Guys and Dolls (1955)

GUYS AND DOLLS should be a fantastic, show-stopping musical...but it isn't. I can't quite put my finger on it, but there's something about this one that leaves me a little cold. Sure, it looks the part, and the cast is fine, but it's the storyline that I find lacking. It's just a little defunct, a little set back, so that you never really get involved with the various characters and their relationships.

The problem I find with some musicals is that, between the song-and-dance numbers, they can be a little, well, dull. That's the case with GUYS AND DOLLS, particularly early on. This is an overlong film that feels notably drawn out, especially in the first half. Even worse, it lacks the razzmatazz that you come to expect from a Hollywood musical during the golden era.

There's little to dislike in the pairing of Marlon Brando and Frank Sinatra, but to be fair these two don't get much screen time. I found the character played by Jean Simmons - a prim-and-proper Salvation Army girl - drained energy from the proceedings. It doesn't help that the songs aren't all that memorable, either, with the exception of the climactic "luck be a lady" number, which is the sole moment when GUYS AND DOLLS feels like a "proper" musical. Sadly, the rest is just so-so.

Fmovies: Yes, its the one where the gamblers find a sort of redemption in their dolls after much singing and dancing and stuff. Maybe. This film seems to have lived alongside me for years - round exam time, through getting ditched, you name it. Sister Sarah and Sky and Nathan and Miss Adelaide and their chums were always there with those great Loesser melodies. Top of the tree is the Luck Be A Lady number which Brando puts across quite nicely, despite hardly being a singer. His great charm makes him a very good Sky. The scenes in Havana are hilarious and Vivian Blaine back at the club gives good value in her two big stage numbers. Looks like it belongs in a theatre, this film, but I bet you remember the tunes and huge chunks of the dialogue for a long time afterwards.

Something of a mixed bag, the screen version of "Guys and Dolls" is worth seeing for the cast and for a number of very good sequences. Its main drawbacks are that it is rather uneven, and that there are too many times when the pace slows down, making it somewhat overlong.

The cast is good, although the performers do not always get the chance to use their abilities as fully as they could have. Frank Sinatra is always good in any singing role, but his character here does not give him much to work with aside from the songs. Marlon Brando and Jean Simmons were interesting choices. There are times when they work well, and other times when the material really doesn't suit them all that well.

The story is entertaining, yet slight, and is certainly not meant to be taken as anything more than a pretext for the musical numbers. The songs are good in general, with "Luck Be a Lady Tonight" as the highlight. Yet not all of them quite reach that standard, for one reason or another.

Overall, the movie is not bad, just not as much as you might hope for given who and what went into it. It's possible that this is simply a show that works better on stage, or it's possible that the movie could have been even better with a few improvements here and there.

Guys and Dolls fmovies. As the title song of Guys and Dolls philosophizes what we guys will not do to our dolls to win a bet or get a dice game going. That's the dilemma facing promoter of said dice game Nathan Detroit who can't come up with the $1000.00 for the Biltmore Hotel garage for the what is generally known as the oldest established permanent floating crap game in New York.

What to do, bet a reckless gambler Sky Masterson. Sucker him into betting he can't sweep a doll off her feet for a romantic idyll in pre-Castro Havana. The doll you pick for Sky is Sister Sarah Brown of the Salvation Army. Of course Nathan's life is also complicated by his 14 year long engagement to Adelaide of the Hot Box Revue.

Considering the resentments that festered between Marlon Brando and Frank Sinatra who played Sky and Nathan, I can't believe this film got made at all. Especially when you consider both these guys never hesitated in walking off film sets if their anger was aroused. In Sinatra's case I can understand since Brando's playing the part he should have done. Proof of that can be found on Guys and Dolls cast album that Sinatra did for his Reprise record label in the early sixties where he shows what he could do with the Masterson songs.

Still Brando is not great, but not bad as a singer and Frank Loesser did write the Adelaide song for Sinatra for the film. Unfortunately he also wrote A Woman In Love for the score which Brando sings and which became a big hit. Not for Marlon Brando, but for another Frankie named Laine.

Jean Simmons is our Salvation Army Sergeant and she shows once again why was the most under appreciated film star of the fifties. That woman was in so many of the best films of that decade and never got any real recognition for her talent. I like her the best from this movie.

Vivian Blaine, Johnny Silver, B.S. Pully, and Stubby Kaye all came over from the original Broadway cast. They all contribute their unique talents to parts that became career roles for them.

With some smarter casting it's better than even money that Guys and Dolls would be a great and not a good film.

In New York, the smalltime gambler Nathan Detroit (Frank Sinatra) has been eloping from getting married with his girlfriend Adelaide (Vivian Blaine) for fourteen years. Nathan needs one thousand dollars in advance to rent a place for the crap game but neither he nor his friends Nicely- Nicely Johnson (Stubby Kaye) and Benny Southstreet (Johnny Silver) can afford. Nathan decides to bet against the gambler Sky Masterson (Marlon Brando), challenging him to have a dinner in Havana with a woman of his choice. Sky accepts the bet and Nathan chooses the prude Sergeant Sarah Brown (Jean Simmons), who runs a mission for sinners. Sky visits Sarah and invites her to have dinner with him in Havana; in return, he would bring one dozen sinners to the mission. Sarah refuses the deal, but when General Cartwright (Kathryn Givney) comes to New York to shutdown the mission, Sarah feels that the only chance to keep the mission operating is accepting Sky's invitation. They travel to Havana and fall in love with each other; but when they return to the mission, Sarah discovers that Nathan used the place for his crap game. Further, she believes that Sky has plotted the scheme to use her. Now Sky has to convince the gamblers and gangsters that arrived in New York to the crap game that they should go to the mission to help Sarah.

"Guys and Dolls" is a delightful musical version of a Broadway successful play with Marlon Brando, Frank Sinatra and Jean Simmons and directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz. The romantic comedy is highly funny and entertaining with great musical numbers. Marlon Brando dances and sings and the number in Havana with Jean Simmons if one of the funniest moments of this movie. Despite the running time of 150 minutes, the viewer never feels tired or bored. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): "Eles e Elas" ("They (he) and They (she)")

In 1954 Marlon Brando was THE hot actor after his performances in Streetcar Named Desire and On The Waterfront. Frank Sinatra had yet to re-invent himself on the silver screen. But Sinatra's portrayal as the erstwhile Nathan Detroit, helped re-establish Sinatra with his fans.

It is a great screen version of a great play and the choices of leads and support players are terrific. Imagine a movie where Brando sings? This was his one and only singing role as he portrayed Sky Masterson. In addition the female leads, Jean Simmons and Vivian Blaine(replaying her stage role as Nathan's long suffering girlfriend Adelade), put in superlative efforts. Special mention goes to the great Stubby Kaye(as Nicely Nicely), and with all due respect to Eric Clapton, no one's version of Rockin' The Boat even comes close to Stubby's. Sheldon Leonard, who would go on to fame as TV producer of such shows as The Danny Thomas Show and The Dick Van Dyke Show does "Harry The Horse" wonders, B.S.Pulley is excellent as the harsh mannered and rough talking "Big Julie", and even Regis Toomey offers his excellence as "Brother Arvide".

It is one of the fun musicals to see, good comedy, and you get Sinatra and Brando. Soooooo "Luck Be A Lady Tonight" and brother..."it's your dice"