Jane Russell

I recall the film coming to the South Wales valley town where I lived: Blackwood. There was a queue about half a mile long. Blokes. I don't think there was a single woman in the queue. Only blokes. Young blokes, most of them. The film? "The Outlaw" with Jane Russell. Who else was in it? Couldn't remember so I looked up David Thomson's book "Did You See"? Well there was Thomas Mitchell as Pat Garrett, Walter Huston as Doc Holiday and a newcomer, Jack Beutel, as Billy the Kid (I haven't heard of him since that film - perhaps he never recovered being seduced by Jane Russell - well, as a kid I knew something had gone on!).
David Thomson sums up the film in a few words: "You see, 'The Outlaw' isn't just Howard Hughes, or even Pat Garrett meets Doc Holiday and Billy the Kid. It's Jane Russell.
She took the film by storm. She never was, later, as hot as she was in this film. At the time it was sensational, she was sensatuional.
Of course, what made her name was her casting by Howard Hughes who took over from Howard Hawkes after two weeks of filming. He took a few years to make it and, before releasing it, sent out to the world very sexy pictues of the new star, all legs and breasts (two to be exact) a gun-toting lass lying in the hay and looking like she desires "it", if you know what I mean by "it" - you know, "that". Yes, now you've got it.
Two other films of her's that I liked were "Paleface" with Bob Hope and Trigger.... O yes, Roy Rogers too. She did a song with Hope which showed she could sing a bit: "Buttons and Bows". It won an oscar. Then there was Howard Hawks' "Gentlemen prefer Blondes". Most eyes at that time (blokes eyes I mean) were on Marilyn Monroe but it was as if Jane Russell was gallantly allowing Monroe to be the centre of attraction; it was as if they enjoyed being together and Jane enjoyed being second in line in the sexy stakes. Or was she? Though the hunks in the film threw themselves at Monroe, all she was interested in were diamonds, which, we all know by now, are a girl's best friend.
Now Jane Russell has died at 89. But I can still see the queue at the cinema in Blackwood; and it was probably the same at every similar flea-ridden cinema the world over.