Guys and Dolls

Guys and Dolls, a 1955 musical about sexual politics starring Marlon Brando and Frank Sinatra sounded like a bad time. The title song lists all the crazy things men spend their money on because “the bum is under the thumb of some little broad,” so I expected a story about men dealing with their gold digger girlfriends. But while one central relationship is stereotypical, the other couple learn to be honest, open, and trusting. It’s a surprisingly modern take on romance.

The movie opens with choreographed vignettes showing all the debauchery in downtown New York. Everyone’s hustling and gambling. A guy gets his watch pickpocketed, someone else pickpockets the pickpocketer, and then two women pickpocket him. The cops chase people around, and there’s tap dancing. It’s all so frantic.

We meet Sinatra’s Nathan Detroit, who runs an illegal craps game with his goons Benny Southstreet and Nicely-Nicely Johnson. I love the names of the characters and the slang used in this movie. You can’t call women “dolls,” “broads,” or “dames” anymore without spontaneously sprouting a fedora and neckbeard, so I’ll enjoy movies from this era instead. Nathan’s being pressured to put on a craps game for Big Jule, a high roller who just arrived in town, but he needs $1,000 to do it.

Nathan’s eating cheesecake when he sees Brando’s Sky Masterson and gets an idea. Sky bets on absolutely everything, including which raindrop will slide down a window the fastest and how high his fever will get when he’s sick. He’s just come back from Vegas, where “the dolls were agreeable, with nice teeth and no last names.” He tells Nathan not to settle down with Adelaide, but Nathan says, “I don’t want to unload her, I love her. . . . A doll is a necessity.” Sky thinks differently: “I am not putting the knock on dolls. It’s just that they are something to have around only when they come in hand, like cough drops.” Since women are so easy to come by, Nathan asks why Sky doesn’t have a date for his upcoming trip to Havana. He bets him $1,000 that Sky can’t get a date of Nathan’s choosing. After Sky agrees, Nathan points to Sarah, a devoted worker at a religious mission determined to stop gambling and drinking.

Determined not to lose the bet, Sky shows up at Sarah’s mission, asking, “Do you take sinners here?” She knows his reputation and is skeptical, but he’s persistent, leaning close while asking her questions. She opens the door for him to leave and he shuts it while her hand’s still on the handle, pulling her toward him. Flustered, she walks away while fiddling with a button on her jacket. He points to a Bible verse and says it’s wrong. She’s offended, but after checking it, admits he’s right. Seeing an opening, he proposes a deal: he’ll bring her one dozen sinners if she’ll have dinner with him. She agrees, and then he reveals that the restaurant is in Havana, Cuba.

They sing about what they want in a partner. She wants someone wholesome and nice, while he relies on chance and chemistry to find a woman to love. Then he kisses her. She resists at first but softens and kisses him back. When he puts on his hat to leave, she slaps him.

Meanwhile, Nathan visits his fiancée of fourteen years, Adelaide, at her burlesque show.  Miss Adelaide and her Debutantes are dressed as sexy, sparkly black cats and sing a song filled with sexual innuendo. In her dressing room, Adelaide says she’s developed a chronic sneeze because Nathan refuses to marry her. She also admits she told her mother they’ve been married for years and have five kids. Nathan claims they’ll get married soon, but when she learns about his planned illegal craps game, he gets down on his knees to apologize and she has a sneezing fit.

Later Nathan’s friends make fun of him for falling in love with his fiancée, singing the title song while mocking men they see who look emasculated by their wives. The gamblers gather to organize the upcoming craps game, wearing red carnations as a password. Adelaide shows up and ignores Nathan. Then cops bust the group and ask why they’re all wearing flowers, and one of the gamblers says they’re celebrating Nathan and Adelaide’s wedding. Adelaide is thrilled, and Nathan is horrified, but he sings her a song about how she’s made him respectable: “Gentlemen, deal me out.” Right after she leaves, though, he searches for Sky to collect his $1,000.

In Havana, Sarah tries to resist Sky’s flirting by reading boring facts from a guidebook. He translates for her at dinner, but when she asks for milk, he orders dulce de leche, not telling her it’s alcoholic. The drinks are served in coconuts, and Sarah loves her “milkshake” so much she quickly orders another and drinks Sky’s too. She loosens up, calls herself a prude, and asks him to teach her about life while nervously fiddling with the button on her jacket again. He smoothly reaches over and buttons it for her, then suggests they get some food.

Later, their table covered in coconuts, a band plays and people start dancing around them. Keeping with the movie’s theme of men infatuated with manipulative women, each dancing couple is a woman acting aloof while the man hunches over and chases after her. A sexy dancer pulls Sky away, so Sarah grabs another man to dance with her. This gets Sky’s attention, and they dance together. But then the sexy woman tries to steal Sky back, so Sarah starts a bar fight!  She punches the woman, who rips open Sarah’s jacket, and Sarah knocks her out. Everyone’s fighting now, throwing chairs, and Sarah punches men and women and chucks coconuts into the crowd.

After all the chaos, Sarah feels great and even rips the button off her jacket, joking that she looks like she’s been in a fight or something. Sky is charmed and admits that he’d made a bet that he could take her to Havana. She’s not offended, reminding him that he’s a gambler, “and darling, you are also a chump.”

Back in New York, they hold hands and walk to her mission at dawn, singing about falling in love. Their kissing is interrupted when her colleagues return after a long night out trying to help sinners. Suddenly the police arrive and gamblers, including Nathan, run out of the mission. Sarah is furious with Sky, accusing him of using her.

Nathan’s big craps game takes place down in the sewers. Sky shows up, says he lost the bet, and gives Nathan $1,000. Then he tries to convince the gamblers to go to Sarah’s mission. When they refuse, he proposes a new bet: if he wins, they all have to go to the mission, and if he loses, he’ll pay them each $1,000. He sings "Luck Be a Lady Tonight," rolls the dice, and wins.

All the gamblers show up at the mission, and Sky tells Sarah he kept his promise before leaving. When Sarah explains to her colleagues that he gambled to bring them sinners, her boss approves, saying they’re fighting fire with fire. The cops return, but Sarah refuses to snitch on the gamblers, earning their respect. Nathan then tells her that Sky lost the bet about taking her to Havana. Realizing he cared about her more than the bet, Sarah goes to find him.

The movie ends with a montage mirroring the opening, except instead of committing crimes, everyone prepares for a double wedding. The gamblers walk down the aisle in pairs, followed by the burlesque dancers. Adelaide and Sarah join Nathan and Sky at the altar. Everyone says “I do,” except Nathan, who hesitates, sneezes, and finally says it.

For a movie from the 1950s, Guys and Dolls has a surprisingly modern portrayal of romance. Sky is addicted to gambling and casual sex, claiming he relies on chance and chemistry to find a woman to love. Sarah believes her sole purpose is to help sinners, but when she’s feeling drunk and chatty, admits she’s worried she’s naive. Their relationship is based on open and honest communication. After Sky corrects her Bible verse, she admits he’s right. He manipulates her into going to Havana for a bet but later tells her the truth. She discovers there’s more to life than preaching morals, and he realizes chance has led him to a woman he can fall in love with.

Nathan and Adelaide, by contrast, don’t change. Nathan adores Adelaide but refuses to give up the gambling that upsets her. Adelaide desperately wants to marry him but lies to her mother rather than leaving him. When they finally do get married, his reluctant “I do” comes after a joke about how miserable he is. They’re cute together, but their relationship is a mess.

The behind-the-scenes drama is as entertaining as the movie. Brando and Sinatra were very different actors. Brando is smooth, cool, and naturalistic, while Sinatra is high energy, with twitchy, crisp, exaggerated gestures. Sinatra wanted the lead roles in Guys and Dolls and On the Waterfront, but Brando got both. Sinatra hated Brando, nicknaming him “Mumbles,” and allegedly threatening to sic his mob buddies on him.

During their scene together in which Sinatra eats cheesecake, Brando repeatedly flubbed his lines so they had to redo the scene again and again, forcing Sinatra to eat slice after slice until he finally got fed up and screamed at him. Brando’s the clear winner here: he’s the better actor, he earned one more Oscar than Sinatra, and he forced his rival to eat an absurd amount of cheesecake.

VERDICT: NOT GUILTY