Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, Howard Hawks (U.S., 1953)

Cabaret singers Lorelei and Dorothy are just two “girls from Little Rock,” making their way to Paris. Actually, they are Marilyn Monroe and Jane Russell, emblazoned as sequined sirens and looking for big rocks, of the diamond kind for Marilyn, and the marryin’ kind for Jane. Man-of-many-genres Howard Hawks dropped a real bombshell with this musical comedy in which Monroe’s breathy seduction finds its perfect mate in the pure-gold number “Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend” and ain’t-no-plain Jane goes for the platinum with a blond wig parody of Marilyn. Seriously saucy, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes augured the end of screwball and the opening of the cleavage comedy.

—Steve Seid

• Written by Charles Lederer, from the play by Anita Loos, Joseph Fields, from the novel by Loos. Photographed by Harry J. Wild. With Marilyn Monroe, Jane Russell, Charles Coburn, Elliott Reid. (91 mins, Color, DCP, From Criterion/20th Century Fox)