Gentlemen Prefer Blondes
Tuesday, August 3rd, 2010Released - July, 1953 
Directed By - Howard Hawks
Starring- Jane Russell (Dorothy Shaw), Marilyn Monroe (Lorelei Lee), Charles Coburn (Sir Francis ‘Piggy’ Beekman), Elliott Reid (Ernie Malone).
Description – Dorothy Shaw and Lorelei Lee are showgirls and best friends. Lorelei is engaged to Gus Edmond much to his fathers regret. He does not approve of his sons engagement to a showgirl and stops their plans to sail to France and be married.
Lorelei still wants to go to France and her friend Dorothy is happy to accompany her. Gus asks Lorelei to be on her best behavior as his father may forbid their marriage forever should he hear of bad behavior. In fact, unknown to all his father has hired a private detective (Ernie Malone) to keep an eye on her.
During the trip Malone finds himself falling for Dorothy, but is still on the job. So much so that he has taken seemingly incriminating pictures of Lorelei and Sir Francis Beekman flirting. And, to make matters worse, Sir Francis happens to own a diamond mind which is the reason Malone believes Lorelei is interested.
Dorothy had seen Malone take the pictures and informs her friend. Now the fun begins as Lorelei and Dorothy scheme a way to get the pictures from Malone before any harm is done. Sir Francis, who happens to be married, is relieved that his wife will not see the pictures and gives Lorelei his wife’s tiara as a thank you present.
Very generous, but a slight problem as Sir Francis’ wife does not know of the gift and believes Lorelei to have stolen the tiara. Hearing of these events, Lorelei’s fiancee Gus cuts off her line of credit leaving both Lorelei and Dorothy without money or a place to live.
Now, how to straighten this mess out has become a little more difficult as the tiara is missing.
NOTABLE: Marilyn Monroe does a great job as the gold-digging Lorelei and gives an iconic performance of “Diamonds Are A Girl’s Friend.”
The role of Lorelei was originally intended for Betty Grable. However, after the positive reviews Monroe received for her work in Niagara, the studio realized they could have a far less expensive sex symbol for the role than Grable. At the time, Grable would have received $150,000; Monroe did the role for $18.000.
A beautiful gold lame evening dress worn my Marilyn Monroe was worn by Ginger Rogers in the 1952 film Dreamboat.
In the “Ain’t There Anyone Here For Love” number Jane Russell accidentally falls into the pool. Director Hawks liked the fall so much he left it in the scene.
When told that she was not the star of the movie, Marilyn Monroe replied “Well whatever I am, I’m still the blonde.”
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