Gentlemen Prefer Blondes is showing at the Revue Cinema in Toronto on Monday, July 6, at 7pm.
“‘A landmark encounter in the battle of the sexes’ (Dave Kehr), Howard Hawks’ 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.”
Gentlemen Prefer Blondes is the winner in a people’s vote, outrunning another classic musical adaptation. In Chicago (2002), Renee Zellweger and Catherine Zeta Jones played sparring jailbirds Roxie Hart and Velma Kelly in an adaptation of the Broadway musical, itself based on an earlier play. Ginger Rogers first brought Roxie to the screen in 1942; and in another time, Chicago might have been the perfect vehicle for a Monroe/Russell reunion.
Another Canadian screening of Gentlemen Prefer Blondes is set for July 26 at the Tivoli Cinema on Prince Edward Island, as part of an ‘On Broadway’ Movie Madness event hosted by Hollywood Suite.
And finally, this eyecatching poster was designed by Sarah Sumeray aka This is Fun.
The Marilyn Report 