SDMB Musical Lovers Yadda Yadda Yadda--Guys and Dolls (1955)

[Draelin]

Hello, and welcome to the Draelin Forgot To Watch The Movie On Time Show.

Of course, I've seen it many times, so I can fake my way through.

Guys and Dolls has always been one of my absolute all-time favorite movies. Probably the first non-animated musical I can recall seeing--before I knew Marlon Brando wasn't supposed to sing in anything.

One of the things I love about musicals from that era is that one didn't have to be perfect. Brando isn't the greatest singer in the world, but what he lacks in talent he makes up in enthusiasm. The Goldwyn Girls aren't exactly the every-move-the-same dancers we see in movies anymore. They had the chance to be individuals, and anybody with a little bit of natural talent and a whole lot of drive could be one of them.

I knew this movie by heart by the time I was eight, probably. And when I was older, I heard the original Broadway soundtrack, which has some different songs and some different lyrics. What never fails to amuse me now that I'm older and at least moderately jaded is that they changed a line in "Adelaide's Lament" (which I totally kick ass at when singing in the car, by the way) from "A female remaining single/Just in the legal sense" to "Constantly in suspense"--yet they took out an innocent song like "A Bushel and a Peck" and replaced it with the rather racy "Pet Me, Papa." I'll just never understand.

And in my teenage years, when I'd gotten used to the Godfather, this movie reminded me that Marlon Brando--and Sinatra, too--was once sexy as all hell.

I want to say more, but my boss is looking at me like she knows I'm not working. Let the discussion begin!