Film

Guys and Dolls (1955)

Director: Joseph L Mankiewicz

Movie review

From Time Out Film Guide

A musical fairly glittering with intelligence and invention. Too much talk, its critics said (not for the first time with Mankiewicz). But quite apart from the fact that much of this talk is delectable Runyonese, some defence is necessary against the frenzied brilliance of Michael Kidd's choreography, which threatens to deluge the screen in energy and eccentricity right from the pyrotechnic opening number that establishes the teeming underworld of Times Square. Relaxed and caressing, the dialogue sequences serve as a kind of foreplay, enhancing not merely the exquisite eruptions of pleasure aroused by the musical numbers, but the genuine lyricism of the romance between gambler Sky Masterson and his Salvation Army doll. Inspired casting here, with Brando and Simmons - a Method counterbalance to the more traditional showbiz coupling of Sinatra and Blaine - lending an emotional depth rare in musicals.

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