"Guys and Dolls" is a glitzy production, and another film fresh off of Broadway. The 1950 Broadway show was a hit and won the Tony award for best musical. The plot is based on a couple of short stories by Damon Runyon. The story revolves around Nathan Detroit's (Frank Sinatra) "oldest, established, permanent, floating crap game in New York." A city mission with its staff and a nightclub stage show round out the setting. But the Broadway musical was much better than this movie. In spite of its added name attraction with Marlon Brando in the role of Sky Masterson, this film just doesn't have the punch that the stage show had. Some negative aspects affect the film. The setting with the audience is a major one.
Some Broadway shows just aren't adapted well to the screen, and this is one. It's one thing for an audience to sit in a theater and watch actors performing live on stage - any show from any time or period. The audience is transposed to that time. But not nearly as much so in films which tend to keep the audience in the here and now and looking back. That's okay when the scenes are shot in real locations; but when they're not, they come across as very stagy. So, instead of being immersed in the story (which is the great allure and aim of cinema), the audience is watching a stage show that has been filmed. Then, one doesn't even have the satisfaction of seeing actors performing live.
Even with its burst of choreography in three scenes, the film doesn't have a very strong song and dance thread to hold it together as a musical. It's more like an East Side Kids movie in fancy sets with an occasional song or dance routine thrown in. The story has only one hit tune, "Luck Be a Lady," and two other comical tunes that some may remember. But it doesn't have the smashing music to make it a strong production.
Along with the staginess of the film are some aspects that further degrade it's quality and lasting appeal. The exaggerated characters with their hoodlum and gangster talk might have garnered some laughs in 1955, but probably none just a few years later. It's so overly done that it seems very hammy. It seemed so when I first saw this film on late night TV in the early 1960s. Just watching it again now, I had the same sense. Then there's the gambling venues of the film. Horse racing and betting were very popular through the mid-20th century. But by the late 20th century, racing was almost off the screen in the betting world. And craps, while popular through World War II, was almost dead as a gambling "game" - even by the time of this film. It may still have had a life in some quarters of the Big Apple and some of the other large cities that had a thriving underside But to most people watching this movie after the 1950s, craps would seem strange.
By 1960, playing dice was an antiquated pastime and gambling game. In my 1950s teen years, working in my dad's steakhouse in a typical Midwestern town, I never once heard of a dice game anywhere, or of a reference to craps. I only learned about it from a couple of war movies that showed GIs shooting craps, and then asking my dad about it. While the movies give the impression that all the GIs played dice, my dad said they were occasional pastimes for some of the GIs who liked to gamble. In my early 1960s Army service I never even heard of anyone shooting dice.
The last stagy aspect of the film is its very sets. The small bit of street scenes in the film clearly are shot on a stage. And what caps this aspect is the scene when Adelaide goes out of the side door of her nightclub. Facing the camera across the street is a row of cars as though on a wide street, with a massive painted city background of buildings, neon signs and night lights, It's so obvious that the cars are lined up in front of a backdrop.
Surprisingly, I think Marlon Brando did well with what he had to work with as Sky Masterson. Vivian Blaine was the best of the cast in her reprisal from the Broadway show as Adelaide. The film is fair and somewhat entertaining, but again, modern audiences who are not film buffs will mostly find this film weak on the musical score, very corny and exaggerated in the comedy, and overall very stagy.
Showman and long-time New York entertainment promoter and guru Ed Sullivan did a long plug for this film in the trailers. One can doubt Mr. Sullivan's sincerity when he says it's the greatest musical of all time. Especially as his eyes keep looking away from the camera to read his cue cards.
Here are some sample lines from this film.
Harry the Horse, "I have nothing to hide. I collected the reward on my father."
Miss Adelaide, "Now, Nathan, how could you think I was Lt. Brannigan? We don't eve use the same perfume."
Sarah Brown, "It's so unusual for a successful sinner to be unhappy about sin."
Sky Masterson, "Is it wrong to gamble, or only to lose?"
Arvide Abernathy, "Oh, we can keep you unhappy, son. Give us a chance."
Lt. Brannigan, "Can anybody be missing? Harry the Horse,. Liver Lips Louis, Angie the Ox, Society Max...."
Some Broadway shows just aren't adapted well to the screen, and this is one. It's one thing for an audience to sit in a theater and watch actors performing live on stage - any show from any time or period. The audience is transposed to that time. But not nearly as much so in films which tend to keep the audience in the here and now and looking back. That's okay when the scenes are shot in real locations; but when they're not, they come across as very stagy. So, instead of being immersed in the story (which is the great allure and aim of cinema), the audience is watching a stage show that has been filmed. Then, one doesn't even have the satisfaction of seeing actors performing live.
Even with its burst of choreography in three scenes, the film doesn't have a very strong song and dance thread to hold it together as a musical. It's more like an East Side Kids movie in fancy sets with an occasional song or dance routine thrown in. The story has only one hit tune, "Luck Be a Lady," and two other comical tunes that some may remember. But it doesn't have the smashing music to make it a strong production.
Along with the staginess of the film are some aspects that further degrade it's quality and lasting appeal. The exaggerated characters with their hoodlum and gangster talk might have garnered some laughs in 1955, but probably none just a few years later. It's so overly done that it seems very hammy. It seemed so when I first saw this film on late night TV in the early 1960s. Just watching it again now, I had the same sense. Then there's the gambling venues of the film. Horse racing and betting were very popular through the mid-20th century. But by the late 20th century, racing was almost off the screen in the betting world. And craps, while popular through World War II, was almost dead as a gambling "game" - even by the time of this film. It may still have had a life in some quarters of the Big Apple and some of the other large cities that had a thriving underside But to most people watching this movie after the 1950s, craps would seem strange.
By 1960, playing dice was an antiquated pastime and gambling game. In my 1950s teen years, working in my dad's steakhouse in a typical Midwestern town, I never once heard of a dice game anywhere, or of a reference to craps. I only learned about it from a couple of war movies that showed GIs shooting craps, and then asking my dad about it. While the movies give the impression that all the GIs played dice, my dad said they were occasional pastimes for some of the GIs who liked to gamble. In my early 1960s Army service I never even heard of anyone shooting dice.
The last stagy aspect of the film is its very sets. The small bit of street scenes in the film clearly are shot on a stage. And what caps this aspect is the scene when Adelaide goes out of the side door of her nightclub. Facing the camera across the street is a row of cars as though on a wide street, with a massive painted city background of buildings, neon signs and night lights, It's so obvious that the cars are lined up in front of a backdrop.
Surprisingly, I think Marlon Brando did well with what he had to work with as Sky Masterson. Vivian Blaine was the best of the cast in her reprisal from the Broadway show as Adelaide. The film is fair and somewhat entertaining, but again, modern audiences who are not film buffs will mostly find this film weak on the musical score, very corny and exaggerated in the comedy, and overall very stagy.
Showman and long-time New York entertainment promoter and guru Ed Sullivan did a long plug for this film in the trailers. One can doubt Mr. Sullivan's sincerity when he says it's the greatest musical of all time. Especially as his eyes keep looking away from the camera to read his cue cards.
Here are some sample lines from this film.
Harry the Horse, "I have nothing to hide. I collected the reward on my father."
Miss Adelaide, "Now, Nathan, how could you think I was Lt. Brannigan? We don't eve use the same perfume."
Sarah Brown, "It's so unusual for a successful sinner to be unhappy about sin."
Sky Masterson, "Is it wrong to gamble, or only to lose?"
Arvide Abernathy, "Oh, we can keep you unhappy, son. Give us a chance."
Lt. Brannigan, "Can anybody be missing? Harry the Horse,. Liver Lips Louis, Angie the Ox, Society Max...."