Guys And Dolls (1955)

In order to raise $1,000 dollars to secure a spot for a high stakes crap game, a gambler (Frank Sinatra) bets another gambler (Marlon Brando) $1,000 that he can't get a mission worker (Jean Simmons) to fly off with him to Havana for the night. Based on the hit 1950 Broadway musical (by way of two Damon Runyon short stories) and written and directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz (ALL ABOUT EVE). Reaction to this film version is mixed. Some say it doesn't capture the quirkiness and charm of the Broadway show while others just adore it. I'm terribly fond of it myself. Mankiewicz wisely keeps it stage bound and shot entirely on a sound stage with a stylized look to it. The Runyonesque world of Broadway gamblers and their dolls wouldn't set right in a more "realistic" mode. The Frank Loesser songs are terrific with every song hitting it out of the park and Michael Kidd's ebullient choreography only adding to the sparkle. For non singers, Brando and Simmons do very well, Sinatra is a marvelous Nathan Detroit and perhaps best of all, Vivian Blaine gets to recreate her original Broadway role. With Stubby Kaye, Robert Keith, Regis Toomey, Veda Ann Borg and Kathryn Givney.