Guys and Dolls (2000, DVD)

What a great celebration of sound in this great old movie starring Frank Sinatra, Marlon Brando, Jean Simmons and good old Stubby Kaye. Based on the dealings of roaming and mostly unsuccessful gambler, Nathan Detroit (Frank Sinatra), he makes a deal with his nemesis Sky Masterson (Marlon Brando) to bed a certain young lady. This lady, prim and proper Salvation Army Sergeant Sarah Brown, played by Jean Simmons, is hardly one miss that Masterson will be able to fool with his sweet nothings. Throughout the movie are a slew of great songs, including Guys

According to a recent PBS American Masters documentary that covered the life and times of Schmuel Gelbfisz - aka - Samuel Goldfish - aka - Samuel Goldwyn, the film producer was as much a product of self-invention as any unlikely Hollywood success story. Legendary for his bulldog tenacity and nonsensical turns-of-phrase, his belief in making one picture at a time, and making it well put him in the upper-echelon among the pioneering moguls of the industry. Films such as the 1946 Best Picture winner The Best Years of our Lives and Ball of Fire had that celebrated Goldwyn Touch that made each a...

Damon Runyon's short story "The Idyll of Miss Sarah Brown" became the unlikely subject of the biggest new Broadway musical of 1950. It was directed by the legendary George S. Kaufman, and contained memorable songs composed by Frank Loesser. It was inevitable that the play would become an MGM film, although it cost Samuel Goldwyn dearly. He paid a million dollars plus a percentage of the gross for the rights. Joseph L. Mankiewicz, who had won Oscars in consecutive years for All About Eve (1950) and A Letter to Three Wives (1949), was named as the director. With its colorful sets and costumes,..

GUYS AND DOLLS is the quintessential feel-good movie about gangsters. The premise is that Nathan Detroit (Frank Sinatra) is operating a losing proposition. Hassled by a local precinct cop (Robert Keith), unable to commit to a wedding date with his fiancee Adelaide (Vivian Blaine, the only original Broadway cast member in the movie) and very nearly broke, Detroit finds himself making a bet with Sky Masterson (a much thinner Marlon Brando). Specifically, Detroit bets that Sky can't take out a member of the local Salvation Army knockoff - a beauty named Sarah (Jean Simmons) - for a date to...