Russell was the bigger star when this film was made, being paid far more money and receiving top billing. For Monroe, just coming into her own, there had been some initial thought that (a) she wasn’t up to the musical sequences and (b) Fox’s game, if fading, musical queen, Betty Grable, should be Lorelei. (Channing was never seriously considered for the role.) Where Russell had little to prove, Monroe had everything, and in the end, demonstrated her talent as both a comic actor and a musical performer. It’s unfortunate that her two later musicals (There’s No Business Like Show Business and Let’s Make Love) allowed her fewer opportunities than she had here, let alone a song as definitive as “Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend.” For Russell, an extremely likable performer and an excellent singer, this would be a career highlight. The pity is that her career was governed by the coarse tastes of her discoverer, Howard Hughes. Both Monroe and Russell responded especially well to the demanding Jack Cole, who had a special knack for displaying women of middling dance ability to their best advantage. Monroe and Russell strut and amble and gesture, and between their personalities and Cole’s staging, the musical sequences come together just fine. Under the sharp guidance of director Hawks, they do just as well in the comedy scenes, which truly is saying something.
“Ain’t There Anyone Here for Love?”: Jane Russell
Many later viewers came to Gentlemen Prefer Blondes through Madonna’s “Material Girl” music video, in which the look and staging of the “Diamonds” number are copied relentlessly. It was typically audacious and smart of Madonna to hitch her wagon to Monroe’s star, and what’s also clear is that the original remains untouchable. It may have started out as a shiny pop entertainment, but life and stardom are both funny things, and Gentlemen Prefer Blondes ended up as a milestone.
Marilyn Monroe, Elliott Reid, Jane Russell
WHAT’S MORE
Anita Loos did not contribute to the script of either this film or the Broadway show, and some predicted that the many changes to her story would leave her aghast. For a while, expecting the worst, she put off seeing the movie. When she finally capitulated and watched it, she was delighted. Her Lorelei, she decided, was a good enough character to withstand all manner of alteration, and she found Monroe perfectly dandy.
As with many other films, more musical sequences were shot than actually used. The biggest one was a Parisian number featuring Monroe, Russell, and Gwen Verdon, who also helped Jack Cole with the choreography. A tiny piece of it can be seen in the original Blondes coming-attractions trailer. In one number that did make it in, a “mistake” was allowed to remain. At the end of Cole’s hilariously homoerotic “Ain’t There Anyone Here for Love?,” Russell was not originally supposed to fall into the pool—but it was such a funny touch that everyone agreed to keep it.
MUSICALLY SPEAKING
The “Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend” now seen in the film was not the one Cole originally envisioned. He had planned to have Monroe in a faux eighteenth-century setting, wearing little more than a gem-encrusted bikini. Since she was already a flash point for touchy censors, Cole was ordered to reconceive the number with a raft of chorus boys and a less-exposed, tightly corseted star. The rest, as they say, is history.
“A Little Girl from Little Rock”: Marilyn Monroe and Jane Russell
Elliott Reid, Jane Russell, Marilyn Monroe, Tommy Noonan