274. Rear Window (1954)

Directed By Alfred Hitchcock

Synopsis

A photo-journalist has a broken leg stranding him in his apartment for seven weeks, entertaining himself by engaging in some voyeurism, by the end of the sixth week he witnesses suspicious activities in one of the apartments that he entertains himself watching.

Review

This was a fun film, there are two qualities in Hitchcock that I really admire, the first of these is his great dark sense of humour, this is a funny film. Another one is Hitchcock's capacity to create fully rounded minor characters, not just minor but almost insignificant characters are fully rounded.

Rear Window is possibly the best example of this second quality, the fully developed ecosystem behind Jeff's house is something amazing, you are following the life of seven apartments, eight if you count Jeff's, and only the events in two of them are significant to the wider story, Jeff's and the one where the murder has supposedly happened. Hitchcock makes you follow 6 other stories for no reason except make the film alive, and that is more than reason enough.

The film is nearly perfect, Grace Kelly is dazzling, Thelma Ritter is funny, there is a conspiratorial tone running through the whole thing between the three main characters that just makes you a part of it. This is a film that really drags you in, keeps you on the edge of your seat and is a great work of art... what more could you want. It entertains and educates.

Final Grade

10/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

Alfred Hitchcock appears briefly onscreen in the film as the man winding the clock in the songwriter's apartment as the songwriter is performing the piece that he had been working on during the course of the film.

One of the great screen entrances by Grace Kelly:

273. Animal Farm (1954)

Directed By Joy Bachelor and John Halas

Synopsis

Retelling of the process leading from the October Revolution to the rise of Stalinism through a tale with animals on a farm. It differs from the Orwell book in that it ends with a counter-revolution.

Review

When you watch a violent political film you do not expect it to be in animation with a cast composed mainly of animals, but that is exactly what happens here, and fortunately for all of us none of the political content of the book is really toned down.

Interestingly the film is anything but anti-socialist or anti-communist propaganda, the Major who represents Marx and dies before the revolution is always a sympathetic character and he is right. The situation of the farm under the farmer (Tsar Nicholas) is indeed unbearable and the revolution is portrayed as necessary. Only it ends up being co-opted by pigs just as bad as the farmer.

The animation is good but not do Disney standards, the music is pretty great however and the simple fact that it is the first Western adult animation film make it an historical mark. Don't watch it with your kids, watch it yourself.

Final Grade

8/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

When first released, the British Board of Film Classification gave this film a rating certificate of "X" (the same category is now "18") prohibiting anyone under 18 from seeing the film, presumably due to its implied violence and political themes. The film has since been re-classified as "U" (Universal), suitable for all audiences.

The whole thing is on youtube, here's part 1:

272. Les Diaboliques (1954)

Directed By Henri-Georges Clouzot


Synopsis

I am sorry but the film requests that I do not tell the ending, so... the wife of an abusive asshole and his mistress decide to kill him.

Review

Clouzot is a great director of suspense, never for the faint-hearted but with this film he stole the crown from Hitchcock which would get it back with Psycho, even if the debates continue to this day about which is the best film. Truth is, without Les Diaboliques, Psycho would be a very different film indeed.

Clouzot did it before with Salarie de la Peur using trucks and nitroglycerine and here he does it even better not with a whodunit, but with a whatthefuckishappeningit. A great film indeed and one which doesn't let you go, with a tremendous pacing building up to one of the best endings in the history of cinema.

One minor problem is that the film has served as inspiration for so many directors that you might possibly get the ending before the end of the film (my wife did, I didn't, well maybe I would have if she didn't tell me before I figured it out!) but still the twists come along. Amazing.

Final Grade

10/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

The film created a sensation on its original release. It has often been likened to the films of Alfred Hitchcock in that it is still creepy even when one has seen it and knows the ending. (Many sources say that Alfred Hitchcock missed out on purchasing the rights to the Boileau and Narcejac novel by just a few hours, Clouzot getting to the authors first.) The end credit contains an early example of an "anti-spoiler message", requesting the audience not to disclose the plot to others who have not seen the film.

Trailer:

271. Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (1954)

Directed By Stanley Donen

Synopsis

Good choreography puts women's rights back many, many years.

Review

Wow... watching this film is kind of like watching a train wreck. Imagine a cute musical based on the story of the Rape of the Sabine Women. Men are lonely so they decide to kidnap women from the nearest village and take them to their mountain home and make them love them.

I don't understand how this has spawned a TV series in the 80s and a Broadway musical, I wish they made a remade using rohypnol instead of blankets over the head, because really, it would be the same thing.

This being said there is some very good choreography here and the songs aren't that bad... but the message... Oh well we all know that deep down these rape fantasies are cute and women are just begging for a good kidnapping so they can cook and clean men's clothing, aren't they?

Final Grade

6/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

In 1979, an adaptation with a book by Lawrence Kasha and David Landay, and new songs by Al Kasha and Joel Hirschhorn were developed for the stage and enjoyed a lengthy critically and commercially successful national tour.

After fifteen previews, the Broadway production, directed by Kasha and choreographed by Jerry Jackson, opened on July 8, 1982 at the Alvin Theatre, where it ran for only five performances. The cast included Debby Boone, David-James Carroll, Jeff Calhoun, and Lara Teeter.

Its sole Tony Award nomination was for Best Original Score.

A 1985 West End production proved to be more successful, and a London cast recording was released by First Night Records. A 2002 UK tour starred Dave Willetts.

In 2005, a major revival was staged at the prestigious Goodspeed Opera House staring Jacquelyn Piro Donovan and Burke Moses. Directed by Greg Ganakas with choreography by Patti Colombo, the production earned rave reviews from Variety and the New York Times. Songs, Where Were You?,I Married Seven Brothers, and a revised version of Glad That You Were Born were added and the book was heavily rewritten. With a realistic approach, rustic orchestrations and a focus on the Oregon Trail, the show was quite different from its film predecessor.

Plans for a 2005-2006 National Tour of the Goodspeed Opera House production failed. However, in 2007, and this time under the direction of Scott Schwartz, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers became a joint production between Houston Theatre Under the Stars, Paper Mill Playhouse, North Shore Music Theatre, and Atlanta Theatre of the Stars. With set design by Tony Award nominee, Anna Louizos, the current version is a hybrid between the literal approach of the Goodspeed production and the slapstick camp of the original film. While reviews were positive, the real attention was given to Patti Colombo's acrobatic, athletic, and inventive choreography.

The 2007 revival is expected to be the version that will be licensed by Music Theatre International for stock and regional use.

From September 19, 1982 to July 2, 1983, CBS broadcasted a weekly television series of the same name, which was loosely-based on the film. The series featured early appearances of Richard Dean Anderson and River Phoenix.

Well sexism never gets old.

The quite good Barn Dance:

270. On The Waterfront (1954)

Directed By Elia Kazan

Synopsis

The waterfront union is ruled by corrupt Mafia thugs. One of the guys who works for them starts getting a conscience when he falls in love with the sister of one of their victims. After his brother gets killed for failing to kill him he really gets miffed! He tells all in court and then stands up to the bosses in a great finale.

Review

I forgave Griffith for his racism, I forgave Riefenstahl for her love of Hitler, I forgave Eisenstein for his love of Stalinist Russia... I think I can forgive Elia Kazan for being a dirty rat fink. I was thinking about talking about how Kazan's analogy of the plight of Brando in the film and his "plight" as an informer on other people's political opinions is a completely failed analogy, but I won't do that. Anyone with a brain will understand that it is a fake analogy and that Brando's character does the right thing while Kazan did the wrong thing.

So, that out of the way, it is a truly great film. The plot works precisely because the analogy with the McCarthy witch-hunts does not work, so you can see it as something else. Brando is an amazing actor, he doesn't merely speak his part, there is always something else that he is doing, playing with a glove, checking his shoes, whatever, it gives it a feeling of realism that is unprecedented.

That feel of realism is compounded by Kazan's appreciation for human faces and the masses in general, there is an almost documentary like feel to the workers in the docks, the film is brilliantly directed by a disgusting stoolie. So I applaud him, but I don't stand up.

Final Grade

9/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

In 1952, director Elia Kazan was a "friendly" witness before the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), in which he identified many alleged Communists in the film industry. That brought him severe criticism. Being "friendly" before the HUAC could be a possible clue towards the name of the mob boss in the movie. Johnny Friendly.

The original screenplay (called "The Hook") was written by renowned playwright Arthur Miller, who was blacklisted as an alleged Communist. He was replaced by Budd Schulberg, also a "friendly" witness before HUAC.

On the Waterfront, being about a heroic mob informer, is widely considered to be Kazan's answer to his critics (including his former friend and collaborator Miller), showing that there could be nobility in a man who "named names". In the movie, variations of that phrase are repeatedly used by Terry Malloy. The film also repeatedly emphasizes the waterfront's code of "D and D" or "Deaf and Dumb," remaining silent at all costs and not "ratting out" one's friends. In the end, Malloy does just that and his doing so is depicted sympathetically. Miller's response to the movie's message is contained in his own play, A View from the Bridge, which presents a contrasting view of those who inform on others.

I coulda been a contender:

269. Johnny Guitar (1954)

Directed By Nicholas Ray

Synopsis

A woman has a saloon in a place where the train is going to come through. The locals don't like it and think she is associated with a bunch of outlaws, who aren't actually outlaws. She hires a guy for protection, Johnny Guitar. The locals led by a crazy lady are trying to get the saloon owner and the gang out of town, and give them 24 hours to pack up. The "outlaws" are forced to rob a bank, and the crazy lady, jealous of the saloon owner tries successfully to implicate her in the robbery. All goes pear shaped.

Review

This is definitely an interesting film, it is particularly interesting if you have seen plenty of westerns before it, and in the course of doing this list I have indeed watched my fair share. The film manages to play with the clichés of the western. The forces of law and order are in black, the "outlaws" are in light or bright colours, the women wear the literal trousers here.

More than this gender inversion it is a film about how one cannot trust the forces of law and order, who are crazy with zealot blood thirst. It is an effective indictment of the McCarthy era, there is even a little speech by Johnny on how posses are animals and think and act like animals. The status quo is dangerous and mad here, quite literally.

Then it is all shot in the brightest colours possible, it looks weird, it is full of sexual tension, the tough men are a guitar player and a kid who likes to dance. While women run the posse or the saloon, all is inverted, but so is everything in the world of 1954, if you can't trust the law to protect you can you trust cowboys to be tough and manly?

Final Grade

9/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

The strong will and personalities of these two women effectively sideline the men. Sterling Hayden as the eponymous hero is something less of a hero as a result of Crawford's obsession (the fact that he plays a guitar and travels without a gun gives a clue to the downgrading of the Western hero stereotype that is implicit in the title). He is a secondary character, given to indecisiveness. He mostly functions as a passive observer: his tag line is "I am a stranger here myself", which can also describe Nicholas Ray himself (indeed, the line was used as the title of a 1975 documentary about the director).

The other male principals also take a secondary role to the women; none of the posse, not even McIvers, its purported leader, can bring himself to veto McCambridge's Emma, even when lives are at stake. The Dancin' Kid bases many important decisions (especially whether to rob the bank) on whether Vienna will continue to return his affections instead of leaving him for Johnny. Johnny and the Kid are both unusually sensitive cowboys compared to the icons of the time, including the fact that each has an artistic skill (dancing, guitar playing) which is a part of his name, and that both generally let the female characters make the decisions and are willing to abide by them.

Most obvious parallel with McCarthyism is in this scene:

268. Beat The Devil (1953)

Directed By John Huston

Synopsis

There's something about getting some uranium enriched land in Africa, a motley crew consisting of Bogart and four peculiar criminals are trying to get that land. While waiting for the boat to Africa in Italy they meet the Chelms, a British couple who aren't what they appear to be. Finally they get on the boat, everything goes wrong, Mr. Chelm jumps overboard, the ship is apparently sinking all the rest of the group get on a lifeboat and arrive in Arabic North Africa, instead of Central Africa where they want to go. Chelms on the other hand washed up in Central Africa. The Scotland Yard is on the trail due to a murder of a Colonial Officer by one of Bogart's "friends". They get caught after getting back to Italy where they had started.... it is actually even more complicated than this but I am not being paid to write.

Review

What a strange film. If you remember I didn't really like Maltese Falcon, and I didn't like it because this is what it should have been like! Huston completely spoofs this genre of quest films in one of the first camp films of all time.

The whole film is gloriously nonsensical, it is extremely well written and you can see the hand of Truman Capote all over it, he was writing the film as the filming went along, very loosely basing it on some novel. So it ends up being really funny and incredibly surreal.

What is weird about the film is the way in which it doesn't really belong anywhere, it is not a drama, or a comedy, or an adventure film it is everything and nothing. It's simply great!

Final Grade

9/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

The script, which was written on a day-to-day basis as the film was being shot, concerns the adventures of a motley crew of swindlers and ne'er-do-wells trying to lay claim to land rich in uranium deposits in Kenya as they wait in a small Italian port of travel aboard an ill-fated tramp steamer en route to Mombasa. The all-star cast includes Humphrey Bogart, Jennifer Jones, Gina Lollobrigida, Robert Morley (playing the role that Sydney Greenstreet would have played had he still been acting), Peter Lorre and Bernard Lee (who was to gain widespread recognition with his appearances as "M" in the James Bond movies).

This Huston opus does not easily fit into the standard set of film categories; it has variously been classified as a "thriller," a "comedy," a "drama," a "crime" and a "romance" movie. It is above all else a parody of the Film Noir style that Huston himself had pioneered and as such has developed cult status in the ensuing years.

The film is Public Domain, here's part one, look the others up on Youtube:

267. Shane (1953)

Directed By George Stevens

Synopsis

A family of farmers takes in a wandering gunman (Shane) who decides to stay on and work for the family. The local cattle baron wants to take over all the farms, the farmers get together and decide to fight him. After one of them gets shot by a hired gun some consider leaving. Eventually Shane has a showdown with the cattle baron and his hired gun, solves the problem and goes off into the sunrise.

Review

This is a film that definitely has a place on this list, not particularly because of any inherent directing or acting quality, but because of its iconic value. There are so many scenes here that have been lifted and "tributed" and just plain iconic that the film deserves its place here.

That said, there are plenty of things to dislike here, the kid is annoying, Ladd is not a particularly good actor, it feels kind of like a too violent children's film. But it does have a charm and innocence which is quite refreshing.

So not a great film, I guess if I was a bit younger I would have really loved it. This way I didn't but I recognise its value and importance. The almost great archetype of the "lonesome cowboy" film.

Final Grade

7/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

Shane was the first flat widescreen (soft matted 1.66:1) color western film to be produced. (It was actually shot for 1.37:1 Academy ratio, but the studio dictated that it be cropped in the movie projector to compete with the to-be-released CinemaScope format.) The music was recorded in stereo, but heard in theatres only in mono - only films in Cinemascope and Cinerama used stereophonic sound at that time.

The film was also one of the first films to attempt to recreate the overwhelming sound of gunfire. Warren Beatty cited this aspect of Shane as inspiration during the filming of Bonnie and Clyde (from the documentary "George Stevens: A Filmmaker's Journey").

In addition, Shane was one of the first films in which actors were attached to hidden wires that yanked them backwards when they were shot from the front.

Ending:

266. Ugetsu Monogatari (Tales of Moonlight and Rain or Tales of the Pale and Silvery Moon After the Rain) (1953)

Directed By Kenji Mizoguchi


Synopsis

A potter and his brother in law Tobei want to move on in life. The potter wants to make money selling his pots and Tobei wants to be a Samurai, this in the midst of the Japanese Civil War. The potter gets enthralled by a ghost, Tobei steals a general's head. The potter marries the ghost forgetting his wife and child, Tobei becomes a big Samurai forgetting his wife. The potter's wife is killed by soldiers, Tobei's wife is raped by soldiers and becomes a prostitute. The Potter gets exorcised and discovers the truth about his phantom life, Tobei discovers his wife has become a prostitute due to his neglect. The potter goes back home, Tobei goes back home abandoning the Samurai life. The potter finds a warm welcome by his wife and child, only to discover next morning that his wife has been dead for a while. He resumes his life while his wife talks reassuringly from beyond the grave.

Review

If there is an overriding feel to this film, it is one of a kind of creeping ambience that works in the back of your neck and in your stomach. It is one of the films that makes the most effective use of supernatural elements in its storytelling. The supernatural is particularly eerie because it is so natural, because it only slowly reveals itself as something else.

You know when you watch horror films that you always know what is going to happen and the protagonists seem stupid for going along into the haunted house. Well they could learn a lot from this, the supernatural is attractive because it looks attractive, not creepy. Only when the character is already enthralled do the creepy elements come into play. And then the ghosts have a story, they aren't cardboard monsters.

And then the film is directed to perfection, Mizoguchi's long takes are choreographed perfectly, the music adds to the whole ambience of the film. Japanese cinema just makes me love it more and more with each film we get. Still waiting for a not excellent one.

Final Grade

10/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

Ugetsu won the Silver Lion Award for Best Direction at the Venice Film Festival in 1953. The film has made multiple appearances in Sight and Sound magazine's top ten critics poll of the greatest movies ever made, which is held once every decade. In 2000, The Village Voice newspaper ranked Ugetsu at #29 on their list of the 100 best films of the 20th century.

Trailer, you'd better know some Japanese:

265. Viaggio In Italia (Voyage In Italy) (1953)

Directed By Roberto Rossellini

Synopsis

A couple goes to Italy to sell a house they were left by an eccentric uncle who died. The close contact lead them to realise that they want a divorce, and then that they don't.

Review

I am not a great fan of Ingrid Bergman, she always seems not to have much charisma, however she does play a good part in this film, a strange mix of love story and documentary directed by her husband.

If there is a major problem with the film, it is its ending, it is actually pretty hard to believe that that couple could ever reconcile their differences, they don't seem to belong together, and the whole film seems to be telling you how much they don't belong together, and still they end up together, in one of the most artificial endings in the history of cinema.

That said the film is worth watching for the couple's relationship, surprisingly frank for a film of this age, the dialogue is pretty good, the characters gain their depth not by what they overtly do or say but by what they mean under the apparent, by their gestures etc. Still, the ending is so bad it becomes underwhelming.

Final Grade

7/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

Although it performed badly at the box office, French critics at the Cahiers du Cinéma, including François Truffaut, liked it and proclaimed it to be the first modern film.

Martin Scorsese talks about the film and his impressions of it in his film My Voyage to Italy.

A good scene:

264. Les Vacances de M. Hulot (M. Hulot's Holiday) (1953)

Directed By Jacques Tati

Synopsis

A guy goes to the beach. Hilarity does not ensue.

Review

Jacques Tati is a sacred cow. No one criticises him, he has 100% on Rotten Tomatoes and imdb loves him. Critics approach this film with the name of Jacques Tati at the back of their heads, they try to see what is not there, they feel ashamed to say they hated it. Well, the sad truth is that his was the worst film I have had the displeasure of watching on this list. I was tempted to stop it after 30 minutes and refuse to watch any more. My wife agrees, so I know I'm not the only one.

This is not due to some primary hate of slapstick, I love Buster Keaton, who has the imagination, the sense of peril and thrill and all the things that can make slapstick good. Keaton also gave his films a plot, which kept the slapstick more exciting because it advanced the story, it meant something.

Tati presents us with a film, that even if it is technically sufferable it is in no way better than what was being done in the 20s. Actually its worse, you care for none of the characters because you don't know them. And then it is simply not funny, I smiled 3 times in the film, and I can even tell you when:

At the beginning when people keep missing trains because of the crap speakers, and I laughed because I was trying to give the film a chance.

When Hulot drops the air chamber of his tire on some mud and leaves during a funeral, making it pass for a wreath.

When a guy keeps discarding the lovely shells his wife passes to him.

Combining these three occasions I get about 20 seconds of funny in a film of 1 hour 30 minutes. This is a film for the same French people who love Jerry Lewis, and I actually find Jerry much funnier than this poor excuse for a film.

Crap.

Final Grade

3/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

On its release in the United States, Bosley Crowther's review said that the film contained "much the same visual satire that we used to get in the 'silent' days from the pictures of Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, and such as those." He said the film "exploded with merriment" and that Tati "is a long-legged, slightly pop-eyed gent whose talent for caricaturing the manners of human beings is robust and intense.... There is really no story to the picture.... The dialogue... is at a minimum, and it is used just to satirize the silly and pointless things that summer people say. Sounds of all sorts become firecrackers, tossed in for comical point.

He was lying.


Judge for yourself:

263. The Big Heat (1953)

Directed By Fritz Lang

Synopsis

A policeman starts investigating a suicide of another policeman. But nothing is at it seems and as he delves deeper his wife gets killed in a bomb meant for him. He hands in his badge seeing that all the police are in the pocket of the head Mafia boss and goes vigilante. He follows the trail to the wife of the cop that committed suicide. Meanwhile the girlfriend of the head-goon of the Mafia boss makes a pass on him, leading said goon (Lee Marvin) to disfigure her with some hot coffee. She goes back to the cop and spills the beans, he gets the guy who ordered the bombing of his car, and threatens the widow who, if she dies, will have the suicide confession of her husband sent to the papers. He tells the disfigured girlfriend that he was thinking of killing the widow to make it come out. The girlfriend of the goon does it herself, and then she waits for Lee Marvin and pays him in kind with the hot coffee. Lee Marvin shoots her, the cop comes in and a fight ensues. Lee is taken to jail and the headlines say that Mafia boss has been indicted now that the confession came out. Cop goes back to his job.

Review

If I thought Pickup on South Street had beat the record on violence on screen, this is definitely the film that beats it. It has a relentless violence to it paired with some horror elements (such as the disfigurements) and the story of a vigilante widower.

Lang directs this as well as any film he ever did, the shadows of German expressionism give the whole thing a Gotham City feel, paired with the corrupt officials and the grip that crime has on the city and with a vigilante hero who kills no one, this could be a Batman film.

But then there are smart plot twists, there is no femme fatale here, the man is the one who ruins everyone's lives, heck four women he comes into contact with die. A great film indeed, and even if Lang's career was a bit hit and miss in his years in the US this is most definitely a hit, and I am pleased to have him back.

Final Grade

9/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

Critical reaction to the film was positive when it was released, and today The Big Heat is considered a classic. Film critic Roger Ebert lists the film among his Great Movies. In Ebert's review he praises the film's supporting actors and questions the actions of the apparently strait-laced Bannion: "Does it ever occur to him that he is at least partly responsible for their deaths? No, apparently it doesn't, and that's one reason the film is so insidiously chilling; he continues on his mission oblivious to its cost."

Writer David M. Meyer states that the film never overcomes the basic repugnance of its hero, but notes that some parts of the film, though violent, are better than the film as a whole. "Best known is Gloria Grahame's disfigurement at the hands of über-thug Lee Marvin, who flings hot coffee into her face."

Coffee Scene:

262. Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953)

Directed By Howard Hawks

Synopsis

Not that complex really. Gold-digger wants to marry rich guy, daddy won't let him, so she goes to wait for him in Paris where they are meant to be married with her friend, who is down to earth and not guided solely by money. Rich guy's father sends along a detective to get evidence that gold-digger doesn't love his son. Detective falls in love with gold-digger's friend. Eventually daddy is charmed by gold-digger and manages to marry his son, and friend marries detective.

Review

As my wife said, it's a cute film. And that is truly the appropriate word for it, not particularly great, not particularly bad, but cute. There's isn't much to learn from it unless the moral that gold-digging is actually OK.

The best moment is definitely the most famous one with Marilyn doing Diamonds are a Girl's Best Friend, a really great track, perfectly choreographed. But then, I always like Jane Russell better than Marilyn and in this film Russell is really the more sympathetic of the characters, and the better actress as well.

There are some pretty funny moments in the film, such as the picture postcard 1950's gay scene musical in the pool. The grown up kid is also amusing for about a minute, but in the end it all boils down to cute. So yeah, enjoyable, not amazing.

Final Grade

8/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

The story line first appeared in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes: The Illuminating Diary of a Professional Lady, a 1925 novel by Anita Loos. It was adapted for the stage in 1926, and then a 1928 silent movie, starring Ruth Taylor, Alice White, Ford Sterling, and Mack Swain, which, as of now, is apparently lost. John C. Wilson directed the Broadway musical with Carol Channing as Lorelei Lee that served as the basis for this screen version.

Loos wrote a sequel to her novel entitled But Gentlemen Marry Brunettes, with further adventures of Lorelei and Dorothy. The 1955 Gentlemen Marry Brunettes used only the book's name and starred Russell and Jeanne Crain playing characters who were the daughters of Dorothy Shaw.

Diamonds: