With the start of my Howard Hawks marathon, I'd thought I'd start with one of his more popular movies. This is pretty inarguably one of his most well-known movies and certainly the most well-known of the Hawks movies I've seen so far.
Gentlemen Prefer Blondes is one of those movies that so deeply permeates pop culture that you are probably aware of this movie without ever really knowing why or how. You've probably heard one of the songs or someone covering the song or someone parodying a scene without realizing the original source.
And then there's Marilyn Monroe. I believe, and feel free to correct me if I'm wrong, this was the movie that catapulted her into stardom. Everyone who ever thought about Marilyn Monroe after this movie associated her with her dimwitted and gold-digging character. Hell, I'm pretty sure my impression of Monroe was essentially her character in this movie before I even knew who she was.
As far the quality of the movie, I'll say this without intending it as a slight. I'll like it more on rewatch. Two reasons. First, it took me a while to get over Monroe's voice. Not her singing voice. Her talking voice.
Look, I realize her voice was sexy for the time and probably still is for a lot of people, but it got old fast. It's like listening to an adult try to talk like a child. Not for me. And I don't know if I got used to it or if she toned it down for the 2nd half, but this was a 1st half of the movie problem for me.
Secondly, I didn't "get" what this movie was doing for most of the movie. It didn't really hit me that I was watching a satire. It's one of those things that makes me feel stupid for not realizing it earlier, but at the same time, having watched a few musicals from back in the day, some of the vapid material really is vapid. Not really the case here.
The movie wasn't written by a woman, but it was based off a novel that was written by a woman, Anita Loos. The novel was the second best selling novel of 1926 and was critically loved by her fellow authors at the time. She adapted it to the stage in 1949 for a Broadway musical, upon which this movie is based. So her fingerprints are all over it.
So understanding it's a satire helps with everything else essentially. The complete abandonment of anything resembling reality is easier to take. I realize a lot of musicals do that, and I want to stress that when I say that I am not talking about people breaking out into song and dance numbers. For example, the entire courtroom scene is absurd even before the musical number. It just so happens to have a greater justification than most musicals.
Now, I realize this is a Hawks marathon, but I'm not sure what to say about his involvement. He has admitted that he didn't direct the musical numbers, because he had no desire to. Considering the appeal of a musical is the musical numbers and that it means he directed like half of the actual movie, I'm left a bit blank on what to say about him.
In fact, a constant thing with Hawks is the lack of an obvious directorial hand in his movies. His directing can be invisible. So, I feel like talking about Hawks movies may just mean I talk about the quality of his movies and that will be an extension of Hawks' abilities themselves.
In the meantime, despite this being known as a Marilyn Monroe movie, I liked Jane Russell more. She even does a hilarious Monroe impression herself in a courtroom late in the movie. She just has the better character, and to be fair to Monroe, that was the probably the intention. Russell was the bigger star before filming. Monroe just happened to steal the movie (in the public's eye).
This is a funny movie, and I suspect funnier once I'm in on the joke. There are two scenes involving a young kid, played by George Winslow, and he just absolutely steals the movie with his deadpan, adult-like speech. When Monroe gets caught in a window (where she also gets to show off her comic chops) and he agrees to help her and when he is the rich guy Monroe wanted to sit next to - without knowing it was a small child.
My biggest wonder is if I'll like Monroe's voice the second time around. It was seriously hampering my enjoyment of the movie. I know that may sound absurd to those who are in love with it, but it veers very close to adult baby talk to me. For now, I'll have to give a speculative rating, though I wouldn't be surprised if it will go higher on rewatch.
3/4 stars
No comments:
Post a Comment