Mel Johnson Posted June 5, 2003 Share Posted June 5, 2003 I like the moment after they stop, and all run downstage shaking their fists at the conductor! There have been times....;) Link to comment
Hans Posted June 5, 2003 Share Posted June 5, 2003 I have worked with so many weird tempi that that scene doesn't make me laugh anymore--it just brings back bad memories! And I don't like the way the audience laughs at the ballerina when she falls. She was just trying to keep up, and after performing all those balances, too! Link to comment
Terriergirl Posted June 6, 2003 Share Posted June 6, 2003 Has anyone mentioned "An American in Paris" with Gene Kelly and Leslie Caron (with Cyd Charisse in one dream scene). There's an entire dream "ballet" sequence (at least that's how Mr. Kelly referred to it) with some ballet but mostly jazz-type Kelly stuff. It's been one of my favorite movies since I was old enough to see movies....a long time! Link to comment
Pamela Moberg Posted June 6, 2003 Share Posted June 6, 2003 Talking about Cyd Charisse... There was a movie I saw as a child which left an impression on me, to this day. Movie was called "Sombrero" (original title as far as I remember). Gene Kelly and Charisse and... cant remember... Anyway, Charisse did a fabulous dance, she was dressed in black and it was set in some kind of forest, she was at one moment hanging on to the branch of a tree. I would love to see that again - maybe now I will think that it was rubbish, but, man, was I impressed then... Anyone knows which dance sequence I am referring to? Link to comment
Treefrog Posted June 6, 2003 Share Posted June 6, 2003 Hm, Gene Kelly isn't listed in the cast of "Sombrero". The scene you describe sounds a little like "Brigadoon", although I don't recall Charisse wearing a black dress. Link to comment
Marga Posted June 7, 2003 Share Posted June 7, 2003 Originally posted by Pamela Moberg Talking about Cyd Charisse... There was a movie I saw as a child which left an impression on me, to this day. Movie was called "Sombrero" (original title as far as I remember). Gene Kelly and Charisse and... cant remember... Hi Pamela, Jose Greco was in this 1953 movie, not Gene Kelly, and he played the matador brother of Cyd Charisse. Link to comment
Marga Posted June 7, 2003 Share Posted June 7, 2003 Originally posted by Terriergirl Has anyone mentioned "An American in Paris" with Gene Kelly and Leslie Caron (with Cyd Charisse in one dream scene). Hi Terriergirl, Cyd Charisse in an "American in Paris"? I don't think so. I've seen that movie countless times, most recently less than a month ago. I don't remember seeing Charisse anywhere in it. I don't think both Leslie Caron and Cyd Charisse would be cast together with Gene Kelly, anyway, and she's nowhere in the cast list. Maybe you're thinking of Nina Foch, who was indeed in the movie and played Kelly's character's patron. There was also a romantic entanglement involving her and Kelly's characters. Link to comment
Ari Posted June 7, 2003 Share Posted June 7, 2003 Cyd Charisse and Fred Astaire starred together in The Band Wagon and later in Silk Stockings, could they be the films Terriergirl and Pamela were thinking of? She also starred with Kelly in Brigadoon and It's Always Fair Weather. Link to comment
Pamela Moberg Posted June 7, 2003 Share Posted June 7, 2003 Thanks for your replies, folks! Nope, I am absolutely sure that the movie in question was called Sombrero. Even in those days I knew that it means "hat" in Spanish and I remember thinking how ridiculous it would have been if they had translated that into "Hatt" in Swedish. But, yes, Jose Greco - that rings a bell - he was about a lot in those days. I even saw him live in Gothenburg, must have been round about that time, give or take a couple of years. He did a guest performance here, with Rosario, of course I was madly impressed. But I must say, in those days Hollywood really could make some music movies that made you feel real joyful! Link to comment
Marga Posted June 7, 2003 Share Posted June 7, 2003 But I must say, in those days Hollywood really could make some music movies that made you feel real joyful! I say AMEN! to that, Pamela! Link to comment
Terriergirl Posted June 8, 2003 Share Posted June 8, 2003 Next time you watch it Marga, pay close attention during the ballet dream sequence about half way through. A dark-haired (short cropped like a modified close-fitting bob) woman looking exactly like Ms. Charisse comes out and seductively puts her leg around Gene Kelly and dances with him. SHE, I believe, is wearing a long black dress with a very high slit up the side. Her legs, face and height look like Cyd's, as well as her dancing style. It's a very short piece and the back drop is a bar. It ends with a mob-like looking guy walking out tossing a coin with THE GIRL. If that is not Cyd Charrise (uncredited, I know) then please tell me who it is. I know it's not Nina Foch, who is blonde and an actress, not a dancer. Link to comment
Ed Waffle Posted June 8, 2003 Author Share Posted June 8, 2003 Terriegirl, you may be conflating two movies--American in Paris and Singing in the Rain--an easy thing to do. The scene you describe is, I think, the "Gotta Dance" number from Singing in the Rain, in which Kelly, as a young hoofer shows up in New York City. After a number of encounters with highly stylized denizens of the Big Apple (all of whom dance to communicate instead of talk) he runs into The Girl, who is most definitely Cyd Charrise. You describe her hair perfectly--I think the dress is green though. I have seen this movie a LOT--it is one of the best dance themed musicals ever. Cyd Charrise is listed in the IMDB credits here: http://us.imdb.com/Title?0045152 Link to comment
Terriergirl Posted June 13, 2003 Share Posted June 13, 2003 Ed, now that I think more about it, you're probably right, I probably did mix the two dance sequences up. You've probably seen it more recently than I. It's probably been 5 years or so. It's is "GOTTA DANCE", though. Link to comment
glebb Posted July 2, 2003 Share Posted July 2, 2003 In the movie "The Elephant Man", John Merick goes to the theatre. There is a ballet dancer as a fairy. She seems dressed as Pavlova in the film clip of 'The Fairy Doll'. Does anyone know if a famous British dancer played the dancer in 'The Elephant Man'? Link to comment
carbro Posted July 2, 2003 Share Posted July 2, 2003 Terriergirl, are you maybe thinking of "The Bandwagon," where Cyd danced a ballet in the style of a B-movie Raymond-Chandleresque movie? It would have been Fred Astaire who partnered her, but he almost had a Kelly persona in that number. Link to comment
Watermill Posted July 2, 2003 Share Posted July 2, 2003 Then there is the opening of "A Star Is Born" when a drunken Norman Main is pawing the ballerinas, who are seen rehearsing a circular dance in the wings. Several of them shove him away and then try to pull him back from his inevitably premature entrance. Fittingly, they seem both fragile and tough. Link to comment
glebb Posted July 3, 2003 Share Posted July 3, 2003 And isn't their eye make up interesting? Link to comment
Mme. Hermine Posted July 3, 2003 Share Posted July 3, 2003 dear grace, i wasn't kidding about the werewolf ballerina!!! also how about the little ballerina sequence with Shirley Temple in "The Little Princess" (1939). Don't know who the dancers, dressed like sylphides, are, but some of them do pretty darned good fouettes. With Shirley in the middle, sigh. Link to comment
Estelle Posted July 3, 2003 Share Posted July 3, 2003 I don't remember if it has already been mentioned, but in Billy Wilder's "The private life of Sherlock Holmes" (which I saw last week), Holmes and Watson attend a performance of "Swan Lake" by the "Russian Imperial Ballet" or something like that... but it's supposed to happen in 1887, so before Petipa's version! :rolleyes: However, what they dance looks rather close to traditional versions, except that there are several hunters on stage on act 2. And Tamara Toumanova plays the great "Madame Petrova" (it's the first time I saw her, I regretted that she has such a thick make-up), the tyrannical diva of the company, who wants, errr, Sherlock Holmes's chromosomes to be part of her offspring. There's also a scene with a drunk Watson who's dancing on the Cygnets music with several ballerinas... Link to comment
floss Posted July 6, 2003 Share Posted July 6, 2003 Just happened to catch some of "Clambake" with Elvis. A little girl about 10 knocks out about 6-8 fouettes (was in shock and didn't count) in the playground and dances with "the Pelvis". Link to comment
Watermill Posted July 6, 2003 Share Posted July 6, 2003 Then there's the hyphenated Vera-Ellen as Miss Turnstiles in ON THE TOWN taking a barre from Madame Dilyovska, whose samovar packs a potent punch. V-E obviously studied ballet...any idea where? Link to comment
Mel Johnson Posted July 6, 2003 Share Posted July 6, 2003 Vera-Ellen (Westmyer) was born in Cincinnati in 1921. She started ballet there with local schools as a health and exercise regimen. She caught on fast, and was soon doing vaudeville turns before she was a teenager. (Hey, it was the Depression, and sixth grade was all that was required) She made her way on the vaudeville circuits to NYC, where she joined the Rockettes, and went from there to Broadway musicals. In NY, she "made the rounds" of the dance schools, mainly in ballet and tap, but she studied a little of everything. Link to comment
Treefrog Posted August 17, 2003 Share Posted August 17, 2003 The latest entry in this category is "Uptown Girls", which just opened this weekend. (Basic plot: ditzy rich girl --I hesitate to use the word "woman", although she is 22-- suddenly loses her money, has to get a job, becomes nanny to an overly-stiff and precocious 8-year-old, and each person helps the other to shed her hangups and become, respectively, an adult and a child.) Ballet is supposedly the passion of the young girl, Rae, and we are treated to ballet class, a short practice session at the barre in her room, and two recitals. The only problem is, the young actress clearly has no ballet training. This makes the final scene -- a recital in which she dances a vampy and decidedly non-balletic solo in front of a corps of reasonably talented and well-trained girls -- rather distressing. This ballet mom kept thinking, "Okay, THERE'S favoritism in casting." :green: In short: don't go see this movie for the ballet. In fact, I don't recommend it in general. However, if you have a youngster, he or she might enjoy it as much as mine did (dd #2). Link to comment
Mel Johnson Posted August 17, 2003 Share Posted August 17, 2003 After her appalling neverending speech at the expense of Orlando Bloom having to hold her up to the microphone, and the news of this opus, I think I could learn to loathe Dakota Fanning. Link to comment
Treefrog Posted August 17, 2003 Share Posted August 17, 2003 Oh, come now, it's not her fault if the role is badly written and she lacks an essential quality for it. :nopity: I can't speak to other on- or off-screen performances you might have witnessed. :shrug: Link to comment
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