Stars: Marlon Brando, Jean Simmons, Frank Sinatra, Vivian Blaine, Stubby Kaye, Robert Keith, George E. Stone, Sheldon Leonard, B. S. Pully

Director: Joseph L. Mankiewicz

Summary: Fast-moving musical trip through a fantasy city of gangsters, broads and street life. Good performances matched by many classic songs.

Based on the Broadway show from the Damon Runyon short story and filled to the brim with Frank Loesser tunes such as "Luck Be a Lady" and "Sit Down, You're Rocking the Boat," this outrageously comic film featuring Marlon Brando's bold musical debut is a colorful tale about gamblers, a feisty Salvation Army lass, and a dance-hall girl with a pining heart. Veteran gambler Sky Masterson (Brando) takes a bet from Nathan Detroit (Frank Sinatra) that he can win the affection of a "soldier" (Jean Simmons) in the Salvation Army, setting himself up to lose both his money and his heart. Romance is the last thing the gambler and the missionary expect, and they fight against their attraction for all they're worth in glowing singing and dancing numbers. Love proves to be contagious as spicy dancer Miss Adelaide, in a role re-created for the screen from Broadway by showstopper Vivian Blaine, is determined to get her fiance, Nathan, to the altar one way or another. Stubby Kaye and B.S. Pully also reprise their stage roles in this glorious Cinemascope film that earned four Academy Award nominations. GUYS AND DOLLS consistently ranks among the most popular film musicals of all time.

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This CinemaScope treatment of Frank Loesser's hit Broadway musical Guys and Dollsis a deeply rewarding visual and musical experience. Frank Sinatra turns in one of his best screen performances running a close second to Marlon Brando and Jean Simmons, looking adorable and singing sweetly. In essence this is a piece of photographed theatre mounted on a handsome scale. The striking set designs and a brilliantly executed soundtrack are courtesy of two Broadway craftsmen Oliver Smith and conductor Jay Blackton. Photographer Harry Stradling brings a meticulous eye for detail when his camera stationed on the auditorium side of the frame, peers into Miss Adelaide's bathroom cupboard as she views the lines of medicine bottles in her celebrated "lament". Sinatra, in his vocal prime, sings a new number to Adelaide (Vivian Blaine)--arranged by Nelson Riddle--and Brando and Simmons strike chords in all their scenes from their opening duet "I'll Know" through to their evening out at a Havana bistro where she gets pie-eyed on a Bacardi milk-shake, tipsily wondering "If I were a Bell". Stubby Kaye also from the Broadway cast recreates the show-stopping "Sit Down You're Rockin' the Boat". Michael Kidd's choreography for "Luck Be a Lady" is razor-sharp and superbly captured in the CinemaScope format, though the formalised staging of the opening ought to have been rethought for this medium. The biggest pity is that Loesser amended some of his lyrics and replaced several tunes from his original score with inferior material.

On the DVD:The DVD trailer hosted by Ed Sullivan makes much of the $1,000,000 cheque producer Samuel Goldwyn paid for the rights and the previews of the picture he obtained for his weekly television show. There's no denying that the remastered stereophonic soundtrack captures the Broadway sound to thrilling effect without it being overglamorised. The picture looks splendid too--never settle for the compromise version we've endured all these years on television! --Adrian Edwards

Aspect Ratio:	2.35 Wide Screen
Main Language:	English
Region:	Region 2
Special Features:	Interactive Menus, Chapter Selection
Subtitles:	Dutch, English, French, German, Italian, Spanish
Year:	1955
Release Date:	May 23, 2005
Runtime:	143 minutes
Certification:
Catalogue Number:	19902 D V D
Keywords:	Music, Guys, Films, Dolls, Wide, Screen, Shows, Performing, Musicals, Arts
Genre:	Music/Performing Arts