There's No Business Like Men Business.

There was a time when "chick flicks" got studios so excited, they even allowed them to become the first movies to feature new technology. How to Marry a Millionaire was the first movie shot in the widescreen CinemaScope despite not featuring a single "epic" moment. 

This would've been the 1990s equivalent of allowing a Julia Roberts movie to be the first to be shot and projected digitally or the early 2000s equivalent of having the first 3D movie be a Nicholas Sparks adaptation (yes, I know...) so let's take a minute to celebrate a time when women sorta kinda-ish ruled the system.

Now, for my favorite shot...

How to Marry a Millioanire is extremely chick flick-y and you can certainly trace something like Sex and the City all the way back to it. Which is why, my favorite shot features the three protagonists literally becoming maneaters as they gulp down huge sausages. 

The sly shamelessness with which  Jean Negulesco shows us how these women defy all social norms and have come to own their sexuality is the more subversive because he sets this scene against a city backdrop and what are skyscrapers if not tributes to the male erection? Yet instead of turning the ominous structures into signs of peril, the film playfully suggests that all these men are only awaiting for these women to capture them. To top this joyful celebration of the women gulp down their hot dogs with champagne.

Truly, what's not to love?

This post is part of Nathaniel's Hit Me with Your Best Shot series.

XXX.

Random Things I'm ♥-ing

The Six Year Itch.

By now everyone has probably seen the first look of Michelle Williams as Marilyn Monroe for My Week With Marilyn.
It's obvious by now that Williams wants Oscar. If the movie is released next year she'll most surely be nominated in 2012, making it the sixth anniversary of her first nomination for Brokeback Mountain.
Unlike half the world I am not yet convinced by Ms. Williams talents and for the moment am quite skeptical about her performance in this film. She just lacks the Monroe spark! I see that picture for example and think more of an art installation about "the shallowness of Hollywood" than a "yowza".
And that's what Marilyn always makes me feel. Williams aced the look but she seems to be more appropriate for a Dolce & Gabbana ad than a movie.
Speaking of D&G was Scarlett Johansson to busy baking for Ryan Reynolds that she missed out on this movie? Now that would've gotten me gasping for air almost immediately.
You know what made me real curious though, Kenneth Branagh and Julia Ormond as Larry and Vivien! Catherine Zeta-Jones had been cast to play her originally and as much as I dislike Mrs. Douglas sometimes she would've been perfect for this, more about that story here.

I Like You the Way You Are...

...so what do I care how you got that way?

Kiss Me.

Can't Take My Eyes Off of You.

Everyone else in "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes" is watching Marilyn.