5. Gentlemen Prefer Blondes
Howard Hawks is one of the most misappreciated men in the history of cinema, and his grand, brassy 1953 musical about two girls from Little Rock — Marilyn Monroe and Jane Russell — remains his best.
The male sex is represented by a bespectacled nerd (Tommy Noonan), a dirty old man (Charles Coburn), and a 12-year-old voyeur (the unforgettable George “Foghorn” Winslow), all of whom deserve what they get. The opening shot — Russell and Monroe in sequins standing against a screaming red drape — is enough to knock you out of your seat, and the audacity barely lets up from there, as Russell romances the entire U.S. Olympic team to the tune of “Ain’t There Anyone Here for Love?” and Hawks keeps topping perversity with perversity.
The magical chemistry between Russell and Monroe, predicated on the reality of the former and the unreality of the latter, was understood perfectly by Hawks, and it fascinatingly anticipates the chemistry between Dominique Labourier and Juliet Berto in Jacques Rivette’s Céline and Julie Go Boating a little over two decades later. Years later, Russell would cite this film as her favourite, and it was also clearly the film that made Monroe into a major star.
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