For all the hype it got I was expecting a lot more!

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

it is finally so absorbing because it plays like a lyrical road odyssey that’s also a detective story.

Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

Guys and Dolls is my favorite musical, and since my parents owned a theater company in San Francisco, and I've written three musicals myself, that is quite a compliment. I grew up on musicals, and have probably seen or listened to every one available. I've never seen Guys and Dolls onstage and I probably never will. The movie is the one and only version of Frank Loesser's musical, as far as I'm concerned.There are exceptions, of course, but in general, I prefer the songs in a musical to help advance the story. In Guys and Dolls, all of the songs advance the plot. A couple of songs were cut out from the Broadway production, but for those who are listening for them, they can be heard playing in the background of applicable scenes. Even when the characters aren't singing, the music is advancing the plot! The plot is very simple, a classic among countless love stories through the decades. Two men make a bet that one can't get a particular girl to go out with him. You've seen that story a hundred times, but with singing and dancing, set in the 1940s, and played out in the style of old-fashioned gangsters, it's incomparable.Sometimes, in the transfer of a stage-to-screen musical, the timing of the lines feels slow, as if the actors are waiting for the audience to laugh. Director Joseph Mankiewicz created a nearly perfect film. The script, co-written by Mankiewicz, is absolutely hilarious, and is delivered with perfect timing by the actors. Damon Runyon famously wrote a collection of gangster stories, which the Broadway show was based on, so all the characters talk in a very stylized manner. But if you're used to it, or at least expecting it, you'll crack up after every line. It's so adorable.Guys and Dolls was the first Marlon Brando movie I ever saw, and it was years until I saw him in anything else, so I didn't quite understand how shocking it was for him to sing and dance in a musical. This is still my favorite of his performances; he may not have initially become famous for his musical talents, but he's absolutely charming and delightful in his ardent pursuit of the reserved Sister Sarah, played by Jean Simmons. They are so perfect together. The chemistry cracks, sizzles, and scorches, making them one of my all-time favorite screen couples.Frank Sinatra plays the second lead, but since he was given a couple of extra songs, he pretty much shares equal screen time with Marlon Brando. In the film, he's the one who bets Marlon Brando to woo Jean Simmons, and while he makes such a reckless bet, the rest of his character is hen-pecked, stressed out, tired, but still charming and adorable.If you like the famous songs that came out of Guys and Dolls, like "Luck be a Lady", "Guys and Dolls", and "Sit Down You're Rockin' the Boat", or if you like stylized period pieces where everyone speaks without contractions, or if you like Brando or Frankie, or if you like the scripts in musicals to be as entertaining as the songs, or if you want to laugh, or swoon, or sing along, or if you're looking for a new favorite musical, buy a copy of Guys and Dolls. I've seen it countless times. Once, when I was particularly blue, I watched it twice in the same week and still didn't get tired of it. It's one of the true masterpieces to come out of the 1950s.

Sometimes it's the movie and sometimes it's just me. I'm not a fan of musicals but will tune into the ones with notoriety and a name cast to see what I might be missing. This one has one of my favorite actors, Marlon Brando, but he couldn't do the trick for me. Through no fault of his own either; gee, I never saw him sing before and he didn't sound too bad, so at least that was a surprise plus in the picture.I guess it's just the format with all the song numbers that drags a musical out and this one had plenty of them. If the story behind the picture were reworked into a different genre I would probably feel better about it. You can tell this one came out in an era well before the women's movement came along, because a character like Sky Masterson (Brando) gets to come out with a line stating that 'all dolls are the same'. Done today, he'd be getting a lot of hate mail.But say, I was impressed by Jean Simmons' right cross when they all got into that brawl later on in the story. That was no girly punch by any means. Her character Sarah Brown seemed to make a better match with Masterson than Vivian Blaine's Adelaide did with Nathan Detroit (Frank Sinatra). For some reason, Sinatra looked older to me than his actual age of forty at the time, and even though the marriage angle with Adelaide kept getting repeat assurances, I just never caught the chemistry between them.One other thing I noticed was the story's emphasis on getting twelve sinners for Sergeant Brown's mission, but by the time they had that prayer meeting, a good thirty or more gamblers showed up. I see a wager there after the fact, who would have believed that that many sinners would have come around?

I love this movie. I never realized all of the songs I recognized and sang in school were from this movie. A fantastic mix of singing, dancing and acting. Rich characters that you love from beginning to end. Of course there are better singers than Brando but Brando did hold his own with every tune, and he was the best one for the part with his usual magnificent acting and likability. Frank Sinatra is in top form and I always love watching the great and stunning actress Jean Simmons. You are in for a great time with this enriching musical. Fun for everyone. Will leave you falling in love with musicals all over again. A Must see!

Guys and Dolls is a famous musical and this version casts a great actor but unfortunately not one known for his singing and dancing abilities. The story is about two guys who make a bet. Nathan Detroit (himself engaged for many years to a showgirl) who is running a permanent craps game in New York bets top gambler Sky Masterson that he cannot take a doll of his choosing to the then party and gambling capital, Havana. That girl Nathan picks is Sister Sarah Brown of the Salvation Army mission.Of course in Havana both Sky and Sister Sarah with the aid of sweet milk fall for each other. In New York Nathan is getting pressured to elope with Adelaide.The film has a stage bound setting with some arch but playful dancing. It was probably regarded as avantgarde and hip at that time, although a few moves were copied many years later by Micheal Jackson in his Smooth Criminal video.Vivian Blaine, Johnny Silver and Stubby Kaye were in the original Broadway play and its shows in their performance in contrast with Frank Sinatra and Marlon Brando. Sinatra's acting is less convincing although his singing is fine. Brando's Sky Masterson is measured and masterful but of course the singing is average at best with just the dancing in Havana that stands out. Even Jean Simmons who looks beautiful was not that great at the singing and I doubt she was that much stretched with the acting in my opinion.As for the songs Guys and Dolls has a few signature and now famous songs, but there is also a lot of forgettable filler songs that seems to have always plagued musicals.Ironically its the casting of Brando that drew me to this version and it is his acting that kept me watching.