Anita Loos authored the 1925 novel and 1926 play Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, which had been adapted into the highly successful 1953 film of the same name, starring Russell and Marilyn Monroe. The studio attempted to repeat the formula, with Russell returning but Jeanne Crain stepping in for a presumably otherwise engaged Monroe (both women played new characters). Alan Young, Scott Brady and Rudy Vallee also appear. However, Brunettes was not as well received as its predecessor.
With choreography by Jack Cole, who had previously contributed to Blondes, a young Gwen Verdon filmed a specialty number that was cut from the US release as being too sexy.
Plot
Jeanne Crain and Jane Russell in scene from film's trailer.
Bonnie and Connie Jones, played by Jane Russell and Jeanne Crain, are two sisters that live in New York working on Broadway. They are known as the second generation of the Jones sisters, taking the name after their mother, Mitzi Jones, who also performed popularly with her sister, Mimi Jones.
Bonnie and Connie are often offered engagements by men. Connie refuses these New Yorkers every time, while her sister Bonnie seemingly cannot say no to all these men’s offerings. This initiates fights between the men outside the sisters’ shows, and these situations embarrass Connie for being related to Bonnie.
The sisters fight about Bonnie’s weakness to refuse these men. Connie wants her sister to promise her to refuse them for the sake of their career. However, the moment the sisters reconcile, a messenger knocks on their door with an offer by David Action to perform in shows around France.
The sisters immediately agree, and promise each other to focus on the success of their career rather than focusing on desperate men looking for marriage. When they arrive in Paris, they are welcomed by Charlie Biddle and David Action, played by Alan Young and Scott Brady, who will later become the sisters’ love interests.
The men are surprised by the difference between the first generation and the second generation of the Jones sisters. They notice that Bonnie and Connie lack the lush living style of their mother and act more sophisticated. The sisters claim that they do not own a lot because of financial problems; it took them three months of savings to buy an average looking dress for their shows.
The girls open their luggage to get ready for a cocktail party; however, their only dress is a cheetah printed dress which to Rudy is not appropriate to wear in the afternoon for the press. They want to be able to show off the new Jones sisters properly, and therefore, they remodel the dresses to impress Paris just like the first generation of the Jones sisters. The cocktail party goes extremely well. Men are dancing and the girls have the attention of the whole room. Their popularity and names go all around Paris, which helps their career.
The next day, the Jones sisters want to tour the city of Paris and plead with David and Charlie to show them around. They separate into two groups, Connie leaving with Charlie and Bonnie leaving with David. These quickly turn into dates in the city of Paris, as both couples share kisses and reveal their attraction towards one another. However, Bonnie’s relationship with David is complicated because David fears to give himself away to another person. He would rather stay a bachelor, which is what he calls himself.
But as love is growing between the two groups, so is the sisters’ career. Parisian casinos desire to have them perform for their nighttime show. But the girls refuse most of them as the casino provides them with vulgar attire. For their own dignity, Bonnie and Connie refuse to show their bodies off for the enjoyment of others. Although most of the casinos refuse to give them proper attire, the girls find their way around this and hide their bodies from the audience using a hat with long feathers the casino provided them with. They not only performed and received their well-earned money, but received more attention in France, allowing them to perform in Monte Carlo the next evening.
The girls perform beautifully at their next and unexpectedly last show of the movie. Their mother, Mitzi, is unhappy with the circumstances her daughter are in, and she forces them to come home to New York with her. After her show days, Bonnie and Connie have claimed that their mother has raised them strictly. She especially does not want her daughters to display themselves vulgarly, which is why she forcefully brings them back home.
Grabbing them by the ears, she puts them in a taxi car leaving the Monte Carlo Casino. After seeing the love of their lives leave, David and Charlie know that they cannot bear living the rest of their lives without the sisters and they decide to chase after them. The movie ends with Charlie and David running to the boat taking off for New York looking for the Jones sisters. The moment they meet again, Charlie proposes to Connie, and David pleads to be forgiven by Bonnie for refusing her in the beginning of their relationship. Bonnie, of course, forgives David who then takes action and proposes to her. The movie ends with two newly and happily engaged couples taking off on a boat to New York.
"Have You Met Miss Jones?" (music by Richard Rodgers, lyrics by Lorenz Hart) - Sung by Rudy Vallee, Jane Russell, Jeanne Crain (dubbed by Anita Ellis), Scott Brady (dubbed by Robert Farnon) and Alan Young, Danced by Jane Russell and Jeanne Crain.
"My Funny Valentine" (music by Richard Rodgers, lyrics by Lorenz Hart) - Sung by Jeanne Crain (dubbed by Anita Ellis) and Alan Young.
"I've Got Five Dollars" (music by Richard Rodgers, lyrics by Lorenz Hart) - Sung by Jane Russell and Scott Brady (dubbed by Robert Farnon).
"Daddy" (music & lyrics by Bobby Troup) - Sung and Danced by Jane Russell and Jeanne Crain (dubbed by Anita Ellis).
"Miss Annabelle Lee" (music & lyrics by Sydney Clare and Lou Pollock) - Sung by Chorus, Danced by Jane Russell, Jeanne Crain and Chorus.
After its release in November, the movie did not perform as well as Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. The Los Angeles Times declared that the casting of Jeanne Crain and Jane Russell was a hopeful sign, but the movie itself was filled with "dull and listless dialogue." The critique did positively review the costumes of the movie and Jeanne Crain's acting, claiming that "she had been hiding her light" from the world.[3]
Hubert Prior Vallée, known professionally as Rudy Vallée, was an American singer, saxophonist, bandleader, actor, and entertainer. He was the first male singer to rise from local radio broadcasts in New York City to national popularity as a "crooner".
Jeanne Elizabeth Crain was an American actress. She was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress for her title role in Pinky (1949). She also starred in the films In the Meantime, Darling (1944), State Fair (1945), Leave Her to Heaven (1945), Centennial Summer (1946), Margie (1946), Apartment for Peggy (1948), A Letter to Three Wives (1949), Cheaper by the Dozen (1950), People Will Talk (1951), Man Without a Star (1955), Gentlemen Marry Brunettes (1955), The Fastest Gun Alive (1956), and The Joker Is Wild (1957).
Corinne Anita Loos was an American actress, novelist, playwright and screenwriter. In 1912, she became the first female staff screenwriter in Hollywood, when D. W. Griffith put her on the payroll at Triangle Film Corporation. She is best known for her 1925 comic novel, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, her screenplay of the 1939 adaptation of The Women, and her 1951 Broadway adaptation of Colette's novella Gigi.
Gentlemen Prefer Blondes is a 1953 American musical comedy film directed by Howard Hawks and written by Charles Lederer. The film is based on the 1949 stage musical of the same name, which in turn is based on the 1925 novel of the same name by Anita Loos. The film stars Jane Russell and Marilyn Monroe, with Charles Coburn, Elliott Reid, Tommy Noonan, George Winslow, Taylor Holmes and Norma Varden in supporting roles.
Brown hair, also referred to as brunette or brunet, is the second-most common human hair color, after black hair. It varies from light brown to dark hair. It is characterized by higher levels of the dark pigment eumelanin and lower levels of the pale pigment pheomelanin.
Ernestine Jane Geraldine Russell was an American actress and model. She was one of Hollywood's leading sex symbols in the 1940s and 1950s. She starred in more than 20 films.
Robert Joseph FarnonCM was a Canadian-born composer, conductor, musical arranger and trumpet player. As well as being a composer of original works, he was commissioned by film and television producers for theme and incidental music. In later life he composed a number of more serious orchestral works, including three symphonies, and was recognised with four Ivor Novello awards and the Order of Canada.
"I Wanna Be Loved by You" is a song written by Herbert Stothart and Harry Ruby, with lyrics by Bert Kalmar, for the 1928 musical Good Boy. It was first performed on September 5, 1928 by Helen Kane, who was the inspiration for the cartoon character Betty Boop. "I Wanna Be Loved by You" was chosen as one of the Songs of the Century in a survey by the RIAA to which 200 people responded. One of Marilyn Monroe's most famous musical performances is her singing the song in Billy Wilder's classic 1959 farce Some Like It Hot.
"I'll See You in My Dreams" is a popular song and jazz standard, composed by Isham Jones, with lyrics by Gus Kahn, and published in 1924. It was recorded on December 4 that year, by Isham Jones conducting Ray Miller's Orchestra. Released on Brunswick Records, it charted for 16 weeks during 1925, spending seven weeks at number 1 in the United States. Other popular versions in 1925 were by Marion Harris; Paul Whiteman; Ford & Glenn; and Lewis James; with three of these four reaching the Top 10.
"Have You Met Miss Jones?" is a popular song that was written for the musical comedy I'd Rather Be Right. The music was written by Richard Rodgers and the lyrics by Lorenz Hart. The song was published in 1937.
Gentlemen Prefer Blondes: The Intimate Diary of a Professional Lady (1925) is a comic novel written by American author Anita Loos. The story follows the dalliances of a young blonde gold-digger and flapper named Lorelei Lee "in the bathtub-gin era of American history." Published the same year as F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby and Carl Van Vechten's Firecrackers, the lighthearted work is one of several famous 1925 American novels which focus upon the carefree hedonism of the Jazz Age.
Gentlemen Prefer Blondes may refer to:
"Ain't Misbehavin'" is a 1929 stride jazz/early swing song. Andy Razaf wrote the lyrics to a score by Thomas "Fats" Waller and Harry Brooks for the Broadway musical comedy play Connie's Hot Chocolates.
But Gentlemen Marry Brunettes is a 1927 novel written by Anita Loos. It is the sequel to her 1925 novel Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. The plot follows the further adventures of Lorelei Lee and Dorothy Shaw and is illustrated by Ralph Barton.
"I've Got Five Dollars" is a 1931 popular song composed by Richard Rodgers, with lyrics by Lorenz Hart for the musical America's Sweetheart (1931) where it was introduced by Harriette Lake and Jack Whiting.
"You’re Driving Me Crazy" is an American popular song composed by Walter Donaldson in 1930 and recorded the same year by Lee Morse, Rudy Vallée & His Connecticut Yankees and Guy Lombardo & His Royal Canadians.
Gentlemen Prefer Blondes is a 1928 American silent comedy film directed by Mal St. Clair, co-written by Anita Loos based on her 1925 novel, and released by Paramount Pictures. No copies are known to exist, and it is now considered to be a lost film. The Broadway version Gentlemen Prefer Blondes starring Carol Channing as Lorelei Lee was mounted in 1949. It was remade into the film Gentlemen Prefer Blondes with Jane Russell as Dorothy Shaw and Marilyn Monroe as Lorelei Lee in 1953, directed by Howard Hawks.
State Fair is a 1945 American Technicolor musical film directed by Walter Lang, with original music by Rodgers and Hammerstein. It is a musical adaptation of the 1933 film of the same name starring Janet Gaynor and Will Rogers. The 1933 film is an adaptation of the 1932 novel by Phil Stong. This 1945 musical film stars Jeanne Crain, Dana Andrews, Dick Haymes, Vivian Blaine, Fay Bainter, and Charles Winninger. State Fair was remade in 1962, starring Pat Boone and Ann-Margret.
Anita Ellis was a Canadian-born American singer and actress. She famously dubbed Rita Hayworth's songs in Gilda.
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