Capital Celluloid 2026 — Day 159: Mon Jun 8

Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (Hawks, 1953): BFI Southbank, NFT1, 6.10pm

This film, part of the Marilyn Monroe season at BFI Southbank, also screens on June 25th. Details here.
Tonight's screening features and introduction by BFI Film Programmer Rógan Graham.

Chicago Reader review:
Howard Hawks's grand, brassy 1953 musical about two girls from Little Rock—Marilyn Monroe and Jane Russell—gone gold digging in Paris. The male sex is represented by a bespectacled nerd (Tommy Noonan), a dirty old man (Charles Coburn), and a 12-year-old voyeur (the unforgettable George "Foghorn" Winslow), all of whom deserve what they get. The opening shot—Russell and Monroe in sequins standing against a screaming red drape—is enough to knock you out of your seat, and the audacity barely lets up from there, as Russell romances the entire U.S. Olympic team to the tune of "Ain't There Anyone Here for Love?" and Hawks keeps topping perversity with perversity. A landmark encounter in the battle of the sexes.
Dave Kehr

Here (and above) is the trailer.

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