lasttimeisaw It is also known as Cole Porter's LES GIRLS, a tremendously fun-packed vaudeville directed by George Cukor, which is configured in the RASHOMON-esque love affairs among the leader of the dance troupe Barry Nichols (Kelly) and his three "les girls" the French Angèle (Elg), the British Sybil (Kendall) and the American Joy (Gaynor).The film opens in London, a libel lawsuit springs 3 sides of the story, first from Sybil's angle, then Angèle tells a completely different story, finally Barry comes to the fore and wraps up the case with his truth-revealing recount, yet what is the truth? (as a man holding a billboard written the said words consecutively appears in front of the courtroom). Each story is elaborated with the narrator's own premeditated embellishments which lean toward their favor, frustratingly, viewers will never get what had happened in lieu of many contradictions galore, and surely it is not the film's true intent neither. Cole Porter's music numbers and Jack Cole's choreography are the mainstay, each girl is squarely allotted to one-third of the leading status of their story and each consummates a distinctive pas de faux with Kelly, Elg is exotic and bewitching, Kendall is demure yet loopy, but it is Gaynor, who stuns with her ultimate dance routine with Kelly, she is a top-notch dancer, and although all three women are imbecilic to some extent and Barry is a philandering swine, her Joy is the closest one with a speck of wisdom, her tactic to Barry's insincere proposal is golden, alas she will soon capitulate to an abominable male-skewing plot device of a fake heart condition. As a film actress, Ms. Rex Harrison, Kendall stands out among the rest, embalms a scent mingled with mild hysteria and glacial indifference to a larger-than-life character, two years before her untimely death due to myeloid leukaemia at the age of 33. Gene Kelly, on the contrary, is past his prime, mostly delegated to the foil of three ladies' show pieces. But he has the luck to kiss all the three beauties, so, it is a bad deal for him I guess. Porter's ear-friendly ditties are charmingly mellifluous, there are superlative musical materials and Cukor's direction is executed in moderate discretion, but the fussy and preposterous storyline is a major turn-off, not to mention the badly organized courtroom confrontation and the final hypocritical reconciliation, yuk, it is an insult to the female gender, I cannot squeeze a smile when it ends, but I will go to youtube and watch the splendid musical performances alone.

jjnxn-1 Chic, light as air confection is a pleasant diversion and a wonderful showcase for its three leading ladies.This was a career high for Taina Elg, a charming elfin actress who worked steadily but never broke through to the majors. She's pixish and very appealing. As the most pragmatic of the trio Mitzi Gaynor is slyly comic, wonderfully relaxed and of course dances beautifully, this is one of her best performances. But the real standout and the person who walks away with the picture is the magical Kay Kendall. A performer with an enormous comic gift and a vibrant screen persona she was already suffering symptoms of the leukemia that would take her life within two years. You would never know it from watching her on screen she is so full of life and radiates energy and vitality, a bewitching creature. Gene Kelly is good but his is really a sidelined role. The full MGM treatment was brought to bear on this, one of the last of the big successful musicals before the studios somehow lost their way and gave in to gargantuan overproduction. There were still a few good musicals that came after, Gypsy, West Side Story, My Fair Lady, Funny Girl and a few others but before too long overblown dinosaurs like Hello, Dolly, Finian's Rainbow and Dr. Doolittle killed off the genre.Not quite in the same league as Singin' in the Rain, On the Town, Meet Me in St. Louis or other MGM musical classics this is still a solid show from the time when MGM reigned supreme and was able to manufacture this sort of quality entertainment effortlessly.

bkoganbing Cole Porter's final film score and next to last music written for any media is Les Girls. The same team producer Sol Seigal and writer John Patrick who produced and wrote the adaption of The Philadelphi Story for High Society worked with Porter again and this time George Cukor was directing. It's a good film, but I've got the feeling that it could have been a whole lot better. One of the criticisms that Porter used to get annoyed with was the perennial 'it isn't up to Cole Porter's standard' and then you'd look in the score and see a lot of classics. Can-Can is the best example of that. But in the case of Les Girls Porter admitted this to be true. According to the George Eells biography of Porter, he was starting to suffer the decline in health that would eventually end his life in 1964. He did have surgery to bypass an ulcer and was not feeling up to par.Still the numbers are mostly for a vaudeville act, Barry Nichols and Les Girls so they're serviceable to a bright Rashomon like plot. The members of the act are Gene Kelly and the girls are Mitzi Gaynor, Taina Elg, and Kay Kendall. Kay's written a memoir that includes an alleged suicide attempt by Elg and she's suing her in an English court. As we get testimony from Elg, Kendall, and Kelly, they all give out with different versions. It's also clear he had his fling with all of them at one time despite his alleged no fraternization policy.Elg has the best ballad of the score, Ca C'est L'Amour which sounds like something that might have been written for Can-Can and discarded. Cole Porter discards are better than a lot of composer's best efforts. The sparkling Kay Kendall was never shown to better advantage on the screen than with You're Just Too Too in a duet with Kelly. And Cole Porter wickedly satirizes Marlon Brando and The Wild One in Why Am I So Gone About That Gal with Kelly and Mitzi Gaynor.In addition to this being Cole Porter's last film score, this film also marks Gene Kelly's last full blown musical. He did do other musical numbers in films like What A Way To Go and Young Girls From Rochefort and Xanadu, but this was the last musical he did. They were getting way too expensive to make, something Kelly learned from behind the camera when he directed Hello Dolly.Even with a score that Cole Porter himself wasn't thrilled with, Les Girls is still a fresh bit of film making. And since it's original to the screen, the Porter wit is not edited severely. All in all four great musical performers, three of them Les Girls.

edwagreen Wonderful movie where the late Kay Kendall writes a book about her experiences with her dancing troupe. Trouble is that she soon finds herself in a British court being charged with libel.With a superlative cast, fine gowns by Orry-Kelly, and dancing and singing routines that are memorable, Les Girls is an absolute pleasure to watch.The film deals with three different versions of a story. It is done in a comical and musical way which makes it so appealing.Two of the women accuse each other of attempting suicide. As the master of the dance group, Gene Kelly is absolutely fabulous here. The story that he concocts by the end of the film is hilarious, but it's great as it restores a friendship and saves two marriages.After each story is told, there is someone walking around the court with a sign-The Truth Be Told. May I use the words on the sign to state the truth that this 50+ year film is a gem.