Guys and Dolls (film)
Guys and Dolls is a 1955 American musical film starring Marlon Brando, Jean Simmons, Frank Sinatra, and Vivian Blaine.Gambler Nathan Detroit seeks to organize an unlicensed craps game, but the police, led by Lieutenant Brannigan, are "putting on the heat."Adding to his problems, Nathan's fiancée, Miss Adelaide, a nightclub singer, wants to get married after being engaged for fourteen years.With General Matilda Cartwright threatening to close the Mission's Broadway branch due to low attendance, Sarah agrees to the date.Meanwhile, confident that he will win the bet, Nathan gathers all the gamblers, including a visitor that Harry the Horse has invited: Big Jule, a mobster.Police sirens are heard, and the gamblers, led by Nathan Detroit, flee out through the back room of the empty Mission where they were holding a crap game.The police arrive too late to make any arrests, but Lieutenant Brannigan finds Sarah and the other Save a Soul members being absent unlikely to be a coincidence and suspects Sky.Sarah would rather forget the whole thing, but Uncle Arvide Abernathy warns Sky that "If you don't make that marker good, I'm going to buzz it all over town you're a welcher."Sky overhears this, and the phrasing inspires him to make a bet: He will roll the dice, and if he loses, he will give all the other gamblers $1,000 each; if he wins, they are all to attend a prayer meeting at the Mission.Goldwyn was surprised by Simmons's sweet voice and strong acting and ultimately believed the love story worked better in the film than on stage."[11] Mankiewicz said "if there could be one person in the world more miscast as Nathan Detroit than Frank Sinatra that would be Laurence Olivier and I am one of his greatest fans; the role had been written for Sam Levene who was divine in it.[16] Numbers from the original musical include "Fugue for Tinhorns", "Luck Be a Lady", "Adelaide's Lament", "If I Were a Bell", and "Sit Down, You're Rockin' the Boat".Rotten Tomatoes reports that 91% out of 33 critics have given the film a positive review, with a rating average of 7.7/10 and the consensus: "An escapist and inventive cinemascope delight, Guys and Dolls glistens thanks to the charm of its ensemble.Sondheim (then aged 25) reviewed the film version of Guys and Dolls, and observed: "Sinatra ambles through his role as Nathan Detroit as though he were about to laugh at the jokes in the script.Sinatra's lackadaisical performance, his careless and left handed attempt at characterization not only harm the picture immeasurably but indicate an alarming lack of professionality.