Hollywood Suite’s Movie Madness: GENTLEMEN PREFER BLONDES

 

 

“A landmark encounter in the battle of the sexes” (Dave Kehr), Howard Hawk’s Gentlemen Prefer Blondes–adapted from Anita Loos’s original 1925 novel–is as subversive as it is lavish. The ultimate musical, it made Marilyn Monroe a Hollywood legend and proved that diamonds are indeed, a girl’s best friend.

 

 

Monroe is Lorelei Lee, the original “Material Girl.” Blindingly blonde and admirably ambitious, Lorelei knows how to exploit the men who are out to exploit her. And with her best friend Dorothy Shaw—played by the original “Outlaw” Jane Russell—at her side, Lorelei can’t be beat. That is until she and Dorothy embark on a cruise to Paris, only to be spied upon by a private detective (Elliott Reid) hired by the rich father of Lorelei’s newly minted fiancé. Convinced that she is a gold-digger (and rightfully so), the father is hot to catch Lorelei in the act—hilarious, compromising (mis)adventures ensue.

 

 

While Monroe wasn’t the first Lorelei (June Walker in 1926’s play, then Ruth Taylor in a now lost silent film version, and Carol Channing’s in 1949’s stage sensation), she made the character simply iconic and put emphasis on the “broad” in Broadway. (ALICIA FLETCHER)