Silver Screen Standards: Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953)
While I’ve never had any interest in diamonds, I do enjoy watching Marilyn Monroe sing about them in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953), the Technicolor film adaptation of the 1949 stage musical based on Anita Loos’ flapper era novel. Monroe’s big number, “Diamonds are a Girl’s Best Friend,” is a truly iconic moment in film history that has been copied, referenced, and parodied countless times (including, most recently, in Ryan Gosling’s show-stopping performance of “I’m Just Ken” at the 2024 Academy Awards ceremony). While the film’s ultimate message leaves a lot of room for debate, Monroe’s charisma as material girl Lorelei Lee is undeniable, while Jane Russell handily debunks the title’s claim with her appealing performance as Lorelei’s brunette bestie.
Monroe and Russell play showgirls Lorelei and Dorothy, who look out for each other above all as various men enter their lives. On the verge of landing meek millionaire Gus Esmond (Tommy Noonan) over the objections of his father, Lorelei embarks on a transatlantic cruise to Paris with Dorothy as chaperone, but temptation appears in the form of smitten diamond mine mogul Sir Francis Beekman (Charles Coburn). Lorelei tries to match Dorothy with a millionaire of her own, but Dorothy feels more attracted to Ernie Malone (Elliott Reid), not knowing that Ernie is really a private detective hired by Esmond’s father to spy on Lorelei.
1953 was a big year for Monroe, which also saw her starring in the color noir Niagara and How to Marry a Millionaire, but Gentlemen Prefer Blondes gives her the most screen time and opportunity to demonstrate her skills as a musical performer. Her particular version of the comedic “dumb blonde” character is so persuasive that it obscures the talent such a role requires, but Lorelei isn’t as dumb as everyone assumes. While Dorothy might be considered the smart one of the pair, Lorelei has a much better understanding of her value as a desirable commodity in a patriarchal society where men control access to wealth. Her speech to Gus’s father at the end of the movie points out that men don’t value intelligence in women, and therefore Lorelei finds it prudent to hide hers from suitors who only care about her looks. She might not know what to do with a tiara, but Lorelei recognizes a double standard when she sees one, as she rightly observes that men blame women for wanting rich husbands even as they forbid their own daughters from taking poor ones. The gold digger is another classic feminine stereotype, going at least as far back as Becky Sharp in Vanity Fair, but Monroe invests hers with wide-eyed sweetness that never seems artificial. Like the plucky gals in the Gold Diggers movies of the 1930s, Lorelei has developed her mercenary marital views as a practical strategy for survival. That’s not to say that Anita Loos intended Lorelei to be read as a heroine or that the movie, with its emphasis on marriage as a woman’s only life goal, really works as a coherent critique of patriarchy. Both women, after all, end the picture at the altar and presumably give up their stage careers for domestic life. Monroe, however, makes us like and root for Lorelei even when her behavior is most questionable, and the women’s unwavering loyalty to one another reminds us that their friendship always comes first.
Of course, the film boasts considerable star power in addition to Monroe, with Jane Russell taking top billing and commanding plenty of screen time for herself. Her performance of “Ain’t There Anyone Here for Love” is particularly robust, and her impersonation of Lorelei in the courtroom scene is a hoot. Russell’s Dorothy, who is streetwise but still an idealist about romance, is a perfect foil to Monroe’s Lorelei, and we like Dorothy even more for making it clear to Ernie that he will only win her love by respecting her devotion to her friend. Everyone else takes a backseat to the pair of leading ladies, but Tommy Noonan and Elliott Reid are fun as their most ardent admirers, while little George Winslow always cracks me up as Henry Spofford III. Charles Coburn makes for an amusing old heel as “Piggy” Beekman, waggish scamps of advanced years being something of a character specialty for him. Behind the camera, director Howard Hawks keeps the action moving with help from Charles Lederer’s energetic screenplay and Jack Cole’s choreography.
The box office success of Gentlemen Prefer Blondes spawned a 1955 sequel called Gentlemen Marry Brunettes, which also adapts an Anita Loos story and stars Jane Russell, but it’s not nearly as celebrated. Russell is better remembered today for her roles in The Outlaw (1943) and His Kind of Woman (1951), but Monroe’s enduring fame towers over that of her costar. For more of Charles Coburn’s old rogues, see The Lady Eve (1941), The More the Merrier (1943), and Heaven Can Wait (1943). You can also see Monroe, Coburn, and George Winslow in Howard Hawks’ Monkey Business (1952). Tommy Noonan and Coburn both feature in How to Be Very, Very Popular (1955), which was intended as the next project for Monroe but ended up starring Betty Grable with Sheree North in Monroe’s role after Monroe refused to do the picture.
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— Jennifer Garlen for Classic Movie Hub
Jennifer Garlen pens our monthly Silver Screen Standards column. You can read all of Jennifer’s Silver Screen Standards articles here.
Jennifer is a former college professor with a PhD in English Literature and a lifelong obsession with film. She writes about classic movies at her blog, Virtual Virago, and presents classic film programs for lifetime learning groups and retirement communities. She’s the author of Beyond Casablanca: 100 Classic Movies Worth Watching and its sequel, Beyond Casablanca II: 101 Classic Movies Worth Watching, and she is also the co-editor of two books about the works of Jim Henson.
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