Gentlemen Prefer Blondes

1 9 6 3 (USA)

In Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, the Monroe mannerisms all combine in a very sexy explosion of music, comedy, and romance unequalled in the rest of her career. Marilyn turned Anita Loos's quintessential gold-digger Lorelei Lee into a parfait of dizzy, delectable delight singing Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend, and Jane Russell matched her every move as her brainy brunette roommate Dorothy.

Charles Coburn is delightful as Piggy, a horny old millionaire Marilyn sets her sights on ("I just love finding new places to wear diamonds, " she gushes while the old man blushes) and six-year-old George Winslow, as a precocious kid who helps Marilyn squeeze her derriere through a ship's porthole, is hilarious. But it's really the genius casting of the two stars, igniting the screen with their particular appeal, and the lavish Jack Cole dance numbers created for them, that made Gentlemen Prefer Blondes a smash.