moonspinner55
Two American showgirls, siblings following in the footsteps of their flashy mother and aunt in the 1920s, attempt to take the Paris stage by storm--but morals may have changed in the last thirty years. Weak adaptation of Anita Loos' book "But Gentlemen Marry Brunettes" coasts (deliberately) on the goodwill built up from 1953's "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes" (which Loos originated on stage). Jane Russell, who stars in both, had a hand in the production this time, and to her credit the picture looks smashing. The Parisian locations are eye-popping and the outfits are predictably colorful; unfortunately, this screenplay (written by Mary Loos and director Richard Sale) is a pale imitation of "Blondes", and Russell--in the ditzy-sister role--isn't given any funny lines or a suitable romantic interest. Jeanne Crain (sporting either a wig or inappropriately darkened hair) is out of her element, and the cartoony production numbers are just silly. *1/2 from ****
edwagreen
Miserable film despite the vivacious leads of Jane Russell and Jeanne Crain. The plot or story line is absolutely ridiculous where 2 sisters go off to Paris and meet Rudy Vallee who reminds us all that their aunts, who had no talent whatsoever, conquered gay Paris circa 1926.Some of the musical staging such as Ain't Misbehavin are absolutely miserably staged.Scott Brady is totally miscast as the agent who sent for the girls. In the film, Jane Russell can't say no when a guy proposes to her. How did she ever say yes to being in such a poorly written, executed film?Imagine Brady mouthing the words to My Funny Valentine as Russell sings along. This reminded me years ago when Victor Mature starred opposite Bette Hutton in "Red, Hot and Blue." Nothing like miscasting, but it's even worse when the picture is such a stinker. If anything, this film is a red hot stinker.
darkinvader45210
Have you ever seen such an awful movie that despite how bad it is it's still very entertaining? Well, welcome to the world of Anita Loo's and find out why Gentlemen may Prefer Blondes, but they don't neccessarily Marry Brunettes.Here we have Jane Russell giving a very bad imitation of Marilyn Monroe with Jeanne Crain doing a very bad imitation of Jane Russell whose singing is dubbed by Anita Ellis who had dubbed Vera Ellen in the movie "Three Little Words". Then we've got Rudy Vallee who looks like he's a zombie on his last leg, ready for the grave, but still trying to sing "Have You Met Miss Jones" and a very bad, but hilarious rendition of, "I Wanna Be Loved By You" with Jane and Jeanne impersonating brainless idiot chorus girls, singing in high-pitched brainless notes through their noses, and on the soundtrack album it states that the singing for this particular number is sung by Miss Crain herself, and if I had been Miss Crain I, in no way, would have admitted to it by allowing that to appear on the album, but she's justified by a wonderful rendition, even though dubbed by Anita Ellis, of "My Funny Valentine"! Then you've got "You're Driving Me Crazy" which is fun, especially when the girls are expected to lift their fans at the end of the number saying, "I Couldn't Care Less!", and appear nude in front of the audiance, and Alan Young is booing them with the rest of the audiance, and Jane Russell later defends their actions by saying that they thought the French had a sense of humor!Then you've got Scott Brady who didn't do his own singing [Robert Farnon the director of the orchestra did the dubbing for Brady], but Alan Young did do his own singing, but I really have to admit that even though the final number in the film has to be the worse musical number ever filmed for a movie, I really enjoyed it! Well, it WAS different! Here's Jane and Jeanne dressed up like birds of paradise standing in a pot ready to be cooked for dinner by the restless hungry natives in Africa and Alan Young is up in a tree dressed up like an Ape, and he, the girls, and the natives are all singing Ain't Misbehaving which makes about as much sense as an adajio dancer trying to dance on a hot rock, but pulling this whole ridiculous number together with the singing which isn't really that bad even though the natives sound like their singing Tarzan's favorite line OOM-GOW-WHAH during the chorus - dumb as it was - I LIKED IT, especially when Jane Russell does her sultry sexy rendition of Ain't Misbehaving like only she can do with the natives in the background still sounding like their singing OOM-GOW-WHAH!But, the ending is priceless with Scott Brady starting out saying:SCOTT: Bonnie! Will you marry me? JANE: [Imitating Marilyn Monroe] No! SCOTT: Bonnie! Do you really mean that? JANE: [Imitating Jane Russell] No!Then she breaks into song singing some of "I Got Five Dollars" and when she gets to "Everything" Scott Brady asks, "Everything?" and she answers "Everything" and while they kiss, Jane Russell appears aboard as her older gray haired, wrinkled up, Aunt or Mother or whoever she is, and she sees what's happening, and she says, in her crackly old-age voice, to the Captain of the ship:WHERE'S THE BAR!And that's exactly how you feel when the movie is ending:WHERE'S THE BAR!Make mine a double vodka on the rocks with a twist of lemon, thank you very much so that I can justify, with what's left of my mind after viewing this two-hour fiasco, why I found this very bad, awful, musical so entertaining!
gary1792
I saw this turkey for the first time last night. I tuned in expecting an entertaining sequel to the classic "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes" starring Marylin Monroe and (as in this movie) Jane Russell.To say I was disappointed is being generous. Alan Young singing? For heaven's sake, what were these people thinking?The world would be better served if this pile of celluloid was cut up into guitar picks.
