''Gentlemen Marry Brunettes'' is a 1955 American
Technicolor
Technicolor is a series of Color motion picture film, color motion picture processes, the first version dating back to 1916, and followed by improved versions over several decades.
Definitive Technicolor movies using three black and white films ...
musical
Musical is the adjective of music.
Musical may also refer to:
* Musical theatre, a performance art that combines songs, spoken dialogue, acting and dance
* Musical film and television, a genre of film and television that incorporates into the narr ...
romantic comedy
Romantic comedy (also known as romcom or rom-com) is a subgenre of comedy and slice of life fiction, focusing on lighthearted, humorous plot lines centered on romantic ideas, such as how true love is able to surmount most obstacles. In a typica ...
film directed by
Richard Sale, who co-wrote the screenplay with
Mary Loos
Mary Loos (May 6, 1910 – October 11, 2004) was an American actress, screenwriter, TV writer, and novelist. She was occasionally credited under her full name, Mary Anita Loos.
Born in San Diego, she was the daughter of Dr. Clifford Loos, co-fo ...
, based on the 1927 novel ''
But Gentlemen Marry Brunettes
''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. ...
'' by
Anita Loos
Corinne Anita Loos (April 26, 1888 – August 18, 1981) 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 Triang ...
, aunt of Mary Loos. The film stars
Jane Russell
Ernestine Jane Geraldine Russell (June 21, 1921 – February 28, 2011) was an American actress, singer, and model. She was one of Hollywood's leading sex symbols in the 1940s and 1950s. She starred in more than 20 films.
Russell moved from th ...
and
Jeanne Crain
Jeanne Elizabeth Crain (May 25, 1925 – December 14, 2003) 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 ...
. It was produced by Sale and
Bob Waterfield
Robert Stanton Waterfield (July 26, 1920 – March 25, 1983) was an American professional football player and coach. He played quarterback for the UCLA Bruins and Cleveland/Los Angeles Rams and was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame ...
, with
Robert Bassler
Robert Bassler (September 26, 1903 – November 8, 1975) was an Americans, American film producer, film and television producer.
References
External links
*
1903 births
1975 deaths
People from Washington, D.C.
American film produc ...
as executive producer.
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
Marilyn Monroe (; born Norma Jeane Mortenson; 1 June 1926 4 August 1962) was an American actress. Famous for playing comedic " blonde bombshell" characters, she became one of the most popular sex symbols of the 1950s and early 1960s, as wel ...
. The studio attempted to repeat the formula, with Russell returning but
Jeanne Crain
Jeanne Elizabeth Crain (May 25, 1925 – December 14, 2003) 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 ...
stepping in for a presumably otherwise engaged Monroe (both women played new characters).
Alan Young
Alan Young (born Angus Young; November 19, 1919 – May 19, 2016) was a British, Canadian and American actor, comedian, radio host and television host, whom ''TV Guide'' called "the Charlie Chaplin of television". His notable roles includ ...
,
Scott Brady
Scott Brady (born Gerard Kenneth Tierney; September 13, 1924 – April 16, 1985) was an American film and television actor best known for his roles in Western films and as a ubiquitous television presence. He played the title role in the televi ...
and
Rudy Vallee
Rudy or Rudi is a masculine given name, sometimes short for Rudolf, Rudolph, Rawad, Rudra, Ruairidh, or variations thereof, a nickname and a surname which may refer to:
People Given name or nickname
*Rudolf Rudy Andeweg (born 1952), Dutch poli ...
also appear. However, ''Brunettes'' was not as well received as its predecessor.
With choreography by
Jack Cole, who had prior contributed to ''Blondes'', a young
Gwen Verdon
Gwyneth Evelyn "Gwen" Verdon (January 13, 1925October 18, 2000) was an American actress and dancer. She won four Tony Awards for her musical comedy performances, and served as an uncredited choreographer's assistant and specialty dance coach for t ...
filmed a specialty number that was cut from the US release as being too sexy.
Plot
![Gentlemen Marry Brunettes trailer 1](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8c/Gentlemen_Marry_Brunettes_trailer_1.jpg)
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 offered Paris agreement by David Action to partake 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 complicates 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 are 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 and lacking 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.
Cast
*
Jane Russell
Ernestine Jane Geraldine Russell (June 21, 1921 – February 28, 2011) was an American actress, singer, and model. She was one of Hollywood's leading sex symbols in the 1940s and 1950s. She starred in more than 20 films.
Russell moved from th ...
as Bonnie Jones / Mimi Jones
*
Jeanne Crain
Jeanne Elizabeth Crain (May 25, 1925 – December 14, 2003) 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 ...
as Connie Jones / Mitzi Jones (singing voice was dubbed by
Anita Ellis)
*
Alan Young
Alan Young (born Angus Young; November 19, 1919 – May 19, 2016) was a British, Canadian and American actor, comedian, radio host and television host, whom ''TV Guide'' called "the Charlie Chaplin of television". His notable roles includ ...
as Charlie Biddle / Mrs. Biddle / Mr. Henry Biddle
*
Scott Brady
Scott Brady (born Gerard Kenneth Tierney; September 13, 1924 – April 16, 1985) was an American film and television actor best known for his roles in Western films and as a ubiquitous television presence. He played the title role in the televi ...
as David Action (singing voice was dubbed by
Robert Farnon
Robert Joseph Farnon CM (24 July 191723 April 2005) was a Canadian-born composer, conductor, musical arranger and trumpet player. As well as being a composer of original works (often in the light music genre), he was commissioned by film and ...
)
*
Rudy Vallee
Rudy or Rudi is a masculine given name, sometimes short for Rudolf, Rudolph, Rawad, Rudra, Ruairidh, or variations thereof, a nickname and a surname which may refer to:
People Given name or nickname
*Rudolf Rudy Andeweg (born 1952), Dutch poli ...
as himself
*
Guy Middleton
Guy Middleton Powell (14 December 1906 – 30 July 1973), better known as Guy Middleton, was an English character actor, film character actor.
Biography
Guy Middleton was born in Hove, Sussex, and originally worked in the London Stock Exch ...
as Earl of Wickenwave
*
Eric Pohlmann
Eric Pohlmann (german: Erich Pohlmann; born Erich Pollak; 18 July 1913 – 25 July 1979) was an Austrian theatre, film and television character actor who worked mostly in the United Kingdom. He is known for voicing Ernst Stavro Blofeld, th ...
as M. Ballard
*
Robert Favart
Marc Robert Favart (9 February 1911 – 26 July 2003) was a French actor, married to Jenny Carré, daughter of Albert Carré.
Filmography Cinema
* 1938: ' (by Jean de Limur)
* 1939: ''Angelica'' or ''La rose de sang'' (by Jean Choux)
* 194 ...
as Hotel Manager
*
Guido Lorraine
Guido Lorraine (2 September 1912 – 31 December 2009) was a Polish-born actor, musician and singer, known primarily for his roles in war films. He was also sometimes known by the stage name Guy Borucki. Lorraine appeared in twenty-eight films du ...
as M. Marcel
*
Ferdy Mayne
Ferdy Mayne (or Ferdie Mayne) (born Ferdinand Philip Mayer-Horckel; 11 March 1916 – 30 January 1998) was a German-British stage and screen actor. Born in Mainz, he emigrated to the United Kingdom in the early 1930s to escape the Nazi regi ...
as M. Dufond
Musical numbers
The musical supervision is credited to "M.S.I."
Herbert Spencer
Herbert Spencer (27 April 1820 – 8 December 1903) was an English philosopher, psychologist, biologist, anthropologist, and sociologist famous for his hypothesis of social Darwinism. Spencer originated the expression "survival of the fittest" ...
and
Earle Hagen
Earle Harry Hagen (July 9, 1919 – May 26, 2008) was an American composer who created music for movies and television. His best-known TV themes include those for ''Make Room for Daddy'', ''The Dick Van Dyke Show'', ''I Spy'', ''That Girl'' and ...
.
Incidental music composed and conducted by
Robert Farnon
Robert Joseph Farnon CM (24 July 191723 April 2005) was a Canadian-born composer, conductor, musical arranger and trumpet player. As well as being a composer of original works (often in the light music genre), he was commissioned by film and ...
.
* "Gentlemen Marry Brunettes" (music by Herbert Spencer and Earle Hagen, lyrics by Richard Sale) - Sung by Chorus.
:(note: screen credit gives "Sung by
Johnny Desmond
Johnny Desmond (born Giovanni Alfredo De Simone; November 14, 1919 – September 6, 1985) was an American singer who was popular in the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s.
Biography Early years
Desmond was born Giovanni de Simone in Detroit, Michigan, ...
", but the song is only heard in a male choral arrangement)
* "
I Wanna Be Loved By You" (music by
Herbert Stothart
Herbert Pope Stothart (September 11, 1885February 1, 1949) was an American songwriter, arranger, conductor, and composer. He was also nominated for twelve Academy Awards, winning Best Original Score for '' The Wizard of Oz''. Stothart was widel ...
and
Harry Ruby
Harry Rubenstein (January 27, 1895 – February 23, 1974), known professionally as Harry Ruby, was an American actor, pianist, composer, songwriter and screenwriter, who was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1970.[Bert Kalmar
Bert Kalmar (February 10, 1884 – September 18, 1947) was an American songwriter, who was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1970. He was also a screenwriter.
Biography
Kalmar, a native of New York City, left school at an early age ...]
) - Sung by Jane Russell, Jeanne Crain (dubbed by Anita Ellis) and Rudy Vallee.
* "
Have You Met Miss Jones?
"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.
Background
In the musical the son ...
" (music by
Richard Rodgers
Richard Charles Rodgers (June 28, 1902 – December 30, 1979) was an American Musical composition, composer who worked primarily in musical theater. With 43 Broadway musicals and over 900 songs to his credit, Rodgers was one of the most ...
, lyrics by
Lorenz Hart
Lorenz Milton Hart (May 2, 1895 – November 22, 1943) was an American lyricist and half of the Broadway songwriting team Rodgers and Hart. Some of his more famous lyrics include " Blue Moon", " The Lady Is a Tramp", "Manhattan", "Bewitched, Both ...
) - 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
"My Funny Valentine" is a show tune from the 1937 Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart coming of age musical ''Babes in Arms'' in which it was introduced by teenaged star Mitzi Green. The song became a popular jazz standard, appearing on over 130 ...
" (music by Richard Rodgers, lyrics by Lorenz Hart) - Sung by Jeanne Crain (dubbed by Anita Ellis) and Alan Young.
* "
I've Got Five Dollars
"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 (aka Ann Sothern) and Jack Whiting.
Popular recordin ...
" (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
Robert William Troup Jr. (October 18, 1918 – February 7, 1999) was an American actor, jazz pianist, singer, and songwriter. He wrote the song " Route 66" and acted in the role of Dr. Joe Early with his wife Julie London in the television progr ...
) - 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.
* "
You're Driving Me Crazy
"You’re Driving Me Crazy" is an American popular song composed (music and lyrics) by Walter Donaldson in 1930 and recorded the same year by Lee Morse, Rudy Vallée & His Connecticut Yankees and Guy Lombardo & His Royal Canadians (with vocal b ...
" (music & lyrics by
Walter Donaldson
Walter Donaldson (February 15, 1893 – July 15, 1947) was an American prolific popular songwriter and publishing company founder, composing many hit songs of the 1910s to 1940s, that have become standards and form part of the Great American Song ...
) - Sung and Danced by Jane Russell and Jeanne Crain (dubbed by Anita Ellis).
* "
Ain't Misbehavin'" (music & lyrics by
Thomas 'Fats' W. Waller,
Harry Brooks, and
Andy Razaf
Andy Razaf (born Andriamanantena Paul Razafinkarefo; December 16, 1895 – February 3, 1973) was an American poet, composer and lyricist of such well-known songs as " Ain't Misbehavin'" and " Honeysuckle Rose".
Biography
Razaf was born in Washi ...
) - Sung and Danced by Alan Young, Jane Russell, Jeanne Crain (dubbed by Anita Ellis) and Chorus.
Reception
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.
See also
*
List of American films of 1955
A list of American films released in 1955.
The United Artists film '' Marty'' won the Academy Award for Best Picture for 1955.
A–B
C–D
E–H
I–L
M–R
S–Z
See also
* 1955 in the United States
External links
1955 filmsat ...
References
External links
*
*
*
*
{{Anita Loos
1955 films
1955 musical comedy films
1955 romantic comedy films
1950s English-language films
1950s romantic musical films
American musical comedy films
American romantic comedy films
American romantic musical films
American sequel films
CinemaScope films
Films based on American novels
Films based on romance novels
Films directed by Richard Sale
Films set in Paris
1950s American films