Prompt: Compare Sinatra and Brando. What mode of performance does each represent? What model of masculinity?
At the beginning of this movie it seemed like Sinatra's and Brando's characters had different ideologies when it came to women, but by the end of the movie they were both on the same page. Sky Masterson (Brando) doesn't believe in monogamy, and compares dolls to cough drops (just something nice to have around every once in awhile) which I thought was a really amusing analogy. Even though Sky talks a big game, like saying all dolls are the same, he does end up falling in love with Sarah Brown (played by Jean Simmons), and ends up in the same position that he was making fun of Nathan for being in. Nathan (Sinatra) doesn't want to get married, even though him and his fiance have been engaged for fourteen years, but he's also not ready to let her go like Sky suggests because he feels like there's no other doll like her.
Even though Nathan is involved in the gambling wold and he hangs out with a rough crowd, he still is more sensitive than Brando and some of his friends. He's not really into chasing after dolls and always having multiple different options, which seems to be how men are supposed to feel in this movie in order to be considered a force to contend with. After Nathan and his fiance, Adelaide, get in a huge fight because he's still setting up craps games, it seems like Nathan fully realizes that he loves her and he is really down and sad. His two lackeys try and convince him that dolls are only trouble, and that he's better off without having one particular girl.
Once Sky starts hanging out with Sarah his more sensitive side starts to come out even though he tries to resist admitting that he truly has feelings for her. He wants to be with her, and in a way proves himself wrong from his earlier statements. However, there's still always an air of toughness about him, as if he's not quite ever going to be as vulnerable or emotional as Nathan is about a girl. Brando was very much in the Actors Studio acting genre of method acting, and that comes across in Guys and Dolls. There's a sense of him always being somewhat anti-social no matter what situation he's in, which is interesting to observe when watching one his films.
On another note, today our review papers are due. For this I chose to look at the film Pal Joey, which not only has Sinatra in it, but also the legends Rita Hayworth and Kim Novak. I won't go into everything that I wrote in my paper, but in doing my research I came across two really fun and interesting things so hopefully the links work! One is a quiz to test your knowledge on Sinatra and his films (I got a 10 out of 10!) which was published in the Washington Post in 1990. The other is the movie trailer for Pal Joey, which is so much fun to watch because Sinatra explains some of the "hep" language that is used in the film and also shows scenes from it. It is so funny and fun to watch!
http://proquest.umi.com.proxy.library.nd.edu/pqdweb?did=868690902&sid=2&Fmt=10&clientId=11150&RQT=309&VName=HNP
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-chWouJQflw
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