On the surface,Gentlemen Prefer Blondesis a musical about two man-hungry women who board a cruise ship and seduce a blatantly homosexual American Olympic team. But looks can be deceiving, and beneath the sensual costumes, catchy tunes, and irrelevant plot, lies a tale of female friendship that would put Thelma and Louise to shame. Howard Hawks’ 1953 classic sinks or swims on the chemistry betweenMarilyn Monroe’s Lorelei Lee andJane Russell’s Dorothy Shaw, with the men fading into the background despite their best attempts at flexing muscles, bank balances, and street smarts.
The rapport between the women is clear with their Odd Couple pairing evident within moments: one is wry, witty, skeptical, and the other appears naive, sultry and trusting. You needn’t be an expert in casting to guess which actress plays which role, but there is a commonality of purpose: both women share a desire for happiness, an unparalleled sex appeal, and a loyalty to one another that could never be shaken by an XY chromosome.
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From the moment Marilyn and Jane burst onto the screen in skin-tight sequins, the women are in sync, in cahoots, and, well, slightly off rhythm, but who needs coordination when you look like that!? If the opening number is anything to go by, the duo grew up together, sought their fortunes as a team, and will continue to do whatever it takes to ensure their lives remain filled with joy and a healthy checking account. So co-dependent is their friendship, so sensual their behavior, and so insignificant are the objects of their affections throughout the film, thatGentlemen Prefer Blondescould easily be read as a statement on female friendship, agency, and sexuality.
Say what you will aboutSome Like It Hot, Monroe is at her most sparkling as Lorelei Lee, engaged to wealthy poindexter, Gus Esmond Jnr (Tommy Noonan), who is smitten but wary of leaving her to her own salacious devices aboard the floating meat market. He hands her a credit note and begs her not to do anything that would bring his family’s reputation into disrepute, namely, schtupping the aforementioned Olympic team. For her part, Lorelei has no interest in brawn, only bank, holding the view that looks (her own included) fade and it’s money that holds the key to lifelong happiness.“Don’t you know that a man being rich is like a girl being pretty? You wouldn’t marry a girl just because she’s pretty, but goodness doesn’t it help!”
Lorelei isn’t a woman who only looks out for number one, but instead opts to carefully study the ship’s passenger list to ensure that both she and Dorothy are seated next to the most wealthy travelers (her adjacent criteria of bachelor and/or widowhood seems to fly out the window at the mention of diamond mines, but initially there was a degree of ethics involved). When Dorothy objects, her concerned and loyal friend asserts that their differing opinions on where to find true happiness comes down to a matter of education and realism, for “if a girl spends all her time worrying about the money she doesn’t have, how is she going to have any time for being in love?” A good point, well made.
And the well-meaning advice isn’t one-sided. Though Dorothy has little time for high rollers, she has plenty of room for a pretty face and manages to engage in sufficient flirtations aboard the HMS Hotstuff whilst keeping an eye on her comrade’s flights of fancy. At the first sign of trouble, specifically in the form of a diamond tiara, Dorothy does her best to protect Lorelei from the temptation, knowing full well that this can only mean trouble. When Lorelei’s diamond-lust becomes all-consuming and the situation escalates with a sign of impending chaos, the brunette bombshell wastes no time setting into action a plan that will save her friend, even at the cost of her blossoming romance with private detective Ernie Malone (Elliot Reid).
Not for a moment does Dorothy consider taking her lover’s side over that of her sister-from-another-mister, immediately putting Operation: Trouser Removal into action in an attempt to destroy any evidence of wrongdoing, thus saving her friends' reputation and plans to wed Esmond. The devotion isn’t just water-based either, with the drama reaching a climax on dryland, resulting in Dorothy donning a terrible wig and breathy voice to commit perjury in a court of law - anything to buy some time to ensure Lorelei’s acquittal.
What makesGentlemen Prefer Blondesso different from many female-led films in the past (and present), is not only the very fact of the autonomy and willingness of female characters to take up space but to do so without ever suggesting jealousy, rivalry, or conflict between them. Instead, the film explores the lives of two women who relish their days as a duo and will only cross the finish line as a double act. Using their sexual and intellectual powers to their best advantage, the two leads are in control of every hip jiggle and eyelash flutter, not only ensuring that the story remains their own, but that the audience have a far greater investment in their friendship than whether Lorelei keeps her besotted nerd and Dorothy, her smarmy “everyman.”
