Film Excess - Free Ukraine - Stop Putin - End the war NOW!!: Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953) - Great musical numbers define cultural cornerstone

12/22/2020

Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953) - Great musical numbers define cultural cornerstone

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Two long-legged glamour girls look ready to give a show on this colorful, inviting poster for Howard Hawks' Gentlemen Prefer Blondes

Two show singers take a cruise to Europe, where one of them means to wed her ridiculous millionaire fiancée. Tomfoolery and a lost diamond tiara get in the way.

Gentlemen Prefer Blondes is written by Charles Lederer (Ocean's Eleven (1960)), based on the same-titled 1949 Broadway musical, and directed by Indianan master filmmaker Howard Hawks (The Road to Glory (1926)), whose 39th feature it was.

It is a vulgar and shamelessly materialistic movie, which probably shouldn't be judged on this, since it is a comedy, but when the laughs don't materialize as is the case here, one feels compelled to note it nonetheless. Marilyn Monroe (The Asphalt Jungle (1950)) is vamped up, and so is Jane Russell (Waco (1966)). There is handsomely choreographed, catchy and good-looking musical numbers, but Gentlemen Prefer Blondes is still a dumb film (with a memorable but unrelated title.)

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Top 10: The best adaptations reviewed by Film Excess to date
Top 10: The best B/W movies reviewed by Film Excess to date
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Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: 2.3 mil. $

Box office: Reportedly 5.3 mil. $

= Minor flop, some uncertainty (returned 2.30 times its cost)

[Gentlemen Prefer Blondes premiered 1 July (Atlantic City) and runs 91 minutes. Russell was paid 200k $ for her performance, while the then lesser-known Monroe was paid 500 $ a week. Shooting took place in London, England and in Los Angeles from November 1952 - January 1953. It is said that the musical numbers were more or less directed by choreographer Jack Cole (River of No Return (1954)). The film was the 8th highest-grossing worldwide of the year and made 5.1 mil. $ in North America. That leaves only a 0.2 mil. $ gross for all foreign markets, which seems unlikely and hard to believe, - but is nevertheless the numbers that are recorded. Hawks returned with Land of the Pharaohs (1955). Russell returned in The French Line (1953); Monroe in The Jack Benny Program (1952-53) and theatrically in How to Marry a Millionaire (1953). Gentlemen Prefer Blondes is certified fresh at 98 % with a 7.86/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

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12/22/2020

Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953) - Great musical numbers define cultural cornerstone

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