Guys and Dolls (1955)

Guys and Dolls (1955) is Joseph L. Mankiewicz's adaptation of the tony-award winning musical, staring Marlon Brando, Frank Sinatra, Jean Simmons, and Vivienne Blaine. This has been a long time favorite of mine, and I was excited to see it on cable.

I suspect I first came to this movie because of Frank Sinatra. Marlon Brando is fine; he's good; he's Marlon Brando. Though I can do without him singing. And I've always been annoyed by his judgmental missionary girlfriend, who is mostly concerned with her own failure as a soul saver rather than any actual souls that might need saving. Naturally she and Marlon's character Sky Masterson (spoiler alert) fall in love, unexpectedly, of course, following a bet, and blah blah blah.

The real magic here is with Sinatra and Blaine, as Nathan ("Nathan, Nathan, Nathan Detroit") and his long-suffering girlfriend Adelaide. Nathan is a slick gambler (ahem, "general manager") who is just trying to arrange a dice game to make some money to buy Adelaide an anniversary present (they've been engaged for 14 years). Adelaide is longing for Nathan to make an honest woman of her, and to get rid of her long-standing psychosomatic cold. (Adelaide: "The doctor thinks my cold might possibly be caused by psychology." Nathan: "How does he know you got psychology?"). Adelaide's Lament remains one of my favorite show tunes, reading from her psychology book and interpreting her relationship with Nathan ("In other words, just from waiting around for that plain little band of gold, a person could develop a cold.")

And the stars of the show are really the fabulous song and dance numbers. Vivienne Blaine, who reprized the role of Adelaide from her performance on Broadway, really shines. Sinatra, the coolest crooner in the world, is also fantastic. But I really love Harry the Horse, all the gamblers, the "New York" sets, the colors, the dancing, and, how, every time I see it, I want to break into song ("Sit down, sit down, sit down, sit down, sit down you're rocking the boat").

So, what do I know about Joseph L. Mankiewicz? Besides Guys and Dolls, he also directed the brilliant All About Eve, and Suddenly Last Summer. Two films I haven't seen which are now in my queue: Cleopatra and The Ghost and Mrs. Muir. I've never been huge into musicals, so I'm not going down that queue path, but I did add a documentary on Gene Kelly, as well as On the Town, a musical with Frank Sinatra and Gene Kelly. To round it out, another Frank Sinatra movie, albeit one of the dark ones: Suddenly, in which Sinatra plays a presidential assassin.