Exit question: If she's trying to get rid of the gang, why would she shake her tail feathers in front of them? That might induce them to stay, one would think.
Gene Kelly and Mitzi Gaynor Sizzle in a Diner
Another great dancer in classic movies, Mitzi Gaynor, here partners with Gene Kelly in Les Girls (1957). What the movie, as a whole, lacks in zip and sparkle is regained in musical numbers like this one. Here Miss Gaynor portrays an harassed waitress at a diner and Mr. Kelly is the boorish customer. Of course, they end up enamored with each other.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
My guess is that the fellas won't be going anywhere as long as Mitzi's tail feathers are a shakin' coz ain't nobody can shake a tail feather like ol' Mitzi! A very good friend of mine was her wardrobe mistress during Mitzi's post-Hollywood live-performance years. You might like to know that she swears that Mitzi in real life is every bit as wonderful as she is up on the screen.
ReplyDeleteI love your blog's new look, Java. I liked it before, but it's always fun to make a change. I do it myself a lot!
ReplyDeleteFor a huge Gene Kelly fan, I am ashamed to say I have never watched Les Girls. I'm going to have to catch it, if only for the musical numbers as you said. Wonderful clip!
Mr. Turnbull, thanks for that anecdote. I'm so pleased that she's every bit as wonderful. I would have been shocked if she wasn't.
ReplyDeleteBecky,
Sometimes I think I play around with the look too much, but such is my life.
Don't be ashamed about not having watched Les Girls; everyone in it knows the plot is a stinker. Gene Kelly didn't really want to be there and it shows.
Kelly muses briefly on the subject of letting go of musicals in a 1994 interview with Graham Fuller:
------------------
GF: When the great period of the MGM musical began to come to an end, was it difficult to let it go?
GK: No. Because after I directed Invitation to the Dance [1952-6] in England, I came home and the publicity department got to work and said, "This multimillion-dollar musical . . ." Which it wasn't. It was done for literally what they would pay for half of a B picture. By the time it came out my dream of showing off great ballet dancers in it was over, because television had shown them - so the bloom was off the rose.
I did a couple more pictures for MGM; then, when the management changed, I got out of my contract with the proviso that I would owe them a picture as director. I did Les Girls [1957] and The Tunnel of Love, but without much heart.
---------------------
And it shows, Gene. It shows. But I do enjoy the musical numbers.
- Java