Daddy Long Legs (1955)

I think we all wish we could have someone be kind enough to just give us money and opportunity for no reason. Imagine some kind of benefactor you never have to meet taking you out of the rut of your life, paying for you to go to school, and giving you an awesome wardrobe. That would be incredible especially the school part! (I know, I know nerd alert). The plot of Daddy Long Legs shows what our wish of a benefactor could maybe be like.

            Jervis Pendleton (Fred Astaire) comes from a very wealthy family. Part of his home is a museum of the family’s art collection. He takes a trip to France where his car breaks down. Looking for help Jervis comes across an orphanage. While waiting for a car Jervis sees a young girl named Julie Andre (Leslie Caron) teaching the younger kids. She is eighteen and Jervis sees she has a lot of potential so he decides to become her benefactor and send her to a good school in America. Before he gets into his car one of the kids sees Jervis’s shadow. The kid runs to Julie and says her benefactor looks like a Daddy Long Legs.

            Julie comes to America and attends an all girl’s college. Throughout school Julie writes to
“Daddy Long Legs” not knowing who he really is. Jervis receives the letters but he never writes back. He finds out that his niece is roommates with Julie. He arranges for himself and Julie to meet. Jervis begins to love her and Julie begins to fall for him.

            This being an old Hollywood film and a love story Julie and Jervis wind up getting together.

            Daddy Long Legs was good. It was an hour way too long for my attention span (well, let me be honest, I was exhausted and I started to fall asleep through most of it). The story was alright. What bothered me about is the thought that Fred Astaire was so much older than Leslie Caron and knowing their age difference kind of creeped me out. But apparently in the play this film is based off of the age difference is not too bad. I have to give a mention to some of the dresses that Leslie Caron wore because they were gorgeous. I wanted her clothes so bad! Daddy Long Legs is a film I will recommend seeing only if you really like musicals, Fred Astaire or Leslie Caron. 

An American in Paris (1951)



“Maybe Paris has a way of making people forget.”
“Paris? No. Not this city. It's too real and too beautiful to ever let you forget anything”

            Goodness I am on a musical kick lately first with Annie Get Your Gun then The Band Wagon and now An American in Paris. Usually I watch musicals when I am in a foul and need something to cheer me up but I have not been in any sort of foul mood or been stressed. Hmmmm… maybe I am still trying to get Insidious out of my mind haha (nah it is not that I got that out of my head a while ago). I do not know what my deal is with musicals lately but I am having so much fun watching them. Today I was in the mood for An American in Paris which I know the reason why which I will explain in a bit.

            Gene Kelly plays an American artist named Jerry Mulligan living in France. He enjoys what he does even though he knows he will never make enough money as an artist. He lives above a small café with a concert pianist named Adam Cook (Oscar Levant) living across the way who is also an American.

            One afternoon on the corner where he sells his paintings Jerry meets a young rich woman named Milo “as in Venus de” Roberts (Nina Foch). She likes Jerry paintings and buys them all. She invites him back to her place and tells him that she would like to be his sponsor by talking to all the right people and one day holding an exhibition of his work. Jerry does not see the harm in it and he agrees. That night he takes Milo out to small but very crowded night club that he can pay for. As the audience we learn that Milo has a thing for helping out and falling for men who are aspiring artist of any kind.

            At the night club Jerry sees a beautiful young girl (Leslie Caron) much to Milo’s annoyance. As they are sitting with Milo’s friends he cannot help but stare at this girl who he found out through eavesdropping her name is Lise. Jerry walks over to the table pretending that he and Lise know each other and asks her to dance. She cannot get over the fact that this man who she does not know at all just came by and scooped her up to dance. When the dance is over he asks for her number, she gives the wrong one but the person whom she is with gives the correct one.

            Jerry is very persistent with calling Lise and even stops by the perfume shop she works at. His charm and persistence work and she agrees to meet with him for a date. The two hit it off very well and they begin to see each other.

            An odd situation arises when Adam finds out that his friend Henri (Georges Guetary) is engaged to Lise and that Jerry is in love with Lise as well. Jerry and Henri know each other and are friendly but they have no idea that they are in love with the same girl… that is not until they are both at a party one night and Henri just happens to see Lise and Jerry hug and kiss one more time before she is to go away with him to America.

            This is one of the many films my mom- excuse me, Santa- bought me for Christmas that I had never seen before. The Christmas I given this film I was also given Gigi… I guess my mom/Santa thought this would put my butt in gear with really cracking down on studying French. I love watching An American in Paris and Gigi because I can brush up on some basic French since je parle français un peu. I get excited when I can understand a few words or a conversation in the film but the French that Gene Kelly and some of the other actors speak is very basic (fun fact: Gene Kelly was a law major and a French minor when he attended college).

            I love the story and I really like the cast. Gene Kelly and Leslie Caron were perfect dance partners. This was Caron’s first film and got the part of Lise because Kelly and his wife had seen her in a ballet when they were in Paris and he remembered her. It was a good thing he remembered her because Cyd Charisse was supposed to be Lise originally but she became pregnant and had to back out. I love Charisse but Caron was perfect and she along with Guetary added the authentic French element to the film.

            There are some incredible dances in the film. My favorite is the “American in Paris” number. It is like thirteen minutes long but it is so colorful and beautiful. My favorite part of the dance is when Jerry and Lise go to the Lautrec exhibit and they are the paintings come to life. I like Lautrec and it is so cool to see his paintings in action. The best touch was seeing the figure of the woman with the green face from his Moulin Rouge painting. It is awesome to see how they made the effect of green on the woman’s face in the film. I got excited as I always do when I know a piece of art work.

        Now the reason why I was in the mood to watch An American in Paris was because I saw my uncle, my grandpa’s brother, yesterday and he loves this film and the music to it. Every time I mention this film in front of my uncle or my grandpa I always hear about how when they were younger my uncle would play this record all the time. My grandpa likes to say in so many words when he would hear the  “An American in Paris” song that he used to have it coming out of his ass along with “Slaughter on Tenth Avenue”. My grandpa also likes to tell me about all the times he would walk into the room he shared with my uncle when they were little and my uncle would have his records all over the place even on my grandpa’s bed and my grandpa would walk in the room, jump on his bed and crack a record.

            An American in Paris is one of MGM’s greatest musicals. It was under the Arthur Freed production unit and directed by Vincente Minnelli. You know you are watching an MGM musical because of the amazing direction, production, dancing, sets, and the amazing costumes from the dancing ones to the regular ones. MGM musicals have a fantastic way of lifting you of a rut or inspiring you making you want to be a singer/dancer. An American in Paris is a beautiful, happy love story wrapped up in a fun entertaining musical.



Gigi (1958)



“This story is about a little girl. It could be about any one of those little girls playing there. But it isn't. It's about one in particular. Her name is Gigi.”

            Gigi is considered the last great musical MGM released. It is in the tradition of their greatest musicals from decades past with its extravagant sets, elaborate costumes, and excellent songs and score.

            The beginning of the film is narrated by Honoré Lachille (Maurice Chevalier). He lets us know that the story will be about a young girl named Gigi (Leslie Caron). As soon as we meet Gigi we know she is not like other girls. She is a young, free spirited girl. Her grandmother and aunt try to teach her to be a proper young lady with good manners. Gigi wants nothing to do with the lessons her aunt gives but she just goes with the motions.  

            Honoré’s nephew Gaston (Louis Jourdan) likes to come to visit Gigi and her grandmother because they are not wealthy like him and they do not pretend to be anything different than who they are around him. Gaston is a playboy who has a new woman on his arm every week. His latest woman was caught by him with another man. The woman committed suicide from being so distraught. Gaston decides to go on holiday to the shore to get away from the gossip and prying eyes. He also decides to bring Gigi and her grandmother.

            On holiday Gaston sees that Gigi is not just a cute little girl but a beautiful young woman. The two have a very good time together. The grandmother sees this so she has her sister step up her lessons with Gigi to make her more proper so Gaston will take care of her… as in make her one of his mistresses.

            Gigi at first does not want to go ahead with the arrangements made for her but she comes to realize that she is in love with him and she would rather be miserable with him than without him. Gaston takes her out but he sees the cute, innocent tomboy is not the person he had fallen in love with. She is proper and acting like a grown woman much like the many others he has been with and he does not like this Gigi.

            Just like in original Cinderella story the poor girl get the man who has everything.

            This is an MGM musical at its best. The songs are catchy and the costumes are visually stunning. Vincente Minnelli captured a Paris of imagination. He shows us the Paris we dream about falling in love in. The songs are not just sung on a soundstage but are actually “performed” and acted throughout the actual city. My favorite scene is when Gaston and Honoré walk into a restaurant where before they entered was talk and music. Once they walk in the music and the talk stops. After a few seconds everyone sings about the gossip they have heard about each man. How perfect is that? People do that all the time, they stop what they are doing when they see someone walking in and start talking about that person.

            Famed photographer Cecil Beaton designed the costumes as well as some of the scenery. He had previously designed the costumes for My Fair Lady. His costumes for the women are very elaborate and flowy. The colors of the costumes are magnificent. I can definitely tell Beaton did his homework on clothing of the late 1800s/early 1900s. I am not entirely sure what scenery Beaton created but the sets for Honoré’s room and the restaurant I loved. The sets are styled in Art Nouveau with the sweeping, delicate curves in the wood and the golden yellows.

            The songs are some of the catchiest from MGM’s musicals. My favorite song is “The Parisians” simply for the fact that Gigi sings that she cannot understand how things could be love and how they are always making love. I occasionally find myself thinking of Gaston singing “It’s a Bore” it is perfect to sum him up he is just bored with doing the same things day in and day out. I guarantee that you will be singing “Thank Heaven” in your head for days. All the lyrics and music written by Alan Jay Lerner, Frederick Loewe, and Andre Previn with the orchestration by Conrad Salinger.

            I am not sure how I feel about the cast. Leslie Caron was very good as Gigi she had the perfect look for a young girl who could be a tomboy but in the end look very pretty. I just wish she had had the chance to dance like she did in An American in Paris. You can see in certain scenes she has the body movements of a dancer. Louis Jourdan was ok. Like Caron he had the perfect look for his character. Maurice Chevalier I had never seen in a film before this. I was not impressed with him as an actor or singer the first time around and I still am not impressed (especially after seeing him act and sing Love Me Tonight where he did nothing for me). Casting these three leads was perfect since they were the only real French actors.

            My mom- excuse me, Santa- had bought me Gigi and An American in Paris for Christmas one year. I had never even heard of these films before that time. When I asked her why she got these films for me she told me they were old films and figured that I would enjoy them. I did and do enjoy both films very much. Gigi I enjoy watching for the costumes and sets and the location shots. As far as the story goes I am not too much of a big fan of it as well as the acting but like all MGM musicals it is so much fun to watch.

            I think as a girl I would love to know a rich man who was friends with me at first and enjoyed my company and then we both realized with love each other and we could be in a Paris like the film. Oh how some love stories in films bring my rarely felt/seen/known girlie side out.