship. Love all the songs, but especially Jane Russell’s “Ain’t There Anyone Here For Love”. The clothes are gorgeous. The leads are gorgeous. The technicolor is gorgeous. This is going to be so much fun!
LITERALLY THE GREATEST MOVIE EVER
Love this film! But can I say I always preferred Jane Russell in it than MM. Although MM does get some great lines… (“Silly, don’t you know that…”)
I particularly love the fact that the women have actual figures! They are not just stick-like. And yet Hollywood (of the time) still let them wear sexy clothes… Shocking!