For Me and My Gal (1942) - In true passive-aggressive style, Hollywood couldn't just up and call for America's entry into World War II; instead, in the months leading up to the
December 1941 Attack on Pearl Harbor it released movies like this one - set during World War I when America, faced with a German menace, sang and danced for freedom. Subtle. Looking luminous in black and white (as photographed by
William H. Daniels) and under the still-steady hand of director
Busby Berkeley, Kelly and costar
Judy Garland suit each other to a T.
Cover Girl (1944) - As good as he looked in black and white, Gene Kelly fairly glowed in colour; not that you'd know it from watching this filmic outing, seeing as whenever he's on camera he's standing too close to the supernova that is
Rita Hayworth to be seen. Given almost complete creative control over the film, Kelly gave himself an opportunity to dance with his own reflection. With
Phil Silvers and
Eve Arden - on hand as much for comic relief as to cleanse the palate -
Cover Girl is moodier and more atmospheric than the average musical, which makes it ideal for people who crave eye-candy but are uncomfortable with movie characters suddenly breaking into song. Directed by
Charles Vidor, the film features songs by
Jerome Kern and
Ira Gershwin, including the classic
Long Ago (and Far Away).
Anchors Aweigh (1945) - Generally speaking, Hollywood makes its great war movies beginning about seven years after the pertinent war has ended; usually this is because that's the normal turnaround for the entire process - from the time an idea percolates out of a writer's head, has been hung, drawn, and quartered by a clusterfuck of producers, sent into pre-production, production, post-production and then finally released. Yet World War II saw every sector of the US economy at maximum production, and Hollywood was no different. Co-starring
Frank Sinatra, this massive, star-studded spectacle is today best remembered for Kelly's imaginative duet with
Jerry Mouse.
On the Town (1949) - One of my favourite movies of all time,
On the Town reteams Kelly with his
Anchors Aweigh costar Sinatra, in addition to
Ann Miller,
Betty Garrett,
Jules Munshin, and
Vera-Ellen, which doesn't merely add to the talent but multiplies it, or possibly does some of that algebra stuff to it. The point is, the whole adds up to so much more than the sum of its parts. The real star of the film, of course, is New York City; many principal scenes were shot on location there - a major innovation for the time - including at the
American Museum of Natural History, the
Brooklyn Bridge, and
Rockefeller Center.
Summer Stock (1950) - Judy Garland's last movie for MGM also proved to be one of her most troubled and, fortunately, one of her best. While her health woes held up production and inflamed tempers, though, Kelly kept his cool while he chose to worry about his friend's health. While the film is not gifted with an especially original plot -
hey kids, here's a barn, let's put on a show! - the end result doesn't merely rise above the cliché but soars.
An American in Paris (1951) - With a glittering score by
George Gershwin, the full MGM design team on overdrive, and dances choreographed by Gene Kelly, how could this movie be anything but sublime? Fortunately, we'll never have to answer that because a) it's a rhetorical question, and b) it really is sublime. Kelly's love for French culture is evident in every frame, and surely Paris - even at its loveliest - could never have been this lovely.
Singin' in the Rain (1952) - MGM's cheeky look at Hollywood's transition from silents to sound features many of the most popular songs from the late 1920s; while co-starring
Donald O'Connor, and
Debbie Reynolds, though, it's
Jean Hagen who walks away with the film, giving a Judy Holliday-esque performance which, seen once, will inspire laughs from memory for years to come.
Brigadoon (1954) - As musicals go,
Vincente Minnelli's
Brigadoon doesn't; where musicals are supposed to be bright and frothy and tow the establishment line,
Brigadoon is dark and downbeat and subversive. Mean-spirited even. Which must be why the lovers of musicals with a cynical bent have always treasured the story of the Scottish town that only comes to life once every century.
Les Girls (1957) - There's something about this film that makes it special, beyond the direction of
George Cukor and the presence of Gene Kelly (both guaranteed to up the special-ness factor on anything); I believe that something is the peculiar chemistry created by equal parts
Kay Kendall,
Mitzi Gaynor and
Taina Elg. As the titular girls (and, at least in Gaynor's case, I do mean tit-ular!) they provide enough variety for any actor to spark off. The film also provides the ideal bookend to both this post and Gene Kelly's career at MGM; 15 years earlier, in 1942, he made his debut at the studio with
For Me and My Gal. Whereas what seems like fifteen years ago I wrote its blurb at the top of this post...
*
For six hilarious seasons, Lauren Lane fulfilled just such a role on The Nanny, which helped keep the show's hilarity ensuing at a consistently antic pace; as C. C. Babcock, Lane was the blonde WASP-y foil to the extremely ethnic brunette Fran Fine - plus Daniel Davis' Niles, Charles Shaughnessy's Maxwell Sheffield and Renee Taylor's Sylvia Fine besides. In fact, in some episodes it seemed like her mellifluous 'Hello, hello' was the only thing capable of cutting through the chainsaw-like drone of that laugh. In the process Lane had ample opportunity to shine in both the high comedy of banter and the low comedy of pratfalls, proving herself as versatile a performer as could be found in that truly talented company.
