An American in Paris ***** (1951, Gene Kelly, Leslie Caron, Oscar Levant, Nina Foch, Georges Guétary) – Classic Movie Review 2515

Director Vincente Minnelli’s 1951 dance movie An American in Paris was a triumph for him and Gene Kelly, as well as Leslie Caron.

Half a dozen Oscars, including Best Picture, poured down on this breath-taking MGM musical, with Kelly as Jerry Mulligan, a GI turned struggling American artist in Paris, who is discovered by rich, older patroness Milo Roberts (Nina Foch).

Soon, with Milo taking an interest in him, he is finding himself hesitating romantically between the influential heiress and fresh young Lise Bouvier (Leslie Caron in her movie début), a French girl already engaged to a cabaret singer. Caron was just 19, half Kelly’s age, but they do look good together.

Everything’s the tops: the George Gershwin score, Arthur Freed’s lavish and beautiful production, Kelly’s commanding choreography and the exhilarating 17-minute climactic American in Paris ballet. It took a month to film and cost $500,000 out of the total  $2,723,900 budget. No words are spoken during the last 20 minutes and 25 seconds of the film.

An American in Paris is ideally performed, too, from the spirited playing of the perfectly matched, wonderfully relaxed stars, through the waspish Oscar Levant as Adam Cook and the hard-looking but very stylish Foch, to the schmaltzy Georges Guétary as Henri Baurel singing the irresistibly camp ‘I’ll Build a Stairway to Paradise’.

The hit songs include ‘S’wonderful’, ‘I Got Rhythm’, ‘Our Love is Here to Stay’ and ‘Embraceable You’.

The Oscars went to: Best Picture, Best Story and Screenplay (Alan Jay Lerner), Best Cinematography Color (Alfred Gilks, John Alton), Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, (Cedric Gibbons, E. Preston Ames, Edwin B. Willis, F. Keogh Gleason), Best Costume Design Color (Orry-Kelly, Walter Plunkett, Irene Sharaff), and Best Scoring (Johnny Green, Saul Chaplin). Kelly won a special Academy Award.

Maurice Chevalier’s collaborationist position during World War Two helped to rule him out as Henri.

When producer Arthur Freed wanted to buy the rights to the George Gershwin number American in Paris, Ira Gershwin said he would only agree that if any musical used the song, it would use only Gershwin numbers as its other songs.

Kelly wanted to film on location in Paris, but the movie was shot at MGM Studios in California, on 44 sets built for the film by master art director E Preston Ames.

Encouraged by the triumph, Kelly went on to make the all singing and dancing Invitation to the Dance, filmed in 1952 and released in 1956.

A belated stage version previews at London’s Dominion Theatre till 31 March 2017, then runs till 30 September 2017.

Double Oscar-nominee Leslie Caron was born on 1 July 1931.

The ever elegant, graceful and charming Leslie Caron, star of An American in Paris (1951), Lili (1953), Gigi (1958) and The L-Shaped Room (1962), celebrated her 87th birthday on 1 July 2018. She is nominated for two Oscars – for Lili (1953) and The L-Shaped Room (1962).

© Derek Winnert 2015 Classic Movie Review 2515

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