1953 was an important year for Marilyn Monroe. She'd been appearing in films since 1947, but '53 is when she became a star. That year, she appeared in three films for 20th Century Fox and one of them stands tall as defining her legendary screen persona: director Howard Hawks' "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes."
Monroe plays Lorelei Lee, the titular blonde and one of the film's two co-leads; the other is her brunette best friend Dorothy Shaw (Jane Russell). Lorelei is a bit ditzy and not shy about her expensive tastes (in men and otherwise), but there's no more loyal friend around.
Earlier that year, Monroe starred in the technicolor thriller "Niagara" as the murderous Rose Loomis, who conspires with her lover (Richard Allen) to murder her husband (Joseph Cotton). Hawks' film, though, was a musical comedy. Since she was playing a totally different type of character, Monroe needed to show a different side of herself.
Monroe plays Lorelei Lee, the titular blonde and one of the film's two co-leads; the other is her brunette best friend Dorothy Shaw (Jane Russell). Lorelei is a bit ditzy and not shy about her expensive tastes (in men and otherwise), but there's no more loyal friend around.
Earlier that year, Monroe starred in the technicolor thriller "Niagara" as the murderous Rose Loomis, who conspires with her lover (Richard Allen) to murder her husband (Joseph Cotton). Hawks' film, though, was a musical comedy. Since she was playing a totally different type of character, Monroe needed to show a different side of herself.
- 9/26/2022
- by Devin Meenan
- Slash Film
Long before Jennifer Lopez and Eva Longoria, there was Rita Hayworth. The dancer-actress, born Margarita Carmen Cansino, would have been 100 on Wednesday, and even fans of classic Hollywood may not realize how extraordinary her career was. She was the No. 1 box office star of Columbia Pictures in the 1940s, she was Fred Astaire’s favorite dancing partner, and U.S. G.I.s had pinups of her around the globe during WWII. These are especially impressive in an era when Latino-Hispanic children were still in segregated schools and only a decade after America’s “repatriation” program shipped 2 million Mexicans across the border, claiming they were “stealing” American jobs.
Work dried up for Hayworth in the 1960s, due to occasional slurred speech and memory problems. Hollywood assumed she was alcoholic, but in 1980 she was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, bringing worldwide awareness to the little-known disease. Her greatest legacy may be the annual Rita Hayworth Galas,...
Work dried up for Hayworth in the 1960s, due to occasional slurred speech and memory problems. Hollywood assumed she was alcoholic, but in 1980 she was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, bringing worldwide awareness to the little-known disease. Her greatest legacy may be the annual Rita Hayworth Galas,...
- 10/16/2018
- by Tim Gray
- Variety Film + TV
At the opening-night party of Matt Tyrnauer’s hit documentary “Scotty and the Secret History of Hollywood” at Tim Burton’s Chateau Marmont apartment, Scotty Bowers, the tousle-haired author of 2012 tell-all “Full Service: My Adventures in Hollywood and the Secret Sex Lives of the Stars,” celebrated his 95th birthday.
“So how gay was Spencer Tracy?” I asked him.
“He got drunk and thanked the man beside him in the morning for taking care of him,” he said with a gap-toothed grin, taunting me with his next provocation: “He didn’t just suck cock, he crunched it!”
We laughed. “And how gay was Katharine Hepburn?”
“She loved one woman for 40 years who left her to marry a rich man,” he said. He claims to have arranged 150 get-togethers with women over five decades for Hepburn. That was his job — putting gay people together via a Hollywood gas station for rendezvous with movie stars,...
“So how gay was Spencer Tracy?” I asked him.
“He got drunk and thanked the man beside him in the morning for taking care of him,” he said with a gap-toothed grin, taunting me with his next provocation: “He didn’t just suck cock, he crunched it!”
We laughed. “And how gay was Katharine Hepburn?”
“She loved one woman for 40 years who left her to marry a rich man,” he said. He claims to have arranged 150 get-togethers with women over five decades for Hepburn. That was his job — putting gay people together via a Hollywood gas station for rendezvous with movie stars,...
- 8/2/2018
- by Anne Thompson
- Thompson on Hollywood
At the opening-night party of Matt Tyrnauer’s hit documentary “Scotty and the Secret History of Hollywood” at Tim Burton’s Chateau Marmont apartment, Scotty Bowers, the tousle-haired author of 2012 tell-all “Full Service: My Adventures in Hollywood and the Secret Sex Lives of the Stars,” celebrated his 95th birthday.
“So how gay was Spencer Tracy?” I asked him.
“He got drunk and thanked the man beside him in the morning for taking care of him,” he said with a gap-toothed grin, taunting me with his next provocation: “He didn’t just suck cock, he crunched it!”
We laughed. “And how gay was Katharine Hepburn?”
“She loved one woman for 40 years who left her to marry a rich man,” he said. He claims to have arranged 150 get-togethers with women over five decades for Hepburn. That was his job — putting gay people together via a Hollywood gas station for rendezvous with movie stars,...
“So how gay was Spencer Tracy?” I asked him.
“He got drunk and thanked the man beside him in the morning for taking care of him,” he said with a gap-toothed grin, taunting me with his next provocation: “He didn’t just suck cock, he crunched it!”
We laughed. “And how gay was Katharine Hepburn?”
“She loved one woman for 40 years who left her to marry a rich man,” he said. He claims to have arranged 150 get-togethers with women over five decades for Hepburn. That was his job — putting gay people together via a Hollywood gas station for rendezvous with movie stars,...
- 8/2/2018
- by Anne Thompson
- Indiewire
British rock musician and video director Kevin Godley (10cc, Godley & Creme) is to make his feature debut.
British rock musician and video director Kevin Godley is to make his feature debut with The Gate, a film he has scripted about Orson Welles as a young man.
The film will shoot in Ireland and will tell the story of how Welles, as a teenager, made his acting debut at the Gate Theatre in Dublin in 1931. The story starts in 1985, just as Barbara Leaming’s biography about Welles is being published. The filmmaker, close to death, is haunted by memories of his lost youth in Ireland.
British rock musician and video director Kevin Godley is to make his feature debut with The Gate, a film he has scripted about Orson Welles as a young man.
The film will shoot in Ireland and will tell the story of how Welles, as a teenager, made his acting debut at the Gate Theatre in Dublin in 1931. The story starts in 1985, just as Barbara Leaming’s biography about Welles is being published. The filmmaker, close to death, is haunted by memories of his lost youth in Ireland.
- 5/10/2018
- by Geoffrey Macnab
- ScreenDaily
IMDb.com, Inc. takes no responsibility for the content or accuracy of the above news articles, Tweets, or blog posts. This content is published for the entertainment of our users only. The news articles, Tweets, and blog posts do not represent IMDb's opinions nor can we guarantee that the reporting therein is completely factual. Please visit the source responsible for the item in question to report any concerns you may have regarding content or accuracy.