• About Tara Hanks
  • Jeanne Eagels: A Life Revealed
    • Reviews
    • Synopsis
    • Updates
    • Where to Buy
  • The Mmm Girl
    • The Mmm Girl – Extract
    • The Mmm Girl – Reviews
  • Wicked Baby
    • Wicked Baby – Reviews
  • Media

Tara Hanks

~ Author of 'The Mmm Girl' and 'Wicked Baby'

Tara Hanks

Tag Archives: Joseph L. Mankiewicz

Films Marilyn Wanted: ‘Guys and Dolls’

21 Wednesday Dec 2011

Posted by marina72 in Film, Marilyn Monroe

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

Damon Runyon, Frank Sinatra, Guys and Dolls, Immortal Marilyn, Joseph L. Mankiewicz, Marilyn Monroe, Marlon Brando

IMG_18102019_163147_(480_x_640_pixel)

This article is also published at Immortal Marilyn

Films Marilyn Wanted: Guys and Dolls

Born in Manhattan, Kansas in 1880 to a family of newspapermen, Damon Runyon found fame as a baseball columnist, and later for his humorous short stories chronicling the vibrant street life of New York. His eccentric characters – gamblers, hustlers and crooks – and unique style, mixing formal speech with slang – inspired a new literary idiom, the ‘Runyonesque’.

In 1950, four years after Runyon’s death, Guys and Dolls opened on Broadway. Based on two of Runyon’s short stories – ‘The Idyll of Miss Sarah Brown’ and ‘Blood Pressure’ – the play was scripted by Abe Burrows and Jo Swerling, with music by Frank Loesser. A box office hit, Guys and Dolls was selected as the winner of 1951’s Pulitzer Prize for Drama. However, due to Abe Burrows’ troubles with the House Un-American Activities Committee, the award was withdrawn.

Despite the controversy, producer Samuel Goldwyn acquired the film rights to Guys and Dolls.  The screenplay was written by Joseph L. Mankiewicz, who would also direct. Uncredited assistance came from another Hollywood scribe, Ben Hecht. Gene Kelly was an early front-runner for the lead role as charming gambler Sky Masterson, but MGM would not release him. Goldwyn sought out the screen’s hottest young actor, Marlon Brando, instead. Jean Simmons was cast as Brando’s unlikely love interest, prudish missionary Sarah Brown.

After securing America’s favourite crooner, Frank Sinatra, as hustler Nathan Detroit, Goldwyn set his sights on the world’s reigning sex symbol, Marilyn Monroe, for the part of Sinatra’s showgirl fiancée, Miss Adelaide. With so much talent involved, Guys and Dolls could hardly fail – or could it?  Continue reading →

Subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 330 other subscribers

Pages

  • About Tara Hanks
  • Jeanne Eagels: A Life Revealed
  • Media
  • The Mmm Girl
  • Wicked Baby

Creative Commons License
http://tarahanks.com by Tara Hanks/marina72 is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial-No Derivative Works 2.0 UK: England & Wales License

Categories

Archives

Twitter

Tweets by Marina72

Find Me

  • The Marilyn Archive
  • The Marilyn Report

My Favourites

  • Aaron Darc
  • Chris Wade
  • Christine Keeler Official
  • Culled Culture
  • Culture Matters
  • Cursum Perficio
  • Cy Forrest
  • Everlasting Star
  • Fionn Wilson
  • Jude Starling
  • Laura Wilkinson
  • Moon In The Gutter
  • Nostalgia Kinky
  • Paradise Hunter
  • Refugee Radio

Blog at WordPress.com.

  • Follow Following
    • Tara Hanks
    • Join 330 other followers
    • Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
    • Tara Hanks
    • Customize
    • Follow Following
    • Sign up
    • Log in
    • Report this content
    • View site in Reader
    • Manage subscriptions
    • Collapse this bar
 

Loading Comments...
 

You must be logged in to post a comment.