FILM 2154: GENTLEMEN PREFER BLONDES (1953)

TRIVIA: This was Jane Russell's one & only film with Marilyn Monroe. They got along well. Russell called Monroe "Blondl," according to her 1985 autobiography, and was often the only person on the set who could coax Monroe out of her trailer to begin the day's filming.

Marilyn Monroe reportedly suggested the line "I can be smart when it's important, but most men don't like it."

When told she was not the star of the film, Marilyn was quoted as saying: "Well whatever I am, I'm still the blonde."

According to Marni Nixon, the studio initially wanted Marilyn Monroe's entire voice dubbed, as they thought her voice was silly. Nixon thought that was "awful", as she felt Monroe's voice suited her persona so beautifully. Nixon told The New York Times in March 2007 that she ended up only dubbing the operatic "no, no, nos" at the beginning of the song and the phrase "these rocks don't lose their shape".

In the "Ain't There Anyone Here for Love?" sequence, Jane Russell's fall into the pool was an accident. When Howard Hawks saw the dailies, he kept it in the film.

Judy Holliday turned down the role of Lorelei Lee because she felt no actress other than Carol Channing (who played the part on Broadway) should be cast.

One of the male dancers in the 'Diamonds Are A Girls Best Friend' number is an uncredited George Chakiris. 8 years later, He would appear in West Side Story and win Best Supporting Actor at the 34th Academy Awards.

Choreographer Jack Cole had been devising stage movement for non-dancing female stars in Hollywood since the mid-1940s, accenting glamorous hand, arm and hip movements within basic dance steps to camouflage his leading ladies' lack of ability. Cole reached his zenith with Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953). Faced with two stars who had no dancing experience whatsoever, he was determined to showcase them to their best advantage. Cole accomplished this by doubling and tripling the amount of isolations per beat, which meant that Russell and Monroe were actually performing a challenging series of steps in each of their numbers, made even more so by the necessity of their executing the steps, turns and arm gestures in absolute unison, which they did brilliantly. In the end, the choreography Cole devised was as intricate as a bona fide dance number. Jane Russell was so impressed by the results that she hired Cole as choreographer for Gentlemen Marry Brunettes (1955), the companion piece that Russell financed two years later. True to form, Cole concocted dynamic, humorous movement duets for Russell and her co-star, Jeanne Crain.

Included among the "1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die", edited by Steven Schneider.

I’m making my way through the book "1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die", edited by Steven Schneider. See my blog post about my copy of the book here…

You can buy an updated version (which I will get after I’ve made my way through this edition) here…

I really hope you can come on this journey with me – if you do I’d love to know which films you’ve enjoyed the most!

Watch this here…