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In the 1950s, pneumatic Hollywood glamour girls like Marilyn Monroe and Jane Russell made it their business to ensnare unsuspecting men with a combination of cunning, raw charm and decolletage. So it is in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, a splendid 1953 trifle in which the sassy seductresses hunt their prey on two continents, dance up a storm and bring matchless period glitz to the proceedings. Howard Hawks directed the big, splashy musical, though it’s anything but a director’s movie: As the dedicated fortune hunter Lorelei Lee, Marilyn steals the show when she sings “Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend,” just one of half a dozen memorable Leo Robin-Jule Styne songs. Co-starring Charles Coburn, Elliott Reid and Tommy Noonan, this movie has become a monument to ’50s style and Hollywood’s notion of romance in that benighted era. The sequel, Gentlemen Marry Brunettes, lacked the verve of the original. Gentlemen Prefer Blondes shows Wednesday, August 11, through Tuesday, August 17, at the Oriental Theatre, 4335 West 44th Avenue. For information, call 303-433-3786 or visit www.modproductions.com. — Bill Gallo
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