Eddie Pensier writes:

I’ve started a few arguments in my day (and given people cause to question my sanity) by stating that Sky Masterson in Guys and Dolls (1955) is my favorite Marlon Brando screen performance. It makes more sense when taken in total against the backdrop of other roles he’s more famous for. Between the tormented, the agonized, the mad, the brutish, what would be the least Brando-ish thing you could possibly imagine him doing?

The romantic lead in a musical comedy, perhaps?

And he’s fantastic as smooth, suave Sky, with a voice that isn’t “good” exactly, but his technique and delivery are assured. Same goes for Jean Simmons as the prim and uptight Sarah Brown…who lets loose with surprisingly sweet sounds. Sarah may mock Sky’s concept of “chemistry” when he sings that that’s how he’ll know his love, but Simmons and Brando have a boatload of it in this scene.

The moment at the end when Brando grabs Simmons and plants one on her lips…she struggles and eventually melts for him…today’s morality police would certainly call it rape, or at least not within the spirit of “affirmative consent”. I call it sexy as all hell.

Trivia: supposedly Marilyn Monroe desperately wanted to play Miss Adelaide on screen. Monroe, Sinatra, Brando, Simmons…how’s that for a marquee?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5A1HWEub0hg

BE watched the film a couple weeks ago, so let’s see what he has to say.

Blowhard, Esq. writes:

While I agree with Eddie that Brando and Simmons are appealing, I was underwhelmed overall. At two and a half hours, a musical should have a hell of lot more story than a dude trying to stage a crap game and another guy trying to woo a lady. The Sinatra scenes lack any dramatic or narrative drive — she wants to get married, he does not, and there is nothing standing in their way. At least with the Brando story you have the perennial jousting and parrying of opposites who are attracted to one another.

Furthermore, other than “Luck Be A Lady,” I did not think any of the songs were that memorable. On the other hand, a film in which a young Brando is dressed in a suit and seducing Jean Simmons through song and dance is not a thing to sneeze at. I also enjoyed the stylized Times Square and especially the opening number that deftly juggles a bunch of petty criminals plying their trade. I am glad I watched it, and I would recommend it to any musical fans if only because it is a Broadway favorite, but as Pauline Kael noted, while the Broadway version may be legendary “the movie provides no clue as to why.”