Jane Russell died yesterday at the age of 89. Here are some great scenes of hers in Howard Hawks' Gentlemen Prefer Blondes:







The Brunette to Marilyn Monroe's Blonde.

(She apparently became an extreme conservative and religious in her later years, which reminds one of Brigitte Bardot. I wonder how much her becoming famous because of fights with censorship about showing parts of her breasts (in Howard Hughes' The Outlaw, her first movie) had to do with it.
It also makes me think of the discussion on The ending of True Grit.)

As you perhaps can see from these scenes she is an impressive actress, but I always felt it was a missed career as it's hard to find really good movies with her. Directors didn't know how to use her. Somewhat like Lauren Bacall, whose only great movies are Howard Hawks ones.

Was Howard Hawks the only director at the time who knew what to do with strong sexual women?
Even Marilyn didn't get many good roles, but the ditsy blonde is a role that more directors could play with.