Excellent, a Must See

The film was still a fun one that will make you laugh and have you leaving the theater feeling like you just stole something valuable and got away with it.

Clever and entertaining enough to recommend even to members of the 1%

Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.

This musical improves over the years. Despite its innocent plot it contains the whole essence of the 50's, its sequences become today pure magic they make the viewer keeping the smile throughout the play; the scene of the dice game inside the sewer is more than great, especially when one knows that the die has no marks. Another surprise comes by watching Marlon Brando singing more musical numbers than Frank Sinatra. This musical itself Is a good heritage from the past to the new generations, a real luxury gift.

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.

This is more than just another one of MGM's musicals of the 50's.(It was released in 1955.) It is, after all, one wonderful story about an obsessed gambler (Frank Sinatra as Nathan Detroit)and another not-as-obsessed gambler (Marlon Brando as Sky Masterson) who want to make a bet on just about anything ever thought of. And so, in New York Nathan Detroit makes a bet with Masterson that he can not take the Salvation Army Sergeant Sarah Brown (played so capably by Jean Simmons)to dinner in Havana. Much to the surprise of both of them, Sky Masterson and Sarah Brown end up falling in love with each other after the dinner date in Cuba. At the same time, Masterson promises the Salvation Army General Cartwright, played by the sometimes-serious-looking Kathryn Givney, that he can keep the Salvation Army mission from an imminent closing by providing several men to attend a midnight prayer meeting thirty-six hours from the present time. But the story does not end there, since something takes place that puts a strain on the relationship of Sky and Sister Sarah. Still, the story is, again, wonderful and heart-warming. Several other actors give support to the movie, such as Regis Toomey as the Salvation Army member Arvaid Abernathy, Vivian Blaine as Sinatra's girlfriend Adelai, B.S. Pully as Big Louie from Chicago, Sheldon Leonard as Harry the Horse, and Stubby Kaye, just to mention a few. Naturally, the Goldwyn Girls add glitter to the movie. Of course too, the musical numbers are entertaining, such as "Guys and Dolls", "I'll Know when My Love comes Along", and the unforgettable song "Luck, Be a Lady tonight". Beautiful color, pretty songs, and an endearing story. A very entertaining movie in many ways.

While I'm not a gambler in the sense of rolling dice or pulling slot machine levers, I do gamble in life, as we all do, and in moving to New York, it is agreeably one of the biggest gambles you can take in life. To see the New York of "Guys and Dolls" is to see one that probably only existed in the mind of its sources' author, Damon Runeyon, but it is one that makes the shady gamblers of New York (and their molls) a delightfully cartoonish fable. "A Musical Fable", this was called, and that it remains, one perfect in story, songs and dances, and to do "Guys and Dolls" successfully is a difficult task. A recent Broadway revival (2009) failed as it was literally flat; The 1990's revival practically jumped off the stage with the greatest production a Broadway revival can, a dream cast that is equal to that of its earlier movie version.Take two talented actors who really can't sing (Jean Simmons and Marlon Brando), pair them with two who can (Frank Sinatra and Vivian Blaine), and you have a criss-cross of metaphors to discuss almost 60 years after the release of this movie. Metaphorically, a "mission doll" probably can't sing, so Jean Simmon's somewhat raspy voice is a perfect choice for Sister Sarah, and Brando's practically whispered singing is actually very charming for the role of Sky. The more colorful Nathan and Adelaide are characters who do sing, so their performers need to have a streetwise but pleasant sound to them. Vivian Blaine proved in Fox musicals of the 1940's that she wasn't the nasally voiced singer of "Take Back Your Mink", and she gently pokes fun at nightclub dames of the 1940's and 50's with a "Dumb Dora" spoof that really isn't as dumb as she looks to be. Sinatra, back on top after an Oscar win, shares the spotlight, and his comic timing here is perfect, contrasting nicely with Brando's suave lover who has a force-to-be-reckoned with reputation.A dance lover's delight, this has several hot production numbers, starting with a jazzy ballet right in Times Square which shows off every kind of character who had been there long before Ruby Keeler sang of sexy ladies from the 80's who are indiscreet. Going from Manhattan to Havana, Cuba erupts into another hot dance sequence that seems straight out of a modern music video. Stubby Kaye steals every moment he's on as Nicely Nicely, repeating his Broadway role, and shooting the roof off of the mission house with "Sit Down, You're Rockin' the Boat". In fact, it is this song that gets a Tony number every time the show is revived. (For a nice contrast to Kaye's Nicely Nicely, see Eugene Palette's take on the character in "The Big Street" opposite Lucille Ball and Henry Fonda.) Hard-as-nails Adele Jergens gets some wry commentary as Blaine's chorus girl pal, and Robert Keith takes on the law as the Lieutenant who declares to one of the gambler, "Don't ever help my mother across the street" when he claims to be a boy scout master.No review of "Guys and Dolls" could be complete without mentioning the brilliant score (Broadway's best, perhaps?) by Frank Loesser, combining sardonic comments on New York life, romantic idealism and even how the common cold can take over when love steps out. I quibble a little about the deletion of "A Bushel and a Peck" for the inclusion of the new "Pet Me, Papa" (as far as I'm concerned, there was room for both of them), but the addition of "A Woman in Love" over "I've Never Been in Love Before" was certainly acceptable.As for the art direction, no other musical (except perhaps "Li'l Abner" or the made for film "Red Garters") utilized the cartoonish color so vividly. There is not one disappointing moment in the film, so many high points (Simmons' obvious recovery from getting sick from too many Bacardi's before breaking into "If I Were a Bell") that when you ask whoever you watch this with for the first time, "Ask Me How Do I Feel", the only answer can be "Wonderful!".