I totally fell in love with this charming film.
I had an inkling that I wanted to watch a Monroe film, any Monroe film after I bought Russell's Valentine's presents, but I held off watching anything I bought him because I stupidly wanted it to be sacred, or something as equally pathetic.
However, after waiting a while I am so glad I watched this. The characterisation in this film is so spot on, it has made me doubt anything I have watched since. Films just aren't written with such flawless quality nowadays - I was totally taken in by Baccal's business-like approach to marriage, Grable's 'blonde ambition' to bag a man, and Monroe's reliance on beauty which eventually forces her to find love in a totally juxtaposed way.In a way, I think I was naive in my own thinking about women in the film industry in Monroe's period; I thought it was all about beauty, selling a sexualised (but not too sexualised) idea to the movie-going public. This is partly due to her memory presented by the media in her death - one of a gorgeous, but ditzy startlet too invovled in her own success to notice her own downfall. In actual fact, Hollywood was indeed creating strong roles for actresses, roles that would shape how movies were written in the future and roles that would change how women were perceived in general. In a way, strong roles for women were more readily available then than they are now; you would be hard pressed to start your career in anything other than a screamo (first to die), a porno, or reality TV in today's celebrity climate.
While this film does present a lot of stereotpyed ideals about marriage and finding love (Grable's scenario especially), the strong and brilliantly acted leads more than balance this out. In fact, the 3 lead females completely outshine any performances from men in the picture. Perhaps this was a conscious move by the directors, as the film is after all a showcase for the biggest female stars at the time.
This was the cultural equivalent to Sex and the City, however, Baccal, Grable and Monroe bait and catch their men with far more class, style and polite flirtation (or in Baccal's case, complete defiance in acceptance of love) that there really is no comparison. I would much rather have women like this represented on screen nowadays than the shallow, over-sexed consumer-led crones from New York we are forced to embrace in today's cinema.
