Lorelei and Dorothy are two stage singers and dancers who take a ship to Europe, since Lorelei is engaged to the rich Esmond. Since Lorelei is only interested in money in a man, Esmond’s father hires a reporter, Malone, to spy on her, fearing she is a bad choice for marriage. Indeed, Malone makes photos of Lorelei hanging out with the old Mr. Piggy, owner of a diamond company. When Lorelei steals the photos, Piggy gives her a diamond tiara for present, but once in Paris, his wife sues Lorelei for theft of the tiara. The tiara is returned to Piggy in court, while Lorelei and Dorothy marry Esmond and Malone, respectively.
A rare and peculiar teaming up of director Howard Hawks with actress Marilyn Monroe resulted in this effervescent comedy with four tiresome musical numbers (except for the one where Jane Russell comically tumbles into the pool by accident, knocked off by one of the jumping divers), which is not quite a classic, but is at times too good not to be seen. The two leading actresses show how it is done right by delivering refreshing (female) comedic performances, and Monroe is even able to make Lorelei, a plane gold digger, appear good-hearted at times. Some of the gags are incredible, and simply have to be mentioned for their sheer audacity: in one of them, Lorelei is stuck while trying to exit from a cabin through the window, so a little boy helps her camouflage in front of Mr Piggy by holding a blanket under Lorelei’s head, to make it seem as if she is sitting outside. When Mr Piggy hears the boy’s voice under the blanket for a minute, Hawks makes a delicious joke by having Monroe ditch her trademark effeminate voice and have her talk in an uncharacteristically deep voice, feigning that she has “laryngitis”. Hawks also throws dozens of jokes throughout the story, whether in the form of dialogue (“We have to get his pants, too. I’ll do it alone.” - “No, we will do it together. Two heads are better than one.”) or sight gags (the delicious scene where Russell puts on a blonde wig and pretends she is Marilyn at the court, with a really good impression of the latter’s voice and mannerisms), but there are also several ‘empty walks’ here and there, while the ending glosses over Lorelei’s money exploitation character as if it is harmless, without any moral or lesson to dispute such attitudes.
Grade:++
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