Guys and Dolls: stage vs screen

Joseph L. Mankiewicz wrote and directed the 1955 film of Guys and Dolls for producer Samuel Goldwyn, with Marlon Brando as Sky Masterson, Frank Sinatra as Nathan Detroit, Jean Simmons as Sarah Brown, and Vivian Blaine as Miss Adelaide. The Broadway musical opened in 1950 with music and lyrics by Frank Loesser and a book by Jo Swerling and Abe Burrows, based on Damon Runyon's stories. The film keeps the story but swaps several songs.

Stage

Broadway musical (1950)

Screen

Guys and Dolls (1955), directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz

1. Sinatra plays Nathan, not Sam Levene

Sam Levene created Nathan Detroit on Broadway, and Mankiewicz wanted him for the film, but Goldwyn cast Sinatra instead. Sinatra had wanted to play Sky, and his relationship with Brando was reportedly strained. Frank Loesser disliked how Sinatra turned the rumpled Nathan into a smooth swinger, preferred Levene's stage performance, and reportedly never watched the film.

2. Brando sings Sky himself

Robert Alda played Sky on Broadway, and Brando took the part on screen. Brando and Jean Simmons sang their own numbers without professional dubbing, and Brando sings "Luck Be a Lady," Sky's big gambling number in both versions. Simmons plays Sarah, the Save a Soul Mission sergeant, a role Isabel Bigley created on stage. Goldwyn felt the love story played better on film than it had on stage.

3. A new duet replaces two ballads

On stage, Sky and Sarah return from Havana at dawn, Sky sings "My Time of Day," and the two admit their love in the duet "I've Never Been in Love Before." Both songs are cut from the film, surviving only in parts as background music. Loesser wrote "A Woman in Love" for Sky and Sarah to replace the duet, so the film's love story rests on a song that was not in the stage score.

4. "Pet Me, Poppa" replaces "A Bushel and a Peck"

Adelaide's Hot Box number "A Bushel and a Peck" was cut because Goldwyn wanted a new song, and Loesser wrote "Pet Me, Poppa" for Vivian Blaine in its place. Blaine was the one lead who reprised her Broadway role, and the Goldwyn Girls play the Hot Box dancers. "Adelaide's Lament" and "Take Back Your Mink" both stay, so Adelaide still gets her best-known numbers.

5. Nathan gets a song of his own

On stage, Nathan sings "The Oldest Established" and the duet "Sue Me." For Sinatra, Loesser wrote a new solo, "Adelaide," which does not appear in the stage score. Loesser wrote it at Goldwyn's and Mankiewicz's request, as one of three new songs for the film.

6. Two more stage songs disappear

"Marry the Man Today," the duet in which Adelaide and Sarah decide to marry their men and reform them afterward, is cut, as is "More I Cannot Wish You," the song Sarah's grandfather Arvide sings. In all, five stage songs were dropped. The film does keep "Fugue for Tinhorns," "If I Were a Bell," and "Sit Down, You're Rockin' the Boat."

7. The same story on a bigger canvas

The film follows the stage plot: Nathan's bet that Sky cannot take Sarah to dinner in Havana, the Mission facing closure, the craps game moved into a sewer, and the gamblers dragged to the mission meeting. It is a widescreen CinemaScope production, and Michael Kidd, who choreographed the Broadway show, also choreographed the film's dances.

8. A double wedding in Times Square

The stage show closes with the men reformed: Nathan has shut down the craps game and runs a newsstand, Sky plays in the Mission band, and both couples are married. The film ends with a double wedding in Times Square for Sky and Sarah and for Nathan and Adelaide, with Nicely-Nicely playing the bass drum in the Mission band.

Guys and Dolls movie vs musical: FAQs