Cyd Charisse Movies
"When you've danced with Cyd Charisse, you stay danced with." So said Fred Astaire, in tribute to the ability and allure of his last big-screen dancing partner. Cyd Charisse was the last great musical star to come out of MGM, and she barely made it to stardom before the musical genre began its decline. One of the greatest dancers ever to come out of Hollywood, Charisse worked in movies for almost a decade before being allowed to take center stage in a major musical feature; but when she did, she fairly exploded onscreen in The Band Wagon, Vincente Minnelli's greatest musical.Charisse was born in Tula Ellice Finklea in Amarillo, TX, and took to dancing at an early age, encouraged by her father, who loved the ballet. By age 14, she was dancing with the Ballet Russe under the more glamorous (and European-sounding) name Felia Sidorova -- the Sidorova came from her childhood nickname "Sid," which she carried into adulthood. She later studied dance in Los Angeles with Nico Charisse, who became her first husband. Charisse appeared both solo and with her first husband (working as "Nico and Charisse") in several early '40s "soundies" and played small roles in Mission to Moscow and Something to Shout About (both 1943), working under the name Lily Norwood. In 1945 Charisse was signed to MGM; Lily Norwood disappeared and Sid became Cyd, while the Charisse -- the one major legacy of the failed marriage -- remained.
Charisse appeared in some lesser studio productions during the second half of the '40s, of which the most notable was The Unfinished Dance, a notoriously bad MGM remake of a pre-World War II French film. At the time, Ann Miller was getting all of the really good high-profile dancer co-star roles in the studio's biggest songbook musicals, while Charisse got featured dancer roles in composer-tribute movies such as Till the Clouds Roll By (based loosely on the career of Jerome Kern) and Words and Music (based loosely on Richard Rodgers' and Lorenz Hart's careers). During the late '40s, she married singer Tony Martin, a union that would last more than 50 years. Charisse had the chance to work opposite Gene Kelly in An American in Paris, but turned it down as she and Martin were starting a family, a decision that she never regretted, even if it cheated film audiences of a brilliant showcase for her work. Finally, in 1952, she made it into a frontline studio production in as prominent a role as a dancer could possibly have without dialogue, playing the vamp who appears in the middle of the "Broadway Ballet" segment of Singin' in the Rain.
In 1953, with the help of Fred Astaire and director Vincente Minnelli, Charisse emerged a full-blown star in The Band Wagon. The movie, one of the greatest musicals ever made, was even more impressive as a total vehicle for Charisse -- her eight years at the studio had allowed her to absorb a fair amount of acting training, which made her just as impressive in her dramatic, romantic, and comedic scenes as she was when she danced. And when she and Astaire danced, it was literally poetry in motion, before that phrase was overused. Charisse got to work alongside Gene Kelly again in Brigadoon and It's Always Fair Weather, in which she again got to showcase her acting ability (her singing was dubbed by vocalist India Adams in most of her movies). She got to do one more major Hollywood musical, Silk Stockings (1957), acting and dancing opposite her greatest dancing partner, Fred Astaire, in a screen adaptation of Cole Porter's last great stage musical, before the musical genre disappeared.
During the 1960s, she moved her career to Europe for one last dazzling musical film, Black Tights, and onto television, where Charisse became an Emmy-winning performer, and then onto the stage. Luckily for Charisse, she was a good enough actress to credibly work in straight drama and comedy, and was so striking a physical presence that she kept her career going well into the 1970s, including a successful nightclub act with Tony Martin. She scored a hit in the Australian production of No No Nanette in 1972, and she and Martin authored a joint-autobiography, The Two of Us, in 1976. Charisse published a successful workout book in the early '90s, and remains one of the most beloved performers from the world of Hollywood musicals. In 2000, she received the first Nijinsky Award from Princess Caroline of Monaco for her lifelong contribution to dance. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide
Silk Stockings, a musical version of the 1939 Greta Garbo film Ninotchka, was adapted for the stage by George S. Kaufman, Leueen McGrath (the then-Mrs. Kaufman) and Abe Burrows, with music and lyrics by Cole Porter. The Broadway production, starring Hildegarde Neff and Don Ameche, ran 478 performances. The 1957 film version cast Fred Astaire as a movie producer and Cyd Charisse as dedicated communist functionary Ninotchka. In the original 1939 film, Ninotchka was sent from Mother Russia to Paris to check up on three commissars, who in turn had been ordered to retrieve a fortune in Czarist jewels. This time the commissar trio, played by Peter Lorre, Jules Munshin and Joseph Buloff, have been dispatched to Paris to reclaim defecting Soviet composer Wim Sonneveld. Since Astaire wants the composer to write the songs for his newest musical, he plies the commissars with wine, women and song, dissuading them from their mission. When Ninotchka shows up to retrieve the errant Russians, Astaire turns on the old charm with her as well. She gradually succumbs to the combined lures of romance and capitalism, but returns to Russia when she believes that Astaire has thrown her over for film-star Janis Paige (delivering a hilarious take-off of swimming star Esther Williams). But Astaire convinces her that he truly loves her, and all is well. Most of the Cold-War comedy in the Broadway production of Silk Stockings remains intact in the movie version (Soviet official George Tobias, seeking information on his predecessor, looks up the man's record in "Who's Still Who"). Also surviving virtually untouched is the Cole Porter score, including "All Of You," "A Chemical Reaction," "Without Love," "Satin and Silk," "The Red Blues," "Stereophonic Sound," and the rollicking "Siberia" (which offers the spectacle of a singing, dancing Peter Lorre!) Watch for Fred Astaire's future TV-special partner Barrie Chase as one of the dancers. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Fred Astaire, Cyd Charisse, (more)
- 1956
A whole slew of guest stars makes Meet Me in Las Vegas a special treat for movie buffs. The central plot concerns wealthy rancher Chuck Rodwell (Dan Dailey), who takes a Vegas vacation with his mother (Agnes Moorehead). At the same time, ballerina Maria Corvier (Cyd Charisse) also arrives in Las Vegas, accompanied by chaperone Sari Hatvany (Lili Darvas). During one marathon gambling session, Chuck comes to the conclusion that Sari is a good-luck charm, and insists that she remain by his side throughout his visit. Naturally, their relationship deepens into love, but not before a few complications, misunderstandings, and song-and-dance duets. Among the celebrities making cameo appearances (à la Around the World in 80 Days) are Jerry Colonna, Paul Henreid, Lena Horne, Frankie Laine, Peter Lorre, and Sammy Davis Jr. (voice only). Featured as dancers in Cyd Charisse's troupe are stars-to-be Liliane Montevecchi and George Chakiris. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Dan Dailey, Cyd Charisse, (more)
Cooked up by Betty Comden and Adolph Green, It's Always Fair Weather could well have been titled On the Town Ten Years Later. Like 1949's On the Town (also a Comden/Green collaboration), this MGM musical follows the exploits of three servicemen buddies, played by Gene Kelly, Dan Dailey and Michael Kidd. The difference here is that the threesome has just been discharged from service. The boys agree to get together again exactly ten years after their parting. Flash-forward to 1955: Kelly, who'd dreamed of being a show biz entrepreneur, is a small-time boxing promoter, heavily in debt to the Mob; Dailey has abandoned his plans of becoming an artist in favor of a stuffy, grey-flannel existence as an ad executive; and Kidd, who'd aspired to being a master chef, is running a modest diner. On behalf of TV-personality Dolores Gray, network-staffer Cyd Charisse contrives to reunite the three men on a This is Your Life style TV special, but all three are hostile to the notion. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gene Kelly, Dan Dailey, (more)
Reportedly, Vincente Minnelli turned down the opportunity to film Brigadoon on location in Scotland insisting that MGM's studio mockups looked more Scottish than the genuine article. This lavish adaptation of the Lerner and Loewe Broadway musical stars Gene Kelly as an American tourist who stumbles upon an enchanted Scottish village. Every 100 years, the people of Brigadoon awaken for a 24-hour period, then go back to sleep for another century while Brigadoon itself vanishes in the mists. Tommy Albright (Kelly) falls in love with village lass Fiona Campbell (Cyd Charisse) while his hard-drinking pal, Jeff Douglas (Van Johnson), dismisses the legend -- and indeed the existence of Brigadoon as a result of delirium. Fiona's betrothed Harry Beaton (Hugh Laing), upset by Kelly's intervention, threatens to leave Brigadoon -- an act that will spell doom for its residents. When this crisis has passed, Tommy is persuaded against his better judgment to escape Brigadoon himself and return to his own fiancée (Elaine Stewart) in New York. But the love between Tommy and Fiona results in a miraculous finale. Most of the Lerner-Loewe score remains intact, including the hit songs "Almost Like Being in Love," "Heather on the Hill," and "Come to Me Bend to Me." ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gene Kelly, Van Johnson, (more)
Deep in My Heart is the MGM-ified biography of composer Sigmund Romberg, here played by José Ferrer. Evidently the scripters didn't feel that the life of Romberg (as set down by author Elliott Arnold, whose book was used as the film's basis) had enough drama to fill out two hours and ten minutes. As a result, the film is overstocked with guest stars, performing such Romberg standards as "One Alone," "Lover Come Back to Me," "When I Grow Too Old to Dream," "Will You Remember," and "Stout-Hearted Men." Among these celebrities are Ann Miller, Vic Damone, Jane Powell, Tony Martin, Cyd Charisse, Rosemary Clooney, and Gene Kelly, the latter performing a dance duet with his seldom-seen brother, Fred. For all the heady competition, it is José Ferrer who renders the most memorable production number: a one-man presentation of the Romberg musical comedy Jazzboat, in which Ferrer assumes all the roles, from star Al Jolson's to the entire female chorus! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- José Ferrer, Helen Traubel, (more)
One of the most subtle and sophisticated of the musical comedies that came out of MGM's Arthur Freed Unit in the '40s and '50s, The Band Wagon stars Fred Astaire as Tony Hunter, a movie star whose career is in a downturn. Looking for a boost, Tony decides to try starring in a Broadway musical. His friends Lester and Lily Marton (Oscar Levant and Nanette Fabray) have written a show they feel would be just right for Tony, and the three team up with Jeffrey Cordova (Jack Buchanan), a self-styled "genius" director, who gets the idea to turn the play into a revised version of Faust. Cordova's more pretentious ideas don't always sit well with the Martons, and Tony isn't too happy with his leggy co-star, Gaby Gerard (Cyd Charisse), whom he's convinced is too tall (then again, she thinks he's too old). But when the show proves a disaster in out-of-town tryouts, everyone realizes they have to put aside their differences if they want a show that will be on Broadway for longer than four hours. The Band Wagon featured a rare American appearance for British musical star Jack Buchanan, who does a fine soft-shoe with Fred Astaire on "I Guess I'll Have to Change My Plan." Astaire also shines in the numbers "Shine on Your Shoes" and "The Girl Hunt," a witty Mickey Spillane parody. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Fred Astaire, Cyd Charisse, (more)
- 1953
This tuneful romantic melodrama is set in a tiny Mexican village and is comprised of three storylines. One tale concerns a pair of young lovers from rival villages who will not be able to marry until a long time feud is ended. In another tale, an heir to a large fortune falls in love with an impoverished girl. His family is dead set against the match. When he is diagnosed with a fatal tumor, the man begs the girl to marry him, but she refuses and instead arranges for him to marry another. In the third story, a matador's comely sister falls in love with a street vendor. Unfortunately, the matador hates her beloved and to break them up permanently, slyly convinces the peddler to enter the dangerous bullring. Fortunately for the sister, her brother's scheme fails spectacularly. She then marries the peddler and makes an ironic discovery. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Anna Maria Pier Angeli, Ricardo Montalban, (more)
- 1953
The Cole Porter title tune is but one of the musical highlights in the (literally) splashy Esther Williams musical Easy to Love. Reshuffling plot devices utilized in previous Williams vehicles, the film casts Williams as Julie Hallerton, the star of Ray Lloyd's (Van Johnson) aquacade. She loves Lloyd, but he hardly knows she exists. Only when she inaugurates romances with swimming instructor Hank (John Bromfield) and singer Barry (Tony Martin) does Lloyd wake up and smell the chlorine. The plot's finale is top-heavy with "good sport" behavior involving the three male leads. However, if you've come to an Esther Williams movie for the plot, maybe you'd better try another theatre. Easy to Love is the film that includes Busby Berkeley's legendary "motorboat/hang-glider" production number, performed at Florida's Cypress Gardens--though, incredibly, this aquatic tour de force is not the end of the picture! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Esther Williams, Van Johnson, (more)
- 1952
Filmed on location in Canada, The Wild North stars Stewart Granger as renegade trapper Jules Vincent. Forced to kill in self-defence, Vincent hides out in the wilderness, obliging RCMP constable Pedley (Wendell Corey) to chase after him in some of the most treacherous territory in Northern America. After braving the elements and various wild animals, Vincent and the wounded Pedley are compelled to join forces in order to survive their ordeal. Though his common sense advises him to leave Pedley to die, Vincent's essential decency wins out, and the trapper struggles against the odds to bring the constable back to civilization. Third-billed Cyd Charisse does a little box-office duty in the thankless role of an Indian maiden smitten by Vincent's charms. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Stewart Granger, Wendell Corey, (more)
Hollywood, 1927: the silent-film romantic team of Don Lockwood (Gene Kelly) and Lina Lamont (Jean Hagen) is the toast of Tinseltown. While Lockwood and Lamont personify smoldering passions onscreen, in real life the down-to-earth Lockwood can't stand the egotistical, brainless Lina. He prefers the company of aspiring actress Kathy Selden (Debbie Reynolds), whom he met while escaping his screaming fans. Watching these intrigues from the sidelines is Cosmo Brown (Donald O'Connor), Don's best pal and on-set pianist. Cosmo is promoted to musical director of Monumental Pictures by studio head R.F. Simpson (Millard Mitchell) when the talking-picture revolution commences. That's all right for Cosmo, but how will talkies affect the upcoming Lockwood-Lamont vehicle "The Dueling Cavalier"? Don, an accomplished song-and-dance man, should have no trouble adapting to the microphone. Lina, however, is another matter; put as charitably as possible, she has a voice that sounds like fingernails on a blackboard. The disastrous preview of the team's first talkie has the audience howling with derisive laughter. On the strength of the plot alone, concocted by the matchless writing team of Betty Comden and Adolph Green, Singin' in the Rain is a delight. But with the addition of MGM's catalog of Arthur Freed-Nacio Herb Brown songs -- "You Were Meant for Me," "You Are My Lucky Star," "The Broadway Melody," and of course the title song -- the film becomes one of the greatest Hollywood musicals ever made. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gene Kelly, Donald O'Connor, (more)
- 1951
MGM's Ricardo Montalban and Cyd Charisse were loaned to Universal for the Technicolor period piece Mark of the Renegade. Set in 19th-century California, the film stars Montalban as Marcos, in league with a band of pirates. Marcos falls into the hands of Don Pedro Garcia (Gilbert Roland), a despot who hopes to become dictator of California. Planning to force the cooperation of benevolent politico Jose De Vasquez (Antonio Moreno), Garcia orders Marcos to court De Vasquez' comely daughter Anita (Cyd Charisse). It soon develops that Marcos is not the criminal he appears to be, and that he is dedicated to the vanquishing of the evil Garcia. Somehow, Mark of the Renegade finds an excuse for Cyd Charisse to perform a bewitching dance number. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ricardo Montalban, Cyd Charisse, (more)
- 1949
Warren Quimby (Richard Basehart) has a problem that he won't admit to: his wife, Claire (Audrey Totter), wants more fun and excitement out of life than the quiet, soft-spoken pharmacist can give her. So she steps out on him regularly, something that Warren refuses to recognize until the day she packs her bags and announces she's moving in with Barney Deager (Lloyd Gough), the flashy, high-living salesman whom she's been seeing on the side. Warren goes to Deager's, to ask her to come back, and gets beaten up by his rival. The worm suddenly turns in his own quiet way of doing things, and Warren decides he's going to get even -- he's going to murder Deager, but to do it and not get caught, he bides his time. He begins building a new identity for himself, changing his appearance (starting with getting rid of his thick glasses in favor of then-newly-invented contact lenses), and establishing his alter ego of "Paul Sothern" at a new address. He then starts making threatening calls to Deager, identifying himself as Sothern, in order to establish a history of enmity between the two. It's all going according to plan -- he will kill Deager and the blame will fall on "Sothern," who, of course, doesn't exist, and will have vanished. But then he meets Mary Chanler (Cyd Charisse), a neighbor at "Sothern"'s apartment building, and the two become attracted to each other. For every step forward that he takes in his plan for murder, he also finds himself with new possibilities in his life, growing out of his relationship with Mary. Finally, the night comes when he breaks into Deager's home and is about to kill him, when it dawns on Warren that he doesn't need to do this....He awakens Deager and tells him what almost happened and that he's leaving, and Deager is welcome to Claire, and leaves. It seems as though he's averted disaster when Claire shows up later that night, pleading for reconciliation and finally, when pressed, telling him that someone has murdered Deager. The man has been shot, and the police, led by lieutenants Bonnabel (Barry Sullivan) and Gonsales (William Conrad), are hunting for Paul Sothern. Now Warren is scared for his life, having done his best to frame himself, and Claire isn't helping by trying to run interference -- he can't tell if she's trying to protect the two of them, implicate Sothern, or protect herself, and he's too scared to say almost anything at all to the detectives. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Richard Basehart, Audrey Totter, (more)
Director Mervyn Leroy lends a burnished MGM gloss to this sordid tale of infidelity among rich New York East Siders. Barbara Stanwyck stars as Jessie Bourne, a charming society woman whose finds out that her husband Brandon (James Mason) is guiltily indulging in an illicit affair with the earthy Isobel Lorrison (Ava Gardner). Jessie bears her husband's indiscretion with a gallant dignity, and when Isabelle is killed, Jesse realizes that she doesn't care for Brandon anyway. Van Heflin is also on hand as ex-cop Mark Dwyer, who admires Jessie's stoic dignity. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Barbara Stanwyck, James Mason, (more)
The life stories of Broadway tunesmiths Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart are prettified for the screen in MGM's Words and Music. Billed fourth, the colorless Tom Drake plays Rodgers, but never mind that: the film belongs to Mickey Rooney, as the dynamic, self-destructive Lorenz Hart. Understandably, Hart's bisexuality is downplayed. According to MGM, his biggest problem in life is that he was never satisfied with his work. We are, however, especially when those great Rodgers & Hart tunes are performed by the likes of Judy Garland, Janet Leigh, Perry Como, Lena Horne, June Allyson, Cyd Charisse, Betty Garrett, Ann Sothern, Mel Torme, Allyn McLerie, Gene Kelly and Vera-Ellen. The musical highlights include Garland's powerhouse rendition of Johnny One-Note, Kelly's Slaughter on 10th Avenue dance solo, Horne's interpretation of Where or When, Allyson's take on Thou Swell, and, best of all, Rooney's premiere performance of I'll Take Manhattan, which he allegedly had just written on the back of an automobile advertisement! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Mickey Rooney, Perry Como, (more)
In this period musical, Ricardo (Frank Sinatra) is the son of a Mexican innkeeper who has come to California to take over a hotel owned by his family after the death of his father. Ricardo makes the startling discovery that his father was best known as a "kissing bandit," a dashing thief who aptitude for crime was matched by his gift for romancing the ladies. When tax collectors from Spain begin to overrun his homeland, Ricardo decides to follow in his father's footsteps, liberating the taxmen's ill-gotten gains and winning the heart of Teresa (Kathryn Grayson), the governor's daughter. Also starring J. Carrol Naish, Billy Gilbert and Mildred Natwick, The Kissing Bandit also features the fancy footwork of Ann Miller, Ricardo Montalban, and Cyd Charisse, who appear as specialty dancers in the production numbers. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Frank Sinatra, Kathryn Grayson, (more)
- 1948
The title of this MGM musical alone should tip you to the fact that Esther Williams is the star. In this one, she plays a movie star (what an innovation!), Rosalind Reynolds, who is on location in Hawaii to shoot a picture. Peter Lawford plays the film's naval technical advisor, Lt. Lawrence Y. Kingslee, who naturally falls deeply in love with Rosalind. As a means of expressing his ardor, Kingslee genteelly kidnaps Rosalind by "accidentally" marooning her on a desert island. To the dismay of feminists everywhere, Rosalind comes to enjoy being Kingslee's prisoner, and all ends happily. Jimmy Durante breaks up da joint in the role of an assistant director, while music is provided by MGM's all-purpose bandleader Xavier Cugat. The Technicolor process is shown to supreme advantage whenever it concentrates on Esther Williams' form-fitting gold-colored swimsuit. On an Island with You was one of MGM's premiere moneymakers of 1948. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Esther Williams, Peter Lawford, (more)
- 1947
An aspiring ballerina begins following a prima ballerina hoping that she will become her replacement. Unfortunately, another dancer is chosen, causing the determined twinkle-toes to cause a little accident to destroy the usurper's career. It works and the hapless ballerina's career is destroyed. In the end, the conniving one atones for her treachery and the two become fast friends. Danny Thomas makes his feature film debut in this musical. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Margaret O'Brien, Cyd Charisse, (more)
- 1947
Esther Williams moves from the swimming pool to the bull ring in this musical drama. Antonio Morales (Fortunio Bonanova) was once a champion bullfighter; now in retirement, Antonio and his wife (Mary Astor) have high hopes that their son Mario (Ricardo Montalban) will follow in his father's footsteps as a matador. However, Mario's great passion is music, and he longs to pursue a career as a composer. But there is a budding toreador in the family: Mario's sister Maria (Esther Williams), who has learned the basics of bullfighting from her sibling. Not wanting to be thought a coward, but with no desire to enter the ring, Mario allows Maria to disguise herself as him and take his place in the bullring, allowing her to compete in a traditionally male sport while Mario devotes his time to his music. Fiesta gave Ricardo Montalban his first English-speaking role, with Cyd Charisse appearing as Conchita, his love interest and dancing partner. Classical music buffs might notice that Mario's composition "Fantasia Mexican" is actually Aaron Copland's "El Salon Mexico." ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Esther Williams, Akim Tamiroff, (more)
This glorified Technicolor commercial for the Fred Harvey restaurants stars Judy Garland as a 19th-century mail-order bride. Upon arriving in New Mexico, Garland discovers that her husband-to-be is the town drunk. She cuts her losses and takes a job at the local Harvey restaurant, an establishment which endeavors to bring a little civilization and class to the wide open spaces. Harvey's operation is challenged by saloon-owner John Hodiak, corrupt-judge Preston S. Foster, and local-madam Angela Lansbury. With the help of tenderfoot Ray Bolger, Garland and her fellow waitresses foil the corrupt elements in town. Prominent in the supporting cast are Cyd Charisse, Marjorie Main, Chill Wills, Kenny Baker and Virginia O'Brien (whose musical numbers aren't quite as rambunctious as the contributions of the others, mainly because O'Brien was pregnant during filming). The songs are for the most part perfunctory, with the spectacular exception of the Harry Warren and Johnny Mercer's Oscar-winning "Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe." The Harvey Girls is tenuously based on a more sober-sided historical volume by Samuel Hopkins Adams. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Judy Garland, John Hodiak, (more)
- 1946
Even if the film had been released without opening and closing titles, it wouldn't have been hard to identify Three Wise Fools as an MGM production. Margaret O'Brien stars as Sheila O'Monhan, a wide-eyed Irish colleen who insists that she sees leprechauns (as, indeed, does the audience). She enters the lives of three dour, crusty old gentlemen: Dr. Richard Gaunght (Lionel Barrymore), Judge Thomas Trumbull (Lewis Stone), and industrialist Theodore Finley (Edward Arnold). Thanks to a curse imposed upon them by Sheila's grandfather, the three men have all found success at the expense of personal happiness. But there's still a chance for their salvation, and that chance manifests itself in an old tree which Sheila believes is the home of the leprechauns. The finale finds Gaunght, won over by Sheila's childish faith in The Unexplained, chaining himself to the tree to avoid its removal by Finley and Trumbull. Anyone who can't guess how this little bit of blarney turns out should have his or her film-buff card revoked. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Margaret O'Brien, Lionel Barrymore, (more)
The presence of William Powell as legendary showman Flo Ziegfeld at the beginning of Ziegfeld Follies might lead an impressionable viewer from thinking that this 1946 film is a Technicolor sequel to the 1936 Oscar-winning The Great Ziegfeld. Not so: this is more in the line of an all-star revue, much like such early talkies as Hollywood Revue of 1929 and Paramount on Parade. We meet a grayed, immaculately garbed Ziegfeld in Paradise (his daily diary entry reads "Another heavenly day"), where he looks down upon the world and muses over the sort of show he'd be putting on were he still alive. Evidently Ziegfeld's shade has something of a celestial conduit to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studios, since his "dream" show is populated almost exclusively by MGM stars. Vincente Minnelli is given sole directorial credit at the beginning of the film, though many of the individual "acts" were helmed by other hands. The Bunin puppets offer a tableau depicting anxious theatregoers piling into a Broadway theatre, as well as caricatures of Ziegfeld's greatest stars. The opening number, "Meet the Ladies", spotlights a whip-wielding (!) Lucille Ball, a bevy of chorus girls dressed as panthers, and, briefly, Margaret O'Brien. Kathryn Grayson and "The Ziegfeld Girls" perform "There's Beauty Everywhere." Victor Moore and Edward Arnold show up in an impressionistically staged adaptation of the comedy chestnut "Pay the Two Dollars". Fred Astaire and Lucille Bremer (a teaming which evidently held high hopes for MGM) dance to the tune of "This Heart is Mine." "Number Please" features Keenan Wynn in an appallingly unfunny rendition of an old comedy sketch (performed far better as "Alexander 2222" in Abbott and Costello's Who Done It?) Lena Horne, strategically placed in the film at a juncture that could be edited out in certain racist communities, sings "Love". Red Skelton stars in the film's comedy highlight, "When Television Comes"-which is actually Skelton's classic "Guzzler's Gin" routine (this sequence was filmed late in 1944, just before Red's entry into the armed services). Astaire and Bremer return for a lively rendition of "Limehouse Blues". Judy Garland, lampooning every Hollywood glamour queen known to man, stops the show with "The Interview". Even better is the the historical one-time-only teaming of Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly in "The Babbitt and the Bromide". The excellence of these sequence compensate for the mediocrity of "The Sweepstakes Ticket", wherein Fanny Brice screams her way through a dull comedy sketch with Hume Cronyn (originally removed from the US prints of Ziegfeld Follies, this sequence was restored for television). Excised from the final release print (pared down to 110 minutes, from a monumental 273 minutes!) was Judy Garland's rendition of "Liza", a duet featuring Garland and Mickey Rooney, and a "Baby Snooks" sketch featuring Fanny Brice, Hanley Stafford and B. S. Pully. A troubled and attenuated production, Ziegfeld Follies proved worth the effort when the film rang up a $2 million profit. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Fred Astaire, Lucille Ball, (more)
MGM's Till the Clouds Roll By is the musicalized, and highly fictionalized, life story of beloved composer Jerome Kern, who gave his blessing to the production shortly before his death in 1946. As played by a gray-templed Robert Walker, Kern is a likeable but none too exciting sort who expresses his emotions through his music. Constructed in the form of an extended flashback, the story proper begins at the turn of the century, as Kern tries to peddle his ditties to disinterested Broadway producers. His efforts to interest impresario Charles Frohman (Harry Hayden) go nowhere because Frohman is convinced that the only good music comes from Europe. Obligingly, Kern moves to London, where he meets and falls in love with his future wife Eva (Dorothy Patrick). On the verge of securing work with Frohman, Kern's hopes are dashed when the producer goes down with the Lusitania in 1915. Fortunately, Kern has developed such powerful U.S. contacts as Victor Herbert (Paul Maxey) and Oscar Hammerstein (Paul Langton), enabling him to find success as the composer of several "intimate" musicals for New York's Princess Theater. The film ends where it begins, with Kern's triumph as composer of the Broadway blockbuster Show Boat. Van Heflin weaves in and out of the proceedings as the obligatory best friend/severest critic, a musical arranger named Jim Hessler (purportedly based on longtime Kern associate Paul Sadler). No one in 1946 really cared about the dramatic passages of Till the Clouds Roll By; the film's biggest drawing card was its lineup of all-star MGM talent, performing Kern's most famous numbers. Judy Garland (as Marilyn Miller) sings "Look for the Silver Lining"; Dinah Shore performs "The Last Time I Saw Paris" before a back-projected "Gay Paree"; Kathryn Grayson does a Rita Hayworth imitation with "Long Ago and Far Away"; Virginia O'Brien deadpans "A Fine Romance"; Tony Martin warbles "All the Things You Are"; June Allyson and Ray McDonald team up for the title number; and Frank Sinatra, incongruously dressed in white tuxedo, runs through "Ol' Man River." In addition, other musical contributions are made by Van Johnson, Angela Lansbury, Cyd Charisse, Gower Champion, and Lucille Bremer (cast as Van Heflin's daughter). The film's high point comes at the very beginning with a Reader's Digest edition of Show Boat, featuring Lena Horne, as Julie (the role she was born to play, but never did again on screen), delivering a powerhouse rendition of "Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man." Since lapsing into public domain in 1974, Till the Clouds Roll By has, along with Royal Wedding, become the most readily accessible of all MGM musicals. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robert Walker, June Allyson, (more)
- 1943
This backstage musical offers a peek at vaudeville behind-the-scenes. The story centers on a recently divorced woman who decides to use her generous alimony settlement to stage an old fashioned vaudeville show. Unfortunately her chief backer insists on being the star. Fortunately, at the last minute, a very talented person replaces the no-talent backer. Songs include: "I Always Knew," "Hasta Luego," "Lotus Bloom," "Something to Shout About," "Through Thick and Thin." The song "You'd Be So Nice to Come Home To," was nominated for an Academy Award. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Don Ameche, Janet Blair, (more)
- 1943
More so than most wartime films, Mission to Moscow must be viewed within the context of its times. Requested by President Roosevelt to make a film supportive of America's Russian allies, Warner Bros. turned to the memoirs of Ambassador Joseph H. Davies, who spent several years prior to WWII in the Soviet Union. As played by Walter Huston, Davies is a pillar of incorruptable integrity, reporting the facts "as I saw them" (only in later years was Davies revealed to be something less than a paragon of virtue who was willing to alter opinions for political, personal and financial expedience). Sent to Moscow by FDR as a means of finding out if Russia is a potentially trustworthy ally in case of war, Davies and his family are given the royal treatment by the Commissars, who display the social, technological, agricultural and artistic advances made under the Stalin regime. Invariably, the Russian citizens are shown to be singing, smiling, freedom-loving rugged individuals-in contrast to the Nazis, who are depicted as humorless automatons. In its efforts to present the USSR in the best possible light, the film glosses over the notorious Purge Trials of 1937, presenting the trials as scrupulously fair and the defendants as unabashed traitors to the Soviet cause. At one point, Russia's annexation of Finland in 1939 is "justified" by Davies' explanation that the Soviets merely wanted to protect their tiny neighbor from Nazi domination! It is unfair to label Mission to Moscow as Communistic or even left-wing, since it was merely parroting the official party line vis-a-vis US/Soviet relations in 1943. Even so, screenwriter Howard Koch found it very difficult to get film work after the war because of his contributions to this "Pinko" project (conversely, Jack Warner pulled a Pontius Pilate, washing his hands of the matter by insisting that he was strongarmed into making the film). Seen objectively, Mission to Moscow is top-rank entertainment, superbly and excitingly assembled in the manner typical of Warners and director Michael Curtiz. The huge cast includes Gene Lockhart as Molotov, attorney Dudley Field Malone as Winston Churchill, Maynart Kippen as a benign, pipe-smoking Stalin, Charles Trowbridge as Secretary Cordell Hull, Leigh Whipper as Hailie Selassie, Georges Renavent as Anthony Eden and Alex Chirva as Pierre Laval, along with the more familiar faces of Ann Harding (as Mrs. Davies), George Tobias, Eleanor Parker, Moroni Olsen, Minor Watson, Jerome Cowan, Duncan Renaldo, Mike Mazurki, Frank Faylen, Edward van Sloan, Louis-Jean Heydt, Monte Blue, Robert Shayne and even Sid (sic) Charisse. Original prints of Mission to Moscow include a 6-minute prologue delivered by the real Joseph Davies. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Walter Huston, Ann Harding, (more)
