The film stars Jane Russell and Marilyn Monroe, with Charles Coburn, Elliott Reid, Tommy Noonan, George Winslow, Taylor Holmes and Norma Varden in supporting roles.

Monroe's rendition of "Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend" and her pink dress are part of popular culture and are considered iconic; the performance has inspired and been recreated by various artists as an homage.

Dorothy stalls for time in court by pretending to be Lorelei, disguised in a blonde wig and mimicking her friend's breathy voice and mannerisms.

[7][6] Although Hawks is credited as the sole director of the film, Russell and assistant choreographer Gwen Verdon contend that all musical numbers were actually staged by Jack Cole.

"[9] An uncredited George Chakiris, future Oscar winner for Best Supporting Actor (as Bernardo in West Side Story, 1961 version), can be glimpsed as one of the wealthy men pursuing Marilyn in "Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend".

According to Monroe's last interview before her death, she was paid her usual contract salary of $500 a week,[10] for a total of $18,000,[7] while Russell, the better-known actress at the time, earned $200,000.

"[13] Variety wrote that Hawks "maintains a racy air that brings the musical off excellently at a pace that helps cloak the fact that it's rather lightweight, but sexy, stuff.

They not only act well, but the sexy manner in which they display their song, dance and pulchritude values just about sets the screen on fire and certainly is crowd-pleasing, judging by the thunderous applause at the preview after each of the well-staged musical numbers.

"[15] John McCarten of The New Yorker wrote that the two leads "have a good deal of enthusiasm, and occasionally their exuberance offsets the tedium of one long series of variations on the sort of anatomical joke that used to amuse the customers of Minsky so inordinately.

"[16] Britain's Monthly Film Bulletin praised Jane Russell for her "enjoyable Dorothy, full of gusto and good nature," but thought that the film had been compromised from the play "by the casting of Marilyn Monroe, by the abandonment of the 20s period and the incongruous up-to-date streamlining, by inflating some bright, witty songs into lavish production numbers, and by tamely ending the whole thing by letting two true loves conventionally come true.

The site's critical consensus reads, "Anchored by Marilyn Monroe and Jane Russell's sparkling magnetism, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes is a delightfully entertaining 1950s musical.

Writing for Bust magazine, Samantha Mann wrote, "Throughout the entire film, the main characters Lorelei (Marilyn Monroe) and Dorothy (Jane Russell) display consistent loyalty to one another.

Club wrote the story may appear to be a "90-minute misogynistic punchline about the desperate schemes of two devious social-climbing showgirls, ditzy Lorelei Lee (Monroe) and witty man-eater Dorothy Shaw (Jane Russell).

"[21] Monroe and Russell left their handprints and footprints in cement in the forecourt of Grauman's Chinese Theatre in a spectacle that generated a great deal of publicity for the actresses and the film.