Jane Russell

I am watching Marilyn Monroe movies for the summer.

I have a confession.

I think she might annoy me a bit.

I know. Isn’t that awful?

It’s just that her breathy voice and the weird things she does with her mouth are so distracting to me. I know. Sacrilege to any hardcore Marilyn fan.

Maybe all her little gestures are annoying to me because I am a heterosexual woman and none of that does a thing for me.

Regardless, I’ve heard so much about her over the years, I figured I should actually watch her movies and see if she was any good or not.

So far, I have watched two of her movies all the way through and have decided that, yes, she was a good actress, but she was also put in a lot of stereotypical roles because of her large chest and pouty lips. I am hoping not all of her movies were like that, but these first two on my list here.

Of course, I have only watched the screwball comedies she was in so they would focus on her beauty as part of the plot points.

This week I watched Gentlemen Prefer Blonds with Marily and Jane Russell.

The movie starts with Marilyn getting proposed to – well, she’s getting a ring at least – by a bit of a nerdy man. That’s a theme in her movies – she’s always attracted to nerdy men with glasses.

As I started to watch the movie, I remembered I have seen it before. It has been years since I have seen it, though, so I totally forgot it was a musical. I should have remembered since it is the movie where Marilyn performed Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend.

Anyhow, the movie continues with Marilyn and Jane, who are showgirls, deciding to go on a cruise to Europe. The women are also best friends even though they are very different. Marilyn (Lorelei in the movie) likes a man to be rich and buy her diamonds while Jane (Dorothy) likes a man to be fit and doesn’t care about wealth.

They both like to make men watch them, however.

There is a lot of skin shown in this movie, including a scene where Jane dances with members of the Olympic team who are also traveling on the ship to Europe. They are wearing only tiny, skin-colored shorts, the entire time. Little Miss asked, “Why are those men naked?” I realized at that moment that watching the movie with her in the room might have been a bad idea, even though it is way more tame than the movies out today.

There are several ridiculous moments as a private detective follows Lorelei on behalf of the father of her fiancé, who thinks Lorelei is simply a gold digger. The private detective and Jane fall for each other, which, of course, complicates things. There is also this whole thing about Lorelei trying to con an old, rich, married man out of a diamond tiara and later being taken to court to answer for the theft of it. Then there is that sexy dance scene in court by Jane, which was totally bizarre to me, but supposed to be funny. I’m such a prude – I just found it disturbing.

When I watch Marilyn movies and see how absolutely gorgeous she is, I am one, jealous, but two, aware of what it took to get her to that place of beauty because I once read an article about all the plastic surgery, dental implants and other physical changes she had to read that perfection.

As I watched the movie I also wondered if her movie voice was really her voice. Like is that how she talked when she asked for a fresh towel at a hotel or asked her assistant to get her a cup of tea? Or did she yell at people with a thick accent – like a Brooklyn or Boston accent? “hey! I’m walkin’ here! Whatreya’ doin’”

I mean, why did she talk like that? Was it considered sexy back then? I find it a little annoying today but that’s probably because I’ve heard so many parodies of her voice.

After a Google search, I learned from Vogue magazine that the breathy, whisper she spoke in was something she used to overcome a childhood stutter. She kept it for her acting and it became her signature voice. So, yes. It was her real voice and she used it in her everyday life. Not like Michael Jackson who totally faked that high voice, but I digress….

Now, When I saw Marilyn sing that famous song, I wanted to know if it was her voice so I Googled that too. The answer was yes and no. She did most of the singing, but an actress and singer Marni Nixon actually supplied part of the notes – the higher notes – which are the notes I thought weren’t hers.

Jane Russell matched Marilyn in this movie with her talent and humor. I do believe she was the better singer, but she and Marilyn were such a fun pair and worked well together.

The bottom line is that I liked the movie, but, as a self-declared prude, there is a lot I could have done without. For one, I didn’t need to see Marilyn and Jane in such skimpy clothes so much. I definitely didn’t need to see all the cleavage and I found myself rolling my eyes more than once at these women essentially using their bodies and sexuality to get what they wanted. Men were portrayed in this movie as too stupid to think when the women were around because, according to the movie, they were both too hot to handle. Men couldn’t be around them without melting into a sexually aroused mess.

I know that some will say that a movie like this was needed to show that women can be in control too and use their sexual prowess to get what they want – like men have been doing for years – but I don’t like it when either sex does that. That doesn’t mean that I didn’t have some fun watching the movie. It just wasn’t my favorite movie because the whole theme of “Marilyn and Jane are hot so men will fall over them” just was overplayed and overused in my opinion.

If you would like to watch the movie I am sure you can find it streaming, but I also found it on Youtube here: