Gene Kelly and Mitzi Gaynor Sizzle in a Diner


Another great dancer in classic movies, Mitzi Gaynor, here partners with Gene Kelly in Les Girls (1957). What the movie, as a whole, lacks in zip and sparkle is regained in musical numbers like this one. Here Miss Gaynor portrays an harassed waitress at a diner and Mr. Kelly is the boorish customer. Of course, they end up enamored with each other.



Exit question: If she's trying to get rid of the gang, why would she shake her tail feathers in front of them? That might induce them to stay, one would think.

3 Comments:

  1. My guess is that the fellas won't be going anywhere as long as Mitzi's tail feathers are a shakin' coz ain't nobody can shake a tail feather like ol' Mitzi! A very good friend of mine was her wardrobe mistress during Mitzi's post-Hollywood live-performance years. You might like to know that she swears that Mitzi in real life is every bit as wonderful as she is up on the screen.

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  2. I love your blog's new look, Java. I liked it before, but it's always fun to make a change. I do it myself a lot!

    For a huge Gene Kelly fan, I am ashamed to say I have never watched Les Girls. I'm going to have to catch it, if only for the musical numbers as you said. Wonderful clip!

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  3. Mr. Turnbull, thanks for that anecdote. I'm so pleased that she's every bit as wonderful. I would have been shocked if she wasn't.

    Becky,
    Sometimes I think I play around with the look too much, but such is my life.

    Don't be ashamed about not having watched Les Girls; everyone in it knows the plot is a stinker. Gene Kelly didn't really want to be there and it shows.

    Kelly muses briefly on the subject of letting go of musicals in a 1994 interview with Graham Fuller:
    ------------------
    GF: When the great period of the MGM musical began to come to an end, was it difficult to let it go?

    GK: No. Because after I directed Invitation to the Dance [1952-6] in England, I came home and the publicity department got to work and said, "This multimillion-dollar musical . . ." Which it wasn't. It was done for literally what they would pay for half of a B picture. By the time it came out my dream of showing off great ballet dancers in it was over, because television had shown them - so the bloom was off the rose.

    I did a couple more pictures for MGM; then, when the management changed, I got out of my contract with the proviso that I would owe them a picture as director. I did Les Girls [1957] and The Tunnel of Love, but without much heart.

    ---------------------
    And it shows, Gene. It shows. But I do enjoy the musical numbers.

    - Java

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