# Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953 film)

Gentlemen Prefer Blondes is a 1953 film adaptation of the 1949 stage musical about two singers who travel to Paris, pursued by a private detective hired by the disapproving father of one's fiancé to keep an eye on her, as well as a rich, enamored old man and many other doting admirers.
    Directed by Howard Hawks. Written by Anita Loos (novel and play), Joseph Fields (play), and Charles Lederer.

## Dorothy Shaw

* Remember honey, on your wedding day it's all right to say "yes".

## Lorelei Lee

* I want you to find happiness and stop having fun.
* There was an old man named Sidney... Who drank till he ruined a kidney. It shriveled and shrank, but he drank and he drank... He had his fun doing it, didn't he?

## Dialogue

    Lorelei Lee: Excuse me, but what is the way to Europe, France?
    Dorothy Shaw: Honey, France is IN Europe.
    Lorelei Lee: Well who said it wasn't?
    Dorothy Shaw: Well... you wouldn't say you wanted to go to North America, Mexico.
    Lorelei Lee: If that's where I wanted to go, I would.
    Gus Esmond: [looking at Dorothy who is admiring some athletes] Dorothy Shaw, you're supposed to be the chaperone on the trip!
    Dorothy Shaw: Now let's get one thing straight, Gus: The chaperone's job is to make sure nobody else has any fun. But nobody chaperones the chaperone. That's why I'm so right for this job.
    Dorothy Shaw: Honey, did it ever occur to you that some people just don't care about money?
    Lorelei Lee: Please don't be silly, we're talking serious.
    Dorothy Shaw: Oh no, you're not one of those, are you?
    Ernie Malone: One of what?
    Dorothy Shaw: The kind who thinks he has to tell a girl how much money he has.
    Ernie Malone: What's the matter with having money?
    Dorothy Shaw: Yes, I'm afraid you are. Do me a favor, will you Malone? Go whistle up a rope.
    Dorothy Shaw: I've been wondering, what's your line, Mr. Malone?
    Ernie Malone: My line? My most effective one is to tell a girl she has hair like a torch at midnight, lips like a red couch in an ivory palace that I'm lonely and starved for affection. Then, I generally burst into tears. It seldom works.
    Henry Spofford III: [talking to Lorelei, stuck going through the porthole] All right. I'll help you. I'll help you for two reasons.
    Lorelei Lee: Never mind the reasons. Just help me.
    Henry Spofford III: The first reason is I'm too young to be sent to jail. The second reason is you got a lot of animal magnetism.
    Lady Beekman: You'll find I mean business!
    Dorothy Shaw: Oh, really? Then why are you wearing that hat?
    Esmond Sr.: Have you got the nerve to tell me you don't want to marry my son for his money?
    Lorelei Lee: It's true.
    Esmond Sr.: Then what do you want to marry him for?
    Lorelei Lee: I want to marry him for YOUR money.
    Lorelei Lee: Don't you know that a man being rich is like a girl being pretty? You wouldn't marry a girl just because she's pretty, but my goodness, doesn't it help?
    Mr. Esmond Sr.: Say, they told me you were stupid! You certainly don't seem stupid to me!
    Lorelei Lee: I can be smart when it's important, but most men don't like it.
    Mr. Esmond Sr.: Are you out of your mind?
    Ernie Malone: Mm-hmm, but I like it that way.

## Cast

* Jane Russell - Dorothy Shaw
* Marilyn Monroe - Lorelei Lee
* Charles Coburn - Sir Francis "Piggy" Beekman
* Elliott Reid - Ernie Malone
* Tommy Noonan - Gus Esmond
* Taylor Holmes - Mr. Esmond Sr.
* Norma Varden - Lady Beekman
* George Winslow - Henry Spofford III

## External links

* Encyclopedic article on Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953 film) on Wikipedia
* Media related to Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953 film) on Wikimedia Commons
* Gentlemen Prefer Blondes quotes at the Internet Movie Database