Cinemas Greatest Scenes: Marilyn Monroe’s ‘Diamonds Are A Girl’s Best Friend’.

For those interested in Jane Russell, I have dedicated an article in this series on her faux-Marilyn courtroom scene where she performs a shorter hilarious rendition of Diamonds Are A Girls Best Friend. Click the link HERE to read all about it. As for Marilyn’s eye-catching performance where she sings Jule Styne and Leo Robin’s broadway stage number we will focus on it here below. 

Directed by Howard Hawks in 1953, the famous scene in question arrives in the third act of the film. However it’s worth explaining briefly how we get there first. Lorelei Lee (Monroe) and Dorothy Shaw (Russell) are two American showgirls on their way to France. Lorelei plans on wed her rich fiancé Gus Esmond Jr. (Tommy Noonan) when they arrive there. In short, Gus gives Lorelei a letter of credit to cover her expenses while she awaits for him to join her. But upon arriving in France, Lorelei discovers her line of credit has been cancelled by Gus’s suspicious father Esmond Sr. who believes Lorelei is nothing but a gold digger. Lorelei and Dorothy are subsequently evicted from their hotel and forced to pay their way while in Paris as showgirls in a posh revue. Eventually when Gus catches up with Lorelei, she gives Gus the cold-shoulder and says, “It’s men like you who have made me the woman I am. And if you love me me at all, you’ll feel sorry for the terrible troubles I’ve been through instead of holding them against me. No, don’t say another word.”  

This frosty conversation comes just moments before Lorelei is called to perform her stage act. Gobsmacked by Lorelei’s fiery self-determination as she exits the dressing room, poor Gus turns to Dorothy who just witnessed their lover’s quarrel. “I wasn’t going to say anything,” he insists. Dorothy just smiles and commiserates with him before playing the devil’s advocate. “You know if you really want to get upset,” Dorothy stirs, “you should go out and see the number she is going to do next.”

As Gus races out of the dressing room, the scene transition to an elaborate stage curtain opening to reveal dancers performing dance lifts beneath a giant carousel-like chandelier, adorned with suspended female dancers. Meanwhile as Lorelei sits patiently waiting for her cue, we catch a glimpse of her dumbstruck fiancé Gus sitting in the crowd, who’s about to get a front row seat to Lorelei’s figure-hugging erotic and manipulative song and dance.

Marilyn’s unforgettable figure-hugging hot-pink strapless dress and matching gloves paired with glittering diamond stage jewellery is stuff of legend. It was designed by Marilyn’s close friend 20th Century Fox costume designer William “Billy” Travilla. Still today, the iconic dress is associated with old Hollywood glamour.

For the most part, Marilyn as Lorelei is a picture of sex and femininity throughout the musical number for Diamonds Are A Girls Best Friend. She teases and rejects her suitors with playful banter and aloofness as she wiggles and bumps around the stage encouraging women to prioritise their own interests. Even when her suitors try repeatedly to offer her belts of diamonds she refuses them all, except for the one that she throws out in the audience at her fiancé Gus. (It wouldn’t be wrong to say Gus to some degree serves as a foil on commentary related to the male gaze.) But Lorelei’s song and dance isn’t wholly directed at Gus. He is portrayed generally as a good natured pushover, one which fits perfectly within the film’s comedic setting. That said, it’s true Lorelei is conscious of Gus in the audience and she does play it up because she is utterly annoyed with him. 

Overall this incredible scene is meant as a tongue-in-cheek stage number about love and financial security. On the subject of Marilyn’s near perfect performance, not only in this famous choreographed scene, but the picture as a whole, we are left with no doubt that Monroe had truly become a bona fide star. Interestingly though, you would never have picked up on it, but Marilyn during the production of this film suffered from severe bouts of stage fright, which makes her performance even that more remarkable. Importantly, Marilyn’s co-star Jane Russell was on hand a lot of the time during filming to help lift Marilyn’s confidence and coax her out of her dressing room.