Marilyn From The 22nd Row

For a movie that presents the countenance of a happy, fun-filled, screwball, romantic-comedy-musical, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes has generated a considerable amount of controversy since its release, fueled in large part by Gloria Steinem’s negative assessment. As a nineteen year old feminist, she attended a screening of Gentlemen Prefer Blondes only to flee the theater even before the movie reached its humorously merry but odd marital conclusion. Gloria was disgusted, annoyed and angered even, not so much by Lorelei, it seems, as by Marilyn’s portrayal of the sweet, baby-talking blonde. Steinem’s pronouncements, along with criticism by some other radical feminists, created a controversy―confusion is probably a better word―revolving around this comedy, one that pivots on the actual intent of what some perceive as social commentary. Howard Hawks adapted and modified the screenplay that Fox already had in its possession so naturally he gets credit for any social commentary or messages contained within.

As many highly intellectual words have been written about Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, I’ll wager, as have been written about Fritz Lang’s Metropolis, but not as many as have been written about Welles’ Citizen Kane. In an article for Sight and Sound, Jonathan Rosenbaum remarked on

… the movie’s innate capacity to suggest readability and unreadability, feminism and sexism, optimism and pessimism, beauty and grotesquerie at one and the same time makes it the ideal capitalist product, malleable to every consumer need: a distillation of Hollywood which is also a parody of same, a calculated / innocent excess of effect which rewards characters and spectators equally so that everybody gets what they think they want. (Gold Diggers of 1953: Howard Hawks’s Gentlemen Prefer Blondes.)

Thus, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes is a movie that can be many things to many people. In Jonathan’s opinion, this accounts for why some feminists condemn the movie as misogynist while others applaud it for being just the opposite. As he notes in his article, for Maureen Turin the movie is sexist, racist, and colonialist; but for feminists Lucie Arbuthnot and Gail Seneca it is jubilantly feminist and … by implication, proto-lesbian. According to Molly Haskell, the movie is as close to satire as Hawks’s films ever get on the nature (and perversion) of sexual relations in America, particularly in the mammary-mad 50s.

I hereby invoke Occam: the less complex explanation is most likely the correct one. Gentlemen Prefer Blondes is, first and foremost, an escapist, comic movie. Slightly vulgar at its core, not nasty, merely vulgar, it features some memorable musical numbers, some screwball comedy and some romance. Although I hesitate to label it a satire, it has a satirical, or at least a cartoonesque, inclination; but then musicals are, just by their very nature, cartoonesque, not like an animated feature but in the terms of not believable. They simply stretch the credulity of the audience. So I use the terms cartoonesque and cartoon, not as an indictment or an insult, but as a way of expressing the playful and childlike quality of the movie.

Set in the cartoonesque environs of a luxurious ocean liner occupied by the überwealthy, the movie pokes some silly, genial fun at the extravagant denizens of that world while also poking affectionate fun at weak men, the sexes’ supremacy battle and the compulsion of all human beings to seek satisfaction for their basic needs and desires; and to a certain extent, the human compulsion to seek revenge for heartache and pain, not in a dark sense but in a humorous one. And since Lorelei and Dorothy are best friends, the movie is also about the strength of their friendship, their bond and their commitment to each other. I think Gentlemen Prefer Blondes is essentially a road flick for girls in which the road has been replaced by the Atlantic Ocean and the beat-up 1950 Ford Custom replaced by an ocean liner, the Île de Paris: women, you see, are just classier and smarter than men. No self-respecting showgirl, regardless of hair color, would be caught dead in a smelly, dirty Ford.

All of the main male characters in the movie approach the level of caricature.

Lord Beekman, AKA Piggy, for instance, is the aristocratic, unhappily married, portly and aging playboy, whose cuteness and allure derives from by his status and wealth, his South African diamond mine. Piggy is a type of man with whom Howard Hawks must have been familiar and at whom he pokes some benign fun. Piggy’s nom de guerre obviously references his appetites.

Ernie Malone is less of a caricature, but also less cute, than Piggy, and while we could call the private eye a villain, in Hawks’ cinematic world, Ernie is a professional merely doing his job and should not be judged too harshly. But since he gets emotionally involved, his view of Lorelei assumes a personal, vindictive and unprofessional flavor when he refers to her as a mercenary nitwit. This apparent dislike for Lorelei is not resolved by the movie’s final scene and therefore Ernie is a dangling plot thread.

Gus’s father is primarily a plot device character. His disapproval of Lorelei creates some of the movie’s humorous conflict but he is also an archetype: the over-protective rich father who must stop his idiot son from falling into an ill-advised marriage. But his idiot son is a cartoon character.

Slightly effeminate, virtually spineless, he purchases Lorelei’s affections with lavish gifts and letters-of-credit to French banks. She. along with Gus’ domineering father, manipulate him unmercifully. While Junior should garner some sympathy from us due to his weakness, he mostly garners laughter. Yet, in the end, the milk toast idiot son is somewhat emboldened by his professed love for Lorelei and her fearless encounter with Gus Esmond senior.

The female characters in the movie are much stronger than the males but they are nonetheless caricatures as well. Lady Beekman, the pompous, arrogant showoff who flaunts her aristocratic wealth, the many diamonds that so enthrall Lorelei, is the movie’s one real villain; but she is certainly in control, not Piggy. Her many diamonds represent her icy demeanor; and, she’s the iceberg personified, the one mentioned early in the movie by an Olympic athlete, the floating menace that almost sinks Lorelei and Dorothy. Dorothy is the movie’s Hawksian Woman. She also represents the quintessential sexually assertive female who devours men like Lorelei cajoles them to obtain diamonds; and if junior Gus is presented as a cartoon character, then Lorelei is presented likewise, Gus’ willful, self-confident female opposite.

Everything about the blonde beauty is exaggerated to the point of satirical mimicry; and she is certainly the focal point of the movie’s sexual humor, although Dorothy receives a considerable amount of attention in that regard as well. But we must admit that Lorelei is a woman who knows exactly what she wants and knows how to use her gorgeous sexuality to get it: wealth! Lorelei Lee is the gold-digger’s gold-digger; and while she might be slightly deceptive in order to obtain Lady Beekman’s tiara, she is brutally honest regarding her intent to marry a wealthy man. Likewise, Dorothy is just as honest regarding her intent to land a handsome hunk of man, one that can run faster than she can, and one that can satisfy her sexually, that is, if she can be satisfied. While their forthright assessment and honest valuation of men may be callous, it is definitely humorous, if not admirable.

Additionally, Lorelei and Dorothy are totally honest with each other; and more important than money or men to each of them is their friendship. The friendship that exists between Lorelei and Dorothy is the most Hawksian aspect of the movie. They are unified and committed to each other. When Lady Beekman arrives and punches a hole in their ship, they don’t sink and they don’t drown, as predicted by the Olympian. They merely put their beauty and their talent to work and proceed with life and they do so with each other. Even the appearance of the French police with an arrest warrant for Lorelei doesn’t sink them. The suddenly missing tiara and the gendarmes cause them understandable alarm and concern, but they engage their intelligent resolve and their friendship. While there may be a certain maternal, protective aspect in the way Dorothy intervenes on Lorelei’s behalf during the movie, Lorelei is equally as protective and would intervene for Dorothy if life reversed the circumstances. After all, they are sisters.

Gentlemen Prefer Blondes features outstanding performances by all the actors. Both Marilyn and Jane are in complete control of their characters just as their characters are in complete control of themselves and the men around them. Obviously Jane’s Dorothy is the foil to Marilyn’s comic portrayal of Lorelei and Marilyn plays the gold-digger’s gold-digger for all the belly laughs possible, almost to the point of satire. She steals each and every scene in which she appears and practically every scene is iconic. From the opening scene, in which the women virtually strut in their sparkling red gowns, their heads festooned with feathers, almost like gal roosters, to their grand entrance into the dining hall to meet Henry Spofford III, the screen is constantly filled with magnificent images.

Marilyn’s initial scene with Piggy and the ice berg’s tiara is funny and more than cute; but the excessive amount of groaning and moaning over Lorelei’s apparent stupidity and ignorance regarding where women wear tiaras, along with the conflation of Lorelei and Marilyn, borders on the ludicrous. Does anybody really believe that Marilyn Monroe, at age twenty-six, didn’t know where to wear or know that a tiara is not a necklace? That entire scene exists just so Lorelei can say I just love finding new places to wear diamonds and the sexual innuendo contained in that line could find its way into the dialogue.

Marilyn’s python scene with Piggy is equally humorous and similarly cute. The agility with which she controls her expressive face and her equally expressive eyes is amazing. Equally amazing, she delivers her lines with an earnest commitment. In spite of their silliness, they sound absolutely natural and believable. Although I have watched GPB more times than Carter’s got little liver pills, when Lorelei says Gee, Piggy, a girl like I never gets to meet any real interesting men. Sometimes my brain gets real starved! I almost fall out of my chair laughing; and then, of course, Dorothy delivers that banal and crude line about Piggy choking the goat. Well, it’s funny, too. And the penultimate scene in which Lorelei outsmarts Gus Esmond senior, her line delivery and gesture are perfect. I can be smart when it’s important but most men don’t like it. Delivered with conviction, that line gave Joan Mellen a stomach ache. She opined: Marilyn must have winced at having to say (Mellen 95-97) that line. Actually, the line was suggested by Marilyn because she knew the character of Lorelei―and men―better than anybody on the set (Spoto 229-230).

Yet, as you might expect, not every critic agrees with my assessment of the acting or the movie but some do. New German Cinema auteur, Rainer Fassbinder considers Gentlemen Prefer Blondes to be one of the top 10 movies ever made, not just among musicals but movies ever made. High praise, indeed. On his top ten movie list, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes resides in the sixth slot.

However, with a contrary opinion, in his book regarding the movies and genius of Howard Hawks, Robin Wood offered this evaluation of Gentlemen Prefer Blondes: … distinctive without being particularly distinguished … contains striking things, but disintegrates under analysis (165-166). So unimpressed by Hawks’ musical was Mr. Wood, that he relegated it to “Appendix: Failures and Marginal Works”.

Richard Buskin weighed in with this opinion: … not a great movie, but it does have some outstanding moments and an all-time classical musical segment that amply justify its celebrated status (137-145). And since I don’t want to slight our feminists friends, Joan Mellen believes the movie is heavy handed, drumming in the theme that this is the raison d’etre of every attractive woman if she is normal and true to instinct (Mellen 95-97). Mr. Buskin considers Tommy Noonan’s acting an asinine performance as Marilyn’s rich beau that is more annoying than humorous (137-145). Richard compliments Jane Russell’s work as Dorothy and Charlie Coburn’s work as Piggy but remains silent regarding Eliot Reed’s Ernie Malone. Richard reports the Motion Picture Herald opined: In her own class is Marilyn Monroe … Miss Monroe is going to become part of the America fable, the dizzy blonde, the simple, mercenary nitwit with charm to excuse it all. Offering a different opinion, according to Richard, The New Yorker complimented the pleasant configuration of both Marilyn and Jane Russell but noted that neither of them have more than a glancing acquaintance with the business of acting (137-145). O well, you just can’t please everybody.