Gentlemen Prefer Blondes

Garish good fun. The film version of Anita Loos's Broadway musical has scrapped the 1920s plot and most of the songs. If the plot of vacationing showgirls--one out for money, the other for love--sometimes lags in director Hawks's hands, it's compensated by a genuine sentiment and sweetness, the ironic and witty use of sex-symbol stereotypes, and the reduction of males to foils for the affectionate wisecracks traded by the femme leads. Both Jane Russell and Marilyn Monroe act with the confidence of whales; it's the last time in Monroe's career you feel sure watching her work. In a way Russell steals BLONDES. She's certainly more at home in gaudy territory, and her D...