DIRECTOR: Howard Hawkes
Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953) pairs Marilyn Monroe and Jane Russell at their most irresistible as two showgirls en route to Paris. Lorelei Lee (Monroe) is engaged to a wealthy mama’s boy whose father sends a detective to expose her, while Dorothy Shaw (Russell) happily collects admirers wherever she goes. Romance, comedy, and musical spectacle blend effortlessly, but the film’s queer sensibility is what gives it its lasting sparkle.
In one of the film’s most deliciously coded numbers, Russell belts out Ain’t There Anyone Here for Love? while surrounded by a gym full of hyper‑sculpted men who are far more interested in flexing for each other than noticing her. Russell pretends not to understand why she’s invisible, but the performance gives us the unmistakable wink‑wink: she understands perfectly. Meanwhile, Monroe is busy pursuing a different kind of treasure—diamonds—leading to the film’s showstopper, “Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend,” one of the most iconic musical sequences ever put on film.
As with Gilda and its legendary numbers “Put the Blame on Mame” and “Amado Mio,” an essential ingredient in the magic of Gentlemen Prefer Blondes is Jack Cole’s choreography, which gives the film its sleek, modern, unmistakably queer physical vocabulary.
Adapted from the play by Anita Loos and Joseph Fields, and from the Broadway musical by Jule Styne and Leo Robin, the film remains one of Howard Hawks’s most stylish and subversively playful achievements.
Cinematography: Harry J. Wild
TCF
STREAMING: Amazon Prime, YouTube and Apple TV
https://thebrownees.net/88-queer-films-made-under-the-hays-code-1934-1968/
https://thebrownees.net/110-queer-films-from-the-new-hollywood-1968-1980/
https://thebrownees.net/the-great-cinematographers-of-hollywoods-golden-age/
https://thebrownees.net/the-great-tunesmiths-of-hollywoods-golden-age/
https://thebrownees.net/the-great-lyricists-of-hollywoods-golden-age/
