GUYS AND DOLLS (1955) C widescreen 138m dir: Joseph L. Mankiewicz

w/Marlon Brando, Jean Simmons, Frank Sinatra, Vivian Blaine, Robert Keith, Stubby Kaye, Veda Ann Borg, Regis Toomey, Sheldon Leonard

From Variety's contemporary review of the film: "Guys and Dolls is a bangup filmusical in the topdrawer [producer Samuel] Goldwyn manner, including a resurrection of the Goldwyn Girls.

"The casting is good all the way. Much interest will focus, of course, around Marlon Brando in the Robert Alda stage original and Jean Simmons as the Salvation Army sergeant (created by Isabel Bigley), and they deport themselves in inspired manner. They make believable the offbeat romance between the gambler and the spirited servant of the gospel. Vivian Blaine is capital in her original stage role. Frank Sinatra is an effective vis-a-vis in the Sam Levene original of Nathan Detroit and among the four they handle the burden of the score [music and lyrics by Frank Loesser].

"The action shifts from the Times Square street scenes to the Havana idyll, where Brando had taken the mission doll ('on a bet')."

The screenplay for the film was written by Mankiewicz, based on the book for the Broadway show by Jo Swerling and Abe Burrows, which was in turn based on two short stories by Damon Runyon.

GUYS AND DOLLS was nominated for four Oscars: Best Color Cinematography (Harry Stradling), Color Costume Design (Irene Sharaff), Color Art Direction (Oliver Smith, Joseph C. Wright, Howard Bristol), and Scoring of a Musical Picture (Jay Blackton, Cyril J. Mockridge).