Daddy Long Legs

I think this film, "Daddy Long Legs", is much better than its Imdb rating indicates. I rate it "8" of 10. Fred Astaire was 56 and Leslie Caron 24 when this film came out, so it stretches the age thing a bit, but I suppose we can write that off as cultural differences among the French.

Simple story, executed very well. I didn't read the book, nor do I think it is relevant. This is a movie and it should be appreciated on its own merits. It is well-established that the author of this screenplay changed the story quite a bit, for purposes of this Hollywood production, so comparing it to the book is moot.

Wealthy American (Astaire/Jervis) is on an economic mission to France when their vehicle gets stuck in a ditch. He wanders upon a French orphanage, looking for a phone or ride, and spots the 18-yr-old orphan (Caron/Julie), so lively, bright, responsible, attending to the younger orphans. He becomes an anonymous sponsor and sends her to a college in Mass. The only stipulation is that she write a letter weekly to "Mr Jones" to keep him informed of her progress.

The letters never get to Jervis, intercepted and filed by his staff. Until over two years later, when he had forgotten about her, but her letters are called to his attention. Finds out his niece is one of her roommates, he goes to a college dance to visit his neice, but really to see Julie. They meet, hit it off despite their age difference, dance marvelously. Later Julie visits NYC alone, ambassador to France is on next patio, at breakfast overhears what he thinks is hanky-panky, persuades Jervis to quit seeing Julie.

Julie eventually graduates, is lonely because she has never met "Daddy Long Legs", and has no place to go to after graduation. She insists on meeting her benefactor, who lives in a mansion, sort of museum, that even gives art tours to the public. There she realizes Jervis is in fact her benefactor, he proposes, she accepts.

First, the story is very plausible. A rich man seeing a talented person and wanting to help out anonymously. So I naturally find the story compelling. Second, Astaire and Caron were two of the best dancers, and also very good actors, that ever lived. "Dream scenes" were concocted to showcase each alone, and both together, in production dance numbers. For its genre, it is an almost perfect film. It gets its name from the small orphans telling Julie they saw him, not distinctly, at night and his shadow cast on the orphanage's wall made him look like he had very long legs.

'Daddy Long-Legs', previously filmed silent with Mary Pickford and once more in the 1930s, gets the musical treatment here as the story of the millionaire and the orphan he sponsors gets a Technicolor, Cinemascope, Johnny Mercer update.

Fred Astaire, at 55, is a little old for his role as stick-in-the-mud business whizz Jervis Pendleton, but hey, this is Hollywood. And his interest in, and subsequent wooing of, the French girl Julie Andre (played with charm and wit by Leslie Caron) is helped a lot by the fact that the two stars do not actually share screen time until nearly halfway through the film! With scintillating choreography for both Astaire and Caron, those wonderful songs, and support from Fred Clark, Thelma Ritter, and Terry Moore, 'Daddy Long Legs' is an excellent musical just balancing on the cusp of classic musical vs rock n roll.

Having been discovered a few years previously, by that multitalented dance icon: Gene Kelly, cute, pixie-like Leslie Caron here gets to costar with MGM's other dance icon: Fred Astaire., although actually Fox sponsored the film. Of course, both stars being known firstly for their dancing, this, as opposed to merely singing, is emphasized. However, notable Johnny Mercer, who composed all the music, save for one number by Ray Anthony, managed to include several classic lyrical songs, in "Dream", and "Something's Gotta Give". .........As most reviewers have mentioned, and some bitterly complain, Fred and Leslie make an odd-looking romantic couple, he being 30 years her senior, and 35 years older than her scripted age of 18, at the beginning. Thus, on the surface, it looks like an incestuous relationship, in the sense that he is old enough to be her father, and perhaps even her grandfather. But, perhaps their characters don't look at it that way. It would hardly be the first such relationship in history. A pertinent example comes to mind in Charlie Chaplin who, at age 54, married his last wife, of age 18, basically the same as in this script. That marriage lasted the rest of his life. ............Among the supporting actors, Thelma Ritter and Fred Clark stand out as charismatic, playing their usual roles. Larry Keating is also excellent as the American ambassador, in Paris, who has to deal with Fred's desire to send Leslie to college in the USA, with a suspected ambition to eventually marry her. Blond Terry Moore, is also present at times, as Leslie's college roommate, who also happens to be Fred's niece. Now 90y.o., she is perhaps most (in)famous for claiming that she was secretly married to eccentric billionaire Howard Hughes, for several decades, until his death. Meanwhile, she had openly married and divorced several other men during that time! However, she also has many screen and TV credits, although not recognized as a big star............I thought Fred's imaginary impersonation of a Texas oil millionaire was the funniest bit............Leslie's perhaps too long ballet I see as being equivalent to Gene Kelly's equally long ballet in "An American in Paris", costarring Leslie.

Fred Astaire, that supremely talented perfectionist, had a graceful and utterly charming partner in Leslie Caron in this oft-told fairy tale, so handsomely mounted by Twentieth Century Fox. It's an artifact of its era, with elements such as Ray Anthony's dance band for the prom scene; New York before it became overwhelmingly crass and vulgar; scenes set in a studio version of France when it was still permissible to admit a liking for things Gallic (which is now tantamount to treason - How absurd!); Terry Moore before she began claiming that she'd been secretly married to Howard Hughes; and Thelma Ritter allowed once more to almost steal the whole show with her slightly cynical brand of warmth. Sure there are things to object to: Larry Keating's merciless depiction of a pompous old fogey, eager to deflect Cupid's arrows; the somewhat overblown dream sequence (which did not benefit from Fred Astaire's ability to make a production number flow so matchlessly, as in the "Sluefoot" dance with Fred and Leslie, in which she's allowed to outshine all of her American schoolmates); and a score with only a couple of memorable numbers (i.e., "Dream" and the unforgettable "Somethin's Gotta Give!")

But overall you have to be more than demanding to find this anything but a delightful way to forget the world's harsher realities. The VHS version, with a DVD version probably not on the immediate horizon, no doubt does not duplicate Leon Shamroy's elegant CinemaScope framing. So be forewarned - this was made at a time when the hierarchy at Twentieth virtually commanded that all A-list productions take full advantage of the widescreen ratio and if that's lost, then you won't be seeing anything like what we saw in theaters during the theatrical release of this charmer.

I tried playing the drums once. I poked an eye out. Lucky for me it wasn't my own eye. Still, that catastrophic experience told me that I should leave the drumkit to the pros. Neil Peart, John Bonham, and Fred Astaire. Yes. Fred Astaire.

Drum fans, you have GOT to check out the opening number where Fred sings and dances while playing the drums (and he's really playing, too). It's one of those overlooked gems like his golf routine in "Carefree" (1938) where he does a little tap whilst driving a few 300-yarders. Innovative dance routines like these are what made Fred Astaire so great and what make his movies so entertaining.

I'm not really a Fred Astaire Fan; in fact, "Daddy Long Legs" and "Carefree" are the only two films of his that I've seen. But if they're any indication, I'm going to start hunting for more. I watched "Daddy Long Legs" mainly because I really enjoyed the 2005 Korean remake "Kidari ajeossi" (which is not a musical). Now that I've seen the original, I appreciate both films.

My only gripe with this film is that it didn't seem to get personal enough. We rarely get any closeups of the stars, which is a crime considering how stunningly beautiful the leading lady Leslie Caron is. But if it's any consolation, she does a lot of twirls, and each time she does it, we see her dress fly up. Yeah babay! Spin! SPIN!! Oh sorry, I got carried away there. Well, now that I've talked about drums, Korean flicks and spinners, maybe I should talk about the actual film. Naah.