Gene Kelly
Three of the dashing dancer's best
I was always an Astaire man, slyly seduced by his lithe presence and wide variety of steps, especially when he was set loose to a jazz-tinged score.
But my daughter, a budding dancer new to MGM musicals, is slowly but surely making me defect to the other side, and when we’re talking about ground as esteemed as Astaire, there’s only one other side: Gene Kelly
They’re a study in contrasts: the urbane and the earthy, the aesthete and the athlete, the tip-toe and the clog.
And yet their styles share many a trait: an abundance of showmanship, a decided love of props, and a predisposition toward long, solo set pieces.
Both came from Broadway, Astaire as a part of a team, Kelly as the star of <i>Pal Joey</i>. No doubt producer Arthur Freed caught Kelly in the role of the brassy, self-centered Joey and recognized him as the perfect fit for his 1942 musical...
<i>For Me and My Gal</i> - 1942
...in which Kelly debuted as a brash and selfish vaudevillian. It’s incredible to consider that this was his first film. He shows all the confidence and presence of a veteran (no doubt the showy nature of the role, old hat to him in the wake <i>Joey</i>, helped.) He’s paired with Judy Garland, then in that perfect period after her sometimes cloying child roles and before her brink-of-desperation diva years. They’re a song and dance team whose plans to play that vaudeville mecca, The Palace, are interrupted by crisis after crisis. Though it’s a perfect pairing, with Judy in fine voice, Kelly taps, sways, and spins away with the picture – that is ‘til the third act, when it goes propagandistic and foregoes all else, even Busby Berkeley’s ever-helpful camera, to help sell war bonds.
A little later, Gene was paired with another great voice of the era, in...
<i>Anchors Aweigh</i> – 1948
...namely, Frank Sinatra, in one of his many early presences as a skeletal innocent nicknamed “Brooklyn.” He and Kelly play a pair of sailors, a wolf and a lamb, on leave in a bright, backlot Hollywood, where they falsely promise Kathryn Grayson, the guardian of a precocious, pint-sized Dean Stockwell, an audition with pianist-conductor Jose Iturbi. Despite some smooth singing by Sinatra, the highlights belong to Kelly - two numbers he conceived and choreographed himself that foretell the more imaginative – some might say indulgent – direction he would soon steer his film career in: a Romeo and Juliet-esque courtyard number, with Gene hybridizing flamenco and tap, and a well-remembered animated fantasy sequence featuring seven time Oscar winners Tom and Jerry.
It’s obvious the wheels of Kelly’s imagination were turning like one of his patented “airplane spins.” This lead, ultimately, to...
<i>Invitation To The Dance</i> – 1956
...a costly conceit Kelly conceived, choreographed and directed. Such was his popularity at the box office through the forties and early fifties that he became convinced that audiences were ready to see him in his purest form. Despite his characteristic confidence, it was a less than certain bet; it didn’t help that the production was so plagued with problems, it took three years for it to be released – enough time for rock ’n’ roll to take some of the bloom off of the Hollywood musical rose. This trio of three short dance films – <i>Circus</i>, with Kelly as a white faced clown, <i>Ring Around The Rosy</i>, in which a jeweled bracelet makes the rounds, and <i>Sinbad The Sailor</i>, with Kelly set loose yet again in a cartoon wonderland – was shot in England, where MGM had frozen funds, and was continuously interrupted by studio interference. Still, a great deal of what Kelly envisioned survives. He pulls out all the stops, from ballet to modern, but shines best, of course, when indulging in the acrobatic hoofing that was his bread and butter. Financially, the film was a complete failure, and Kelly fell from the heights of Hollywood like his pantomimic Pagliaci off the high wire. But it has some marvelous invention in it – including a comic highlight parodying his old co-star Sinatra - and remains a big favorite among dance purists.
Watch all three, and trace the rise and fall of one of filmdom's greatest musical stars.
What do you think about this article?
Comments
More in Film & TV
Latest Articles