A minor work from director Howard Hawks (Sergeant York, Scarface) as two man-hunting showgirls head for Paris, travelling first class aboard a luxury cruise liner.
Adapted from the Broadway musical of the same name, itself based on a book from the 1920s, Gentlemen Prefers Blondes is candyfloss whimsy. But with the showstopping Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend at its core and Marilyn Monroe and Jane Russell as the friends, it’s needless to say the film has gained iconic status. Oscar-winning Charles Coburn (The More the Merrier, The Devil and Miss Jones), as the owner of a South African diamond mine, provides the bling Monroe makes a beeline for as she rolls out the dumb blonde routine in a ludicrously dated narrative.
Rating: 44%
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