Touches You

Instant Favorite.

Excellent adaptation.

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

On the edges of New York's criminal underworld, Nathan Detroit finds it increasingly difficult to find venues for the illegal games of craps he arranges. A complicated bet sees a venue forthcoming while gambler Sky Masterson takes Salvation Army sergeant Sarah on a date to Cuba. Meanwhile, Nathan is trying to avoid marriage to his fiancée of 14 years, Miss Adelaide.Based on a hit Broadway musical which was, in turn, based on stories by Damon Runyan, Guys and Dolls is bright and colourful, with highly stylised city backdrops, some great songs and engaging dancing, a distinct and individual identity thanks to Runyan's unique dialogue, and great performances from the principles.It's one of the classic musicals from the 50s, and deservedly so.

Sometimes reviewers need to rid their minds of their knowledge of a film's production history and approach it on its own terms. This is certainly the case for Joseph L. Mankiewicz's GUYS AND DOLLS, which was beset by problems arising from the antipathy between Sinatra and Brando in the leading male roles. The finished product turns out surprisingly good, not least because there are few sequences in which these two actors appear on their own. They are part of an outstanding ensemble in which many of the stars of the original Broadway production (Vivian Blane, Stubby Kaye) recreate their roles. Jean Simmons offers a winning interpretation of Sarah Brown although her songs are dubbed. Designer Oliver Smith creates a surreal yet haunting world of Runyoneseque New York, full of small shops with Expressionist facades, iconic mid-Fifties automobiles and passers-by thronging the streets. The costumes are both colorful yet indicative of an underworld where outward show mattered as much as honoring one's marker. These guys might have been small-timers but they were proud of their images. Brando is surprisingly good as Sky Masterson; he brings a Method Actor's sensibility to the role, which means that each gesture matters, even during his songs. Sinatra doesn't do much, even though he has a song especially written for him. The stand-out performances come from Blaine and Kaye; their interpretations are just definitive. For lovers of the Broadway version, Skip Martin's orchestrations of the Loesser score are perhaps a little too lush; and the arrangement of Kaye's classic "Sit Down, You're Rockin' the Boat" is just too speedy, preventing from appreciating the sheer brilliance of the lyrics. On the other hand Michael Kidd's choreography is truly miraculous - a riot of color, energy and subtlety.

That musical, if it did not have the music, and I do not say the singing, would be today forgotten. The story is zilch. The plot is null. The drama is hilarious. The suspense is non-existent. The décor is surrealistically realistic. The cops are puppets. The gamblers are marionettes. The guys are caricatures. The dolls are evanescent. And I said, the singing is mediocre, apart from Frank Sinatra who was a singer by profession. The others, particularly Marlon Brando, are hardly good enough for a chorus line. That was 1955. The USA had no competition in the world and they thought at the time they were building the future of the cosmos. So everything they did had to be best, even if it was crap, quite the proper word for it since the main attraction of the film and the main interest of the cops were crap games. Yet the music is innovative and in a way surprising, half Broadway traditional musical and half jazzy, swinging definitely and yet missing the point due to the poor quality of the singing and the very stiff dancing. The choreographer must have been movement-challenged and he was not able to conceive of supple and flexible bodies moving along curves and curbed lines with bodies that should be continuously changing opening and closing arcs. Too bad, because a real musical could be done with some of the elements of the scenario, though there would be a lot of rewriting to do. And I must say that the Salvation Army in disguise in this film is not exactly fascinating, even if the general is a woman and the sergeant is another woman. Apart from the heavy presence of women in this good-doing-or-is- it-doing-good army that wants to save our souls it is talking gibberish most of the time, and that gibberish does not concern us really. It is from another time, another galaxy, definitely another universe.Luckily it was in a box set of five musicals, otherwise I doubt I would spend one dollar to buy it, certainly not a pound, not even a euro. If pirating is stealing, to wrap up this zilch thing between West Side Story and Man of La Mancha is really high way commercial robbery.Dr Jacques COULARDEAU

Joseph Mankiewicz's 'Guys and Dolls' is a funny musical comedy based on the famous musical play. Colourful and full of energy, filled with songs, dance and gambling, the pacing does occasionally stumble as it sometimes feels as though the songs overshadow the story. In my opinion, some of the songs could have been left out, like the pussycat number. The overall dance numbers are very well choreographed. Hats off to the art department for making the film look so beautiful and vibrant with different colours. The cinematography is brilliant.I never thought I'd see Brando sing and dance. It wasn't something I'd even imagined but he does a decent job. Sinatra is already familiar with this genre. However, his role is barely developed. Of the women, Vivian Blaine and Jean Simmons do a fine job using their comic flair. Stubby Kaye provides fine support as Nicely.Finally, in my opinion, 'Guys and Dolls' is among the better musical of the 50s. Amusing, entertaining, energetic and (at the very least) foot-tapping, just what a musical should be.