Gentlemen Prefer Blondes

A riotously funny and breathtakingly audacious musical, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes follows two American girls, played unforgettably by Marilyn Monroe and Jane Russell, who travel by sea from America to France, in search of men to seduce and fleece of money. The film is best remembered as the pinnacle of Monroe’s career, and the Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend sequence has deservedly retained classic status. However, Russell is as extraordinary a presence, not least when she unforgettably romances the entire Olympic swimming team, in a musical number as hilarious and risqué as any in Classical Hollywood. Although the director, Howard Hawks, is perhaps best known for his portraits of male friendship in thrillers and westerns, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes sees him subverting his usual male-centred worldview with strongly feminist implications: his male characters are bumbling grotesques, from a revolting old millionaire to an adolescent voyeur. The staging and composition of the final scene implies, not so subtly, that Monroe and Russell’s characters are better off with each other than in any heterosexual relationship.

James O’Connell Nash