Les Girls

This would have been an enjoyable film without the enchanting comic actress Kay Kendall, but with her it's hilarious. It's a musical comedy version of "Rashomon"; a trial for libel where all the principals give wildly different versions of the same events. Gene Kelly, Taina Elg, and even Mitzi Gaynor are all fun, but it's Kendall who carries the show. She is one of those rare performers who can make you laugh with just a look on her face, but when given something like a drunk scene she can make you weep with laughter. Who cares if she could neither sing nor dance. Good score, too.

Sadly, Kendall made only two more films before her untimely death, what a loss to the world.

I love classic films, but I'm not one for musicals. I like melodramas. With "Les Girls", however, I have to make an exception. This is fun, colorful, comic-musical in which Kay Kendall plays Lady Wren, former member of a European dance troupe, who writes a book exposing the backstage "truths" and scandals. Along comes Taina Elg, also a former member of that troupe, suing Lady Wren for defamation of character. A trial ensues in which we get flashbacks, giving the various points-of-view of how things really happened. Cute and fun from the opening moments of plantiff and defendant entering the courtroom to the flashbacks showcasing Kendall's brilliant comedic abilities and the oft-referred to gin in the perfume bottle sequence. This is truly a good show and Gene Kelly's great too.

There is a unique kind of elegance in Cukor's way to see the world. An elegance that is utterly personal. Witty, warm, enchanting. It could disguise, transform and magnify the smallest, thinnest trifle. I remember feeling my cheeks kind of numb after the film was over, not from laughing but from smiling all the way through. Cukor's reputation as a women's director was no myth. Here, the glorious Kay Kendall, in a character written with a tired left hand, shines all the same because Cukor knew and understood what made her so irresistible. She was, in the history of the movies, like a comet that flashed before us dazzling us and disappearing very fast but leaving behind a unique brand of magic. In "Les Girls" she even dances with Gene Kelly, wears hats and sun glasses like no one ever had before or since. She's an impossibly perfect combination of Allison Janney and Greta Garbo. This is a film that more often than not, people forget to remember. I think it's time to correct that. Rent it or buy it, switch on the weather channel, select a rainy winter Sunday, invite a bunch of friends and have a ball.

As the glory days of M-G-M as Hollywood's preeminent manufacturer of musical treasures entered the sunset years, this very stylish bit of fluff, under George Cukor's very astute guidance, graced the CinemaScope/Metrocolor screen. Cole Porter contributed a score quite a bit more slender than his best, with only one standout, "Ca c'est l'Amour" briefly delivered by Taina Elg. Gene Kelly wasn't permitted any extensive opportunities to display his more athletic dancing skills, possibly because Jack Cole seems to have been the sole credited choreographer. Some viewers, reading other IMDb comments on this one, were rather annoyed by the Rashomon-like structure of John Patrick's very clever, in my view, screenplay. But it's all quite sophisticated, at least for 1957, and the "Ladies In Waiting" production number, in which Porter indulges his penchant for the risque, is hilariously reprised as the story progresses, making naughty use of the three leading ladies' attributes.

Robert Surtees lensed the entire production within the confines of M-G-M's soundstages but, with Cukor's favorite collaborator, Hoyningen-Huene, helping to apply the visual gloss, the whole enterprise is much more elegant looking than Hollywood's usual musical output. Orry-Kelly won a well-deserved Oscar for his color costume design, with one gorgeous gown worn by Mitzi Gaynor that probably accounts for most of the votes cast in his favor.

Finally mention must be made of Henry Daniell's drily witty incarnation of a judge whose patience is sorely tried by the frivolity of the case before him and, of course, Kay Kendall's terrifically funny romp as Lady Wren. What a loss to the cinema when she died so suddenly. Her fans, and I am certainly in their forefront, do so regret her early departure. (If you add this one to your video library, the widescreen DVD is the only way to do it.)

On the one hand, it has Gene Kelly and direction by George Cukor and the smart, smooth music of Cole Porter. But the structure of the plot is a bit bumpy, and most of this bumpiness stems from the RASHOMON-like tale starting, stopping, and starting again over two hours. A lot of people seem to think that the Porter score was sub-par; I wholeheartedly disagree. An especially lovely sequence is a rowboat scene between Kelly and Taina Elg which segues into the love song "Ca C'est L'amour." Also clever are the burlesque turn of "Ladies In Waiting" and the vaudeville-like "You're Just Too, Too" which pairs Kelly with the rapturous Kay Kendall. Kendall is, in many ways, the real star of LG with her deft comedy (drunkenly singing opera for five straight minutes!) and her cool, elegant beauty. Knowing that she died shortly after completing this film- and so young- makes one miss her charms all the more and also wish that the film had a larger following. (It's particularly enigmatic nowadays when compared to Kelly's bigger and better known hits: 'Singin' In The Rain,' 'An American In Paris,' 'Anchors Aweigh,' etc.) Still, Mitzi Gaynor is a dish, dancing with Kelly in a sexy black dress (in a weird Marlon-Brando-a'la-THE-WILD-ONE-send up). Thank goodness it's on widescreen DVD where it belongs.