FILM 2099: GUYS AND DOLLS (1955)
FILM 2099: GUYS AND DOLLS (1955)
In New York, a gambler is challenged to take a cold female missionary to Havana, but they fall for each other, and the bet has a hidden motive to finance a crap game.
TRIVIA: Marlon Brando had been cast in the role of Sky Masterson, a role coveted by Frank Sinatra, while Sinatra was relegated to the supporting role of Nathan Detroit. Relations between the two actors were strained during production. Many years later, Brando said of Sinatra, "Frank's the kind of guy who, when he gets to Heaven, is going to give God a hard time for making him bald."
After filming repeated takes of the scene where Sky (Marlon Brando) and Nathan (Frank Sinatra) first meet, they had to quit for the day when Sinatra had eaten too much cheesecake. He said he could not take one more bite. Practical joker (some would say jerk) Brando, knowing how much Sinatra hated cheesecake, purposely flubbed each take so that Sinatra would have to eat piece after piece of cheesecake. The next day, they came back and shot the scene perfectly on the first take.
Marilyn Monroe wanted to play Adelaide, but director Joseph L. Mankiewicz did not want to work with her again (she appeared briefly in All About Eve (1950)) and supposedly pretended he never got her phone messages. Animal lover Betty Grable was in talks to play Adelaide, but when she canceled a meeting with producer Samuel Goldwyn to be with her sick dog, who had to be taken to the vet with a broken leg, a miffed Goldwyn would not reschedule and dropped her from consideration. Judy Holliday was also briefly considered for the role.
Frank Sinatra loathed the non-singing Marlon Brando for getting the starring role, while Sinatra got a lesser part. His nickname for the sometimes barely coherent Brando was "Mumbles."
Very few contractions--"aren't" for "are not" or "wouldn't" for "would not," for example--are used in the dialogue in this movie (the songs are a different story). While it makes the language seem stilted and excessively formal at times, this is true to the writings of Damon Runyon. He also eschewed the use of contractions, and this characteristic gave his works a very recognizable style.
The audio for each of Marlon Brando's musical numbers is constructed from multiple takes.
Included among the "1,001 Movies You Must See Before You Die," edited by Steven Schneider.
I’m working my way through the "1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die". This film is from this list. I have my own book – which you can see here…
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