"at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer about its commercial viability. The movie was a failure at the box office, but is regarded today as a landmark all-dance film. Kelly conceived the film as an all-ballet musical, building on what he had done in his previous films like ""An American in Paris"" (1951) and ""Singin' in the Rain"" (1952), integrating dance and film. He wanted to use MGM's European offices to give him access to the top European Dance companies. He secured some of the top ballet dancers of the time for the project. He hoped the movie would educate mainstream American audiences about dance"
"own dance routines and often the dance routines of others and used assistants. As was the practice at the time, he was rarely formally credited in the film titles: Gene Kelly Eugene Curran Kelly (August 23, 1912 – February 2, 1996) was an American dancer, actor of film, stage, and television, singer, film director, producer, and choreographer. He was known for his energetic and athletic dancing style, his good looks, and the likable characters that he played on screen. Best known today for his performances in films such as ""An American in Paris"" (1951), ""Anchors Aweigh"" (1945)— for which he"
"find their place with or without each other in a society still adjusting to peace. Among the many Gene Kelly dance segments are 'Fido and Me', where Mr. Kelly dances with a dog and a statue, and a sequence on a construction site with a number of children. The film earned $1,137,000 in the US and Canada and $376,000 elsewhere, resulting in a loss of $1,939,000 - one of MGM's biggest disasters of 1947. Living in a Big Way Living in a Big Way (1947) is an American musical comedy film starring Gene Kelly and Marie McDonald as a couple"
"and Gene Kelly, choreographed the sequence. Presley was not convinced by Romero's initial choreography, so Romero played some music and asked Presley to dance, using his own moves to choreograph the final sequence. Impressed with the dance sequence, Kelly himself applauded one of the rehearsals during a visit to the set. Shooting of the film began on May 13, 1957, with the newly created choreography. Presley's characteristic hairstyle and sideburns were covered with a wig and makeup for the scenes in musical number and those set in the jail. During the performance, one of Presley's dental caps fell out and"
"in the Dark"" (it was one of her most memorable dance numbers) and ""Girl Hunt Ballet"" routines. Vincent Minnelli directed. Critic Pauline Kael said that ""when the bespangled Charisse wraps her phenomenal legs around Astaire, she can be forgiven everything, even her three minutes of 'classical' ballet and the fact that she reads her lines as if she learned them phonetically. The film was another classic but lost money to MGM. Charisse had a cameo in ""Easy to Love"" (1953) then co-starred with Kelly in the Scottish-themed musical film ""Brigadoon"" (1954), directed by Minnelli. It was a box office disappointment."
"Kaufman, but the play's storyline and the characters' names were almost completely changed for the movie, so much so in fact that Kaufman joked the film should be called ""Screen Door"". Terry Randall (Katharine Hepburn) moves into the Footlights Club, a theatrical rooming house in New York. Her polished manners and superior attitude make her no friends among the rest of the aspiring actresses living there, particularly her new roommate, flippant, cynical dancer Jean Maitland (Ginger Rogers). From Terry's expensive clothing and her photograph of her elderly grandfather, Jean assumes she has obtained the former from her sugar daddy, just"
"Footlight Parade Footlight Parade is a 1933 American, pre-Code, musical film starring James Cagney, Joan Blondell, Ruby Keeler and Dick Powell and featuring Frank McHugh, Guy Kibbee, Hugh Herbert and Ruth Donnelly. The movie was written by Manuel Seff and James Seymour from a story by Robert Lord and Peter Milne, and directed by Lloyd Bacon, with musical numbers created and directed by Busby Berkeley. The film's songs were written by Harry Warren (music) and Al Dubin (lyrics) and Sammy Fain (music) and Irving Kahal (lyrics), and include ""By a Waterfall"", ""Honeymoon Hotel"", and ""Shanghai Lil"". In 1992, ""Footlight Parade"""
"Vera-Ellen Vera-Ellen (born Vera-Ellen Westmeier Rohe; February 16, 1921 – August 30, 1981) was an American dancer and actress. She is principally celebrated for her performances with partners Fred Astaire, Gene Kelly, Danny Kaye, and Donald O'Connor. She is best known for her starring roles in ""On the Town"" with Kelly and ""White Christmas"" (1954) with Kaye. Vera-Ellen Westmeier Rohe was born in Norwood, Ohio (a suburb of Cincinnati), to Martin F. Rohe, a piano dealer, and Alma Catherine Westmeier, both descended from German immigrants. Her hyphenated name originated in her mother's dream in which she had a daughter named"
"Behind City Lights Behind City Lights is a 1945 American crime film directed by John English and written by Richard Weil and Gertrude Walker. The film stars Lynne Roberts, Peter Cookson, Jerome Cowan, Esther Dale, William Terry and Victor Kilian. The film was released on September 10, 1945, by Republic Pictures. Small-town girl Jean Lowell is about to wed farmer Ben Coleman, but secretly longs for big-city lights and a more exciting life. A car crash outside the church causes a commotion, and the injured party, a New Yorker by the name of Lance Marlow, is instantly smitten with Jean."
"Michael Freedland said at the time of his death that ""when Gene Kelly danced through the street with a dustbin lid tied to his feet in the 1955 film ""It's Always Fair Weather"", the man who usually planned his own routines did it to Kidd's order"". His realistic approach, designing dances that were inspired by the way ordinary people behaved, led one critic to observe that ""Kidd is, in a way, the originator of the fantasy that if only your life shaped up and offered you the right moments, you too would be able to dance like a Hollywood star""."
"and landed bit parts in movies until she was spotted by dancer/choreographer Jack Cole, becoming his dance partner and assistant from 1946–48. In 1949, Haney was hired by Gene Kelly to be his assistant choreographer on several M-G-M musical films, and she aided Kelly in some of his best work, including ""On the Town"" (1949), ""Summer Stock"" (1950), ""An American in Paris"" (1951), ""Singin' in the Rain"" (1952), as well as Kelly's dream project, ""Invitation to the Dance"" (1956). As Kelly's Dance Captain, Haney routinely worked with his partner and upon learning their strong points, choreographed numbers around them. Kelly"
"at Glen Haven Memorial Park in Sylmar, California, a Los Angeles suburb. Vera-Ellen Vera-Ellen (born Vera-Ellen Westmeier Rohe; February 16, 1921 – August 30, 1981) was an American dancer and actress. She is principally celebrated for her performances with partners Fred Astaire, Gene Kelly, Danny Kaye, and Donald O'Connor. She is best known for her starring roles in ""On the Town"" with Kelly and ""White Christmas"" (1954) with Kaye. Vera-Ellen Westmeier Rohe was born in Norwood, Ohio (a suburb of Cincinnati), to Martin F. Rohe, a piano dealer, and Alma Catherine Westmeier, both descended from German immigrants. Her hyphenated name"
"assistance of Jeanne Coyne, Stanley Donen, Carol Haney and Alex Romero. He experimented with lighting, camera techniques and special effects in order to achieve true integration of dance with film, and was one of the first to use split screens, double images, live action with animation and is credited as the person who made the ballet form commercially acceptable to film audiences. There was a clear progression in his development, from an early concentration on tap and musical comedy style to greater complexity using ballet and modern dance forms. Kelly himself refused to categorize his style: ""I don't have a"
"Nancy Kelly Nancy Kelly (March 25, 1921 – January 2, 1995) was an American actress. A child actress and model, she was a repertory cast member of CBS Radio's ""The March of Time"" and became a movie leading lady in the late 1930s, while still in her teens. She made 36 movies between 1926 and 1977, including portraying Tyrone Power's love interest in the classic ""Jesse James"" (1939), which also featured Henry Fonda, and playing opposite Spencer Tracy in ""Stanley and Livingstone"" later that same year. She had her greatest success in a character role, the suicidal mother in ""The"
"New York City. They separated in 2017. Eastwood High School, where she was a pupil, has a Drama Studio And Theatre named in her honour. Kelly Macdonald Kelly Macdonald (born 23 February 1976) is a Scottish actress who is best known for her roles in the films ""Trainspotting"" (1996), ""Gosford Park"" (2001), ""Intermission"" (2003), ""Nanny McPhee"" (2005), ""Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2"" (2011), and ""Brave"" (2012). For the 2005 TV film ""The Girl in the Cafe"", she was nominated for a Golden Globe and won the Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Miniseries or"
"earned $325,000 in the US and Canada and $625,000 elsewhere resulting in a loss of $117,000. The Happy Road The Happy Road is a 1957 French-American comedy film starring Gene Kelly, Barbara Laage, Michael Redgrave and Bobby Clark. Its plot involves two students who escape from their Swiss private school and make for Paris. Allmovie wrote, """"The Happy Road"" tends to bludgeon its audience with whimsy at time,"" but noted, ""Gene Kelly, as always, is charming, and less affected than usual"" ; while The New York Times praised the film as ""a lively and charming little tale"" concluding, ""Mr. Kelly"
"worse when Lance is killed. A distraught Jean takes a job working at a diner, but regains happiness when Ben turns up and invites her to return where she belongs. Behind City Lights Behind City Lights is a 1945 American crime film directed by John English and written by Richard Weil and Gertrude Walker. The film stars Lynne Roberts, Peter Cookson, Jerome Cowan, Esther Dale, William Terry and Victor Kilian. The film was released on September 10, 1945, by Republic Pictures. Small-town girl Jean Lowell is about to wed farmer Ben Coleman, but secretly longs for big-city lights and a"
"film's two stars and its director: ""the personable Gene Kelly and Cyd Charisse have the lead dancing roles. Even so, their several individual numbers are done too slickly, too mechanistically. What should be wistful and lyric smack strongly of trickery and style ... Mr. Kelly's [performance] is as thin and metallic as a nail; Miss Charisse's is solemn and posey ... Vincente Minnelli's direction lacks his usual vitality and flow."" He concluded by noting the film was ""pretty weak synthetic Scotch."" ""Variety"" posted a lukewarm review, calling the dance staging ""not particularly arresting, although a few of the numbers will"
"Jennifer Beals Jennifer Beals (born December 19, 1963) is an American actress and a former teen model. She made her film debut in 1980's ""My Bodyguard"", before receiving critical acclaim for her role in ""Flashdance"" (1983), for which she won NAACP Image Award for Actress and was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress - Motion Picture Comedy or Musical. Beals appeared in several notable films including ""Devil in a Blue Dress"" (1995), ""The Last Days of Disco"" (1998), ""Roger Dodger"" (2002), ""The Book of Eli"" (2010) and ""Before I Fall"" (2017). She starred as Bette Porter on"
"lost faith in Kelly's box-office appeal, and as a result ""It's Always Fair Weather"" ""premiered"" at 17 drive-in theatres around the Los Angeles metroplex. Next followed Kelly's last musical film for MGM, ""Les Girls"" (1957), in which he partnered a trio of leading ladies, Mitzi Gaynor, Kay Kendall, and Taina Elg. It too sold few movie tickets. The third picture he completed was a co-production between MGM and himself, a cheapie B-film, ""The Happy Road"", set in his beloved France, his first foray in a new role as producer-director-actor. After leaving MGM, Kelly returned to stage work. In 1958, Kelly"
"while they choreograph and rehearse the three production numbers. Kent then stages ""Honeymoon Hotel"", ""By a Waterfall"", featuring the famous 'Human Waterfall', and ""Shanghai Lil"", featuring Cagney and Ruby Keeler dancing together. Cast notes: Cagney, a former song-and-dance man, actively campaigned the executives at Warner Bros. for the lead in ""Footlight Parade"", which became his first on-screen appearance as a dancer. Cagney had only fallen into his gangster persona when he and Edward Woods switched roles three days into the shooting of 1931's ""The Public Enemy"". That role catapulted Cagney into stardom and a series of gangster films, which throughout"
"I?,"" and most notably ""Singin' in the Rain,"" have been featured in numerous films. The films listed below mark the first time each song was presented on screen. In the famous dance sequence in which Gene Kelly sings the title song while spinning an umbrella, splashing through puddles and getting soaked to the skin, Kelly was sick with a fever. The rain in the scene caused Kelly's wool suit to shrink during filming. A common myth is that Kelly managed to perform the entire song in one take, thanks to cameras placed at predetermined locations. However, this was not the"
"unearthly degree. Hollywood special effects continued to develop in a manner that largely avoided cel animation, though several memorable animated sequences were included in live-action feature films of the era. The most famous of these was a scene during the movie ""Anchors Aweigh"", in which actor Gene Kelly danced with an animated Jerry Mouse (of ""Tom and Jerry"" fame). But except for occasional sequences of this sort, the only real integration of cel animation into live-action films came in the development of animated credit and title sequences. Saul Bass' opening sequences for Alfred Hitchcock's films (including ""Vertigo"", ""North by Northwest"","
"have orders to shoot the leading dancer (played by Ray Bolger in the original production). The dancer, who has been warned just in time, evades them by suddenly dancing at full speed even after the ballet actually ends, and finally two police officers enter and arrest the gangsters. ""Slaughter on Tenth Avenue"" was danced by Ray Bolger and Tamara Geva in the original stage production of ""On Your Toes"", and by Eddie Albert and Vera Zorina in the film version. In ""Words and Music"", the 1948 Technicolor film biography of Rodgers and Hart, the ballet was danced by Gene Kelly"
"Invitation to the Dance (film) Invitation to the Dance is a 1956 anthology film consisting of three distinct stories, all starring and directed by Gene Kelly. The film is unusual in that it has no spoken dialogue, with the characters performing their roles entirely through dance and mime. Kelly appears in all three stories, which feature leading dancers of the era including Tommy Rall, Igor Youskevitch, Tamara Toumanova and Carol Haney. The movie began filming on August 19, 1952, but was not completed until 1954 becoming one of MGM's longest shoots. Its release was delayed until 1956 because of doubts"
"David Kasday dancing a duet with Kelly, the film failed to find an audience. Consequently, the movie was a financial failure. According to MGM records it only earned $200,000 in the US and Canada and $415,000 elsewhere recording a loss of $2,523,000, making it the studio's biggest flop of the year. The film won the Golden Bear for Best Film at the 6th Berlin International Film Festival. Invitation to the Dance (film) Invitation to the Dance is a 1956 anthology film consisting of three distinct stories, all starring and directed by Gene Kelly. The film is unusual in that it"
"included audio-animatronic figures of Don Lockwood (Gene Kelly) swinging from a lamp post from ""Singin' in the Rain, ""followed by Mary Poppins (Julie Andrews) and Bert (Dick Van Dyke) singing on the rooftops of London from ""Mary Poppins."" The next scene was a tribute to gangster films. The ride vehicle passed through the dark and seedy backstreets of a 1930s Chicago and past an audio-animatronic Tom Powers (James Cagney) in a scene from ""The Public Enemy"". When both pairs of ride vehicles were in use, the #1A ride vehicle continued on to the next show scene past a green traffic"
"well at the box office, for reasons which Kelly later revealed in ""The Films of Gene Kelly: Song and Dance Man"": ""This is no criticism of Richard Widmark, who is one of the finest film actors we have and who actually started his stage career playing light comedic parts. It's simply that the public fixes an impression of an actor, they accept him in a certain guise and they don't like him to stray too far from it. Widmark had established himself in serious material and they weren't prepared to accept him in this light, sexy part. The public creates"
"August in Columbia, South Carolina. This retrospective included a tour of Donen's childhood neighborhood, a lecture by Steven Silverman and film screenings at the Nickelodeon movie theater, which Donen frequented as a child. Notes Bibliography Stanley Donen Stanley Donen ( ; born April 13, 1924) is an American film director and choreographer whose most celebrated works are ""Singin' in the Rain"" and ""On the Town"", both of which he co-directed with actor and dancer Gene Kelly. Other noteworthy films include ""Royal Wedding"", ""Seven Brides for Seven Brothers"", ""Funny Face"", ""Indiscreet"", ""Damn Yankees!"", ""Charade"", and ""Two for the Road"". He began"
"Film Institute included it in their list of the 50 films you should see by the age of 14. In Sight & Sound magazine's 2017 list of the 50 greatest films of all time, ""Singin' in the Rain"" placed 20th. Don Lockwood (Gene Kelly) is a popular silent film star with humble roots as a singer, dancer, and stuntman. Don barely tolerates his vain, cunning, conniving, and shallow leading lady, Lina Lamont (Jean Hagen), though their studio, Monumental Pictures, links them romantically to increase their popularity. Lina is convinced they are in love, despite Don's protestations otherwise. At the premiere"
"the emotions are, and asks the performers to recreate that scene again while she takes an important phone call outside. The performers are disgusted by the way Evangeline has been exploiting Madeline's emotions and identity, and they lock the door. They quickly devise a performance for Evangeline: a confrontational journey through the winding rehearsal building. At first Evangeline objects to being shoved around by everyone, but eventually she lets go and becomes part of the performance. They end up outside in the street, all dancing together in the golden sunlight. Josephine Decker directed the film and wrote its screenplay. Camera"
"three films as co-directors and four as co-choreographers. At age 7 Coyne enrolled in the Gene Kelly Studio of Dance in Johnstown, Pennsylvania and developed a schoolgirl crush on him In her twenties she was cast in ""Best Foot Forward"", where she reconnected with Kelly and first met Donen, later moving to Hollywood with them. She and Donen eloped in 1948, but their marriage became strained. They separated in 1950 and divorced in 1951. During their marriage Donen confided to Coyne his frustration with Kelly while making ""On the Town"", only to find that she immediately took Kelly's side. Coyne"
"not classified as a fantasy film, Gene Kelly's ""Anchors Aweigh"" had a fantasy sequence called ""The King who Couldn't Dance"" in which Gene did a song and dance number with Jerry Mouse from Tom and Jerry. Because these movies do not feature elements common to high fantasy or sword and sorcery pictures, some modern critics do not consider them to be examples of the fantasy genre. In the 1950s there were a few major fantasy films, including ""Darby O'Gill and the Little People"" and ""The 5000 Fingers of Dr. T"", the latter penned by Dr. Seuss. Jean Cocteau's Orphic Trilogy,"