''Gentlemen Prefer Blondes'' is a 1928 American
silent comedy film
A comedy film is a category of film which emphasizes humor. These films are designed to make the audience laugh through amusement. Films in this style traditionally have a happy ending (black comedy being an exception). Comedy is one of the ol ...
directed by
Mal St. Clair
Malcolm St. Clair (May 17, 1897 – June 1, 1952) was a Hollywood film director, writer, producer and actor.
Biography
A disciple of Mack Sennett, St. Clair was an actor in many films primarily comedies. At 6'7" he can be seen in such Sennett ...
, co-written by
Anita Loos based on
her 1925 novel, and released by
Paramount Pictures
Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film and television production company, production and Distribution (marketing), distribution company and the main namesake division of Paramount Global (formerly ViacomCBS). It is the fifth-oldes ...
. No copies are known to exist, and it is now considered to be a
lost film
A lost film is a feature or short film that no longer exists in any studio archive, private collection, public archive or the U.S. Library of Congress.
Conditions
During most of the 20th century, U.S. copyright law required at least one copy o ...
. The
Broadway version ''
Gentlemen Prefer Blondes'' starring
Carol Channing as Lorelei Lee was mounted in 1949. It was
remade
Bas-Lag is the fictional world in which several of English author China Miéville's novels are set. Bas-Lag is a world where both magic (referred to as "thaumaturgy") and steampunk technology exist, and is home to many intelligent races. It is inf ...
into the film ''
Gentlemen Prefer Blondes'' with
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 Dorothy Shaw 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 ...
as Lorelei Lee in 1953.
Plot
Blonde Lorelei and her brunette friend Dorothy search for rich husbands.
Cast
*
Ruth Taylor as Lorelei Lee
*
Alice White
Alice White (born Alva White; August 25, 1904Katz, Ephraim (1979). ''The Film Encyclopedia: The Most Comprehensive Encyclopedia of World Cinema in a Single Volume''. Perigee Books. , pg. 1228. – February 19, 1983) was an American film ac ...
as Dorothy Shaw
*
Ford Sterling as Gus Eisman
*
Holmes Herbert
Holmes Herbert (born Horace Edward Jenner; 30 July 1882 – 26 December 1956) was an English character actor who appeared in Hollywood films from 1915 to 1952, often as a British gentleman.
Early life
Born Horace Edward Jenner, (some sou ...
as Henry Spoffard
*
Mack Swain
Mack Swain (born Moroni Swain; February 16, 1876 – August 25, 1935) was an early American film actor, who appeared in many of Mack Sennett’s comedies at Keystone Studios, including the Keystone Cops series. He also appeared in major fea ...
as Sir Francis Beekman
*
Emily Fitzroy
Emily Fitzroy (24 May 1860 – 3 March 1954) was an English theatre and film actress who eventually became an American citizen. She was at one time a leading lady in London for Sir Charles Wyndham.
She made her film debut in 1915. Her debut i ...
as Lady Beekman
*
Trixie Friganza
Trixie Friganza (born Delia O'Callaghan; November 29, 1870February 27, 1955) was an American actress. She began her career as an operetta soubrette, working her way from the chorus to starring in musical comedies to having her own feature act o ...
as Mrs. Spoffard
*
Blanche Friderici
Blanche L. Friderici (January 21, 1878 – December 23, 1933) was an American film and stage actress, sometimes credited as Blanche Frederici.
Early years
Friderici was a native of Brooklyn, New York. Her parents were William E. Friderici ...
as Miss Chapman
*Edward Faust as Robert
*
Eugene Borden as Louis
*
Margaret Seddon
Margaret Seddon (November 18, 1872 – April 17, 1968) was an American stage and film actress.
Biography
She appeared in more than 100 films between 1915 and 1951. Her most memorable role was perhaps as one of The Pixilated Sisters, a come ...
as Lorelei's Mother
*Luke Cosgrove as Lorelei's Grandfather
*
Chester Conklin as Judge
*
Yorke Sherwood
Yorke Sherwood (14 December 1873 – 27 September 1956) was an English actor.
Life
He was born Herbert Edmund Sherwood in Manchester on 14 December 1873.
He moved to California in the 1920s and had multiple supporting roles in Mack Sennett ...
as Mr. Jennings
*Mildred Boyd as Lulu
See also
*
List of lost films
For this list of lost films, a lost film is defined as one of which no part of a print is known to have survived. For films in which any portion of the footage remains (including trailers), see List of incomplete or partially lost films.
Reas ...
References
External links
*
*
''Gentlemen Prefer Blondes''at Virtual History
Period advertisement poster for the filmat silenthollywood.com
1928 films
American silent feature films
Lost American films
Films directed by Malcolm St. Clair
Films with screenplays by Anita Loos
Films with screenplays by Herman J. Mankiewicz
Films based on American novels
1928 comedy films
Silent American comedy films
American black-and-white films
1928 lost films
Lost comedy films
Paramount Pictures films
1920s American films
1920s English-language films
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